SB 17-098

Senate Bill 17-098 in Colorado is designed to protect mobile home park residents by requiring park owners to notify homeowners' associations or cooperatives before selling the park. This gives current residents a chance to consider purchasing the park themselves if they wish, although it doesn't give them an automatic right of first refusal. The bill also encourages mediation and alternative dispute resolution methods for resolving conflicts between park management and residents. Additionally, it offers tax incentives to sellers who sell their parks to certain entities like nonprofits or local governments. This bill has been signed into law, meaning its provisions are now enforceable in Colorado.

Official Summary

Notice of sale of a mobile home park. Where the home owners within a mobile home park (park) have formed either a homeowners' association or a cooperative, section 2 of the bill specifies that, not less than 30 days nor more than one year prior to, an owner of a park either entering into a written listing agreement for the sale of the park or making an offer to sell the park to any party must provide written notice to the president, secretary, and treasurer of any homeowners' association or cooperative of the owner's intention to sell the park. The bill specifies certain circumstances in which the park owner is not required to satisfy these notice requirements. During the notice period required by the bill, the owner or management of the park may consider any offer to purchase the park that has been made by a homeowners' association or cooperative of such home owners as long as the association or cooperative is open to all home owners. The owner of the park may consider any reasonable offer made by an association or cooperative representing the home owners and negotiate in good faith with them. If an agreement to purchase the community is reached during the notice period specified in the bill, the association or cooperative has a reasonable time beyond the expiration of such period, if necessary, to obtain financing for the purchase. The bill explicitly specifies that these provisions do not give any home owner or group of home owners within a park any right of first refusal. Terms of written rental agreement. Section 3 permits a written rental agreement for a tenancy in a park to contain a clause that encourages the use of mediation or another form of alternative dispute resolution to resolve any controversy by or among owners, management, and home owners within parks. Alternative dispute resolution. In any controversy between management and a home owner of a park arising out of the bill, except for the nonpayment of rent or in cases in which the health or safety of other home owners is in imminent danger, section 4 permits the parties to submit the dispute to another form of alternative dispute resolution in addition to mediation prior to the filing of a forcible entry and detainer lawsuit. The choice of alternative dispute resolution methods is dependent upon agreement of the parties. Under section 4, the general assembly also encourages the owners and management of parks and home owners within such parks to make use of the state office of dispute resolution to resolve any controversy by or among them in addition to local government agencies and community-based nonprofit organizations that are created and empowered to mediate disputes between or among the owners and management of parks and home owners within such parks. Subtraction of gain from sale of park from calculation of federal taxable income for state income tax purposes. For income tax years commencing on or after January 1, 2018, section 5 subtracts from federal taxable income the following amount of the gain recognized from the sale or exchange of a park where the party purchasing the park is a county, municipality, local housing authority, nonprofit corporation, homeowners' association, or a cooperative: 100% of the recognized gain for a mobile home park with 50 or fewer lots; and 50% of the recognized gain for a mobile home park with more than 50 lots. Encouragement of the preservation and development of mobile and manufactured home parks through county and municipal master plans. Recognizing the importance of manufactured housing as an option for many households, under sections 6 and 7 , counties and municipalities, as applicable, are required to encourage through either their master plans or other land use or planning documents adopted by the particular governmental body the preservation of existing parks and the development of new manufactured home parks within their territorial boundaries, including increasing opportunities for parks that are owned by the owners of homes within the park. Whenever an existing park is located in a hazardous area, the county or municipality, as applicable, is required to make every reasonable effort to reduce or eliminate the hazard, when feasible, or to help mitigate the loss of housing through the relocation of affected households. (Note: This summary applies to this bill as introduced.)

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