§ 7007 — Manufactured home standards

Delaware § 7007

• Jurisdiction: Delaware
• Title: 25
• Part: Manufactured Home Communities
• Ch. 70: Manufactured Homes and Manufactured Home Communities Act
• Subch.: Landlord-Tenant Relationship

Text

(a)Standards for manufactured homes of new tenants. —

(1) A landlord shall adopt reasonable written standards regarding the size, age, quality, appearance, construction, materials, and safety features for a manufactured home entering the landlord’s manufactured home community.

(2) A landlord may refuse to allow the placement of a manufactured home on a lot in the manufactured home community if the manufactured home does not comply with the reasonable written standards adopted under paragraph (a)(1) of this section.

(b)Standards for manufactured homes not for sale. —

A tenant who is residing in a manufactured home community at the time a standard is promulgated must bring the tenant’s own manufactured home into compliance with the standard within 9 years of the promulgation of the standard or be subject to a summary possession proceeding under Chapter 57 of this title. However, if a change in a manufactured home is necessary to protect life or for other safety reason, the landlord may require that the change be made in less than 9 years. Once work begins on the manufactured home, the necessary change must be completed within a reasonable time.

(c)Standards for manufactured homes for resale or transfer of title and retention in the manufactured home community. —

(1) A landlord shall adopt reasonable written standards regarding the resale or transfer of title of a manufactured home intended for retention in the landlord’s manufactured home community. The standards must relate only to appearance, maintenance, safety, and compliance with state and local housing, building, or health codes, and the 1976 HUD Code. A landlord may not issue standards in which the age of a manufactured home is the exclusive or dominant criterion prohibiting the home from being sold and retained in the community after the sale is consummated.

(2) [Repealed.]

(3) If a homeowner notifies the community owner of the intent to sell the home under § 7013(c)(1)a. of this title, the community owner may conduct an exterior inspection of the home to determine if the home qualifies for retention in the manufactured home community according to written standards promulgated under this section.

(4) If the community owner chooses to conduct an inspection under this subsection, it must do so within 10 days of the date the homeowner sent the notice of intent to sell to the community owner.

(5) Within 7 days of the inspection under this subsection, the community owner must provide a written list, with references to the applicable rules, of any conditions in violation of the standards.

(6) A buyer or transferee who becomes a tenant in a manufactured home community has 90 days from the date of the resale or transfer, or if the transfer took place between November 1 and March 1, then until June 1, to complete changes to the buyer or transferee’s manufactured home required under the written standards of the manufactured home community unless the parties agree in writing to a longer period. If work to be completed cannot reasonably be completed within the time frame described in this paragraph, the homeowner must submit an explanation to the community owner of the efforts taken to complete the work and submit a plan for the completion of the work, and the community owner must allow a reasonable amount of time under the circumstances to complete the work. Once the work begins on the manufactured home on a specific item from the list, the necessary changes for that item must be completed within a reasonable time.

(7) A buyer or transferee who does not complete required changes under paragraph (c)(6) of this section is subject to a summary possession proceeding pursuant to Chapter 57 of this title.

(d) A standard promulgated under subsection (a), (b), or (c) of this section may not be arbitrarily or capriciously enforced. A landlord may choose not to enforce a standard based upon the documented special needs or hardship of a tenant without waiving the right to the later enforcement of the standard as to that tenant or any other tenant.

(e) A landlord may at any time establish or amend a standard promulgated under subsection (a), (b), or (c) of this section, but an established or amended standard promulgated under subsection (b) or (c) of this section is not effective until the date specified in the established or amended standard or 60 days after the landlord delivers to the tenant written notice of the established or amended standard, whichever is later.

(1) Within 10 days of the landlord’s notice of the established or amended standard, a committee, not to exceed 5 members, may be chosen by any method agreed to by the tenants of the manufactured home community.

(2) The committee shall meet with the landlord at a mutually convenient time and place to discuss the established or amended standard.

(3) At the meeting, the landlord shall disclose and explain all material factors and present any supporting documentation for the established or amended standard.

Legislative History

74 Del. Laws, c. 35, § 2 ; 82 Del. Laws, c. 38, § 10 ; 85 Del. Laws, c. 206, § 1