Recourse Options Against Mobile Home Squatters (tenants, auction, investment, mortgage)
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I own land and someone is renting a plot to place their mobile home on but decide to not pay rent after a few months. Asides from initiating an eviction process, what would be next steps for recourse if they still refuse to move no matter what I offer? What if they don't own their mobile home outright but are current on their note and just are not paying the rent of the land? Is there a Towing service that I can call at some point to come and remove their house from my land?
Another scenario..
I own the land and carry the mortgage that the tenant is living in (under a rent-to-own contract). The tenant stops paying so I then start the eviction process but they still won't leave. What would be my next steps? I have read the "cash for keys" option and buying the tenant out, but lets say they love the place and refuse to leave even if I pay them X amount of dollars. What would be my next steps? At some point can they be arrested and banned from returning to the property?
I am wanting to start a trailer park community where I offer lots for rent or homes for rent-to-own. I am worried however about the scenario that I take on a bad tenant such as those described above and what my recourse would be. I understand that is part of the business before someone jumps in with that, I am more interested in what do the recourse actions look like. I am hoping to come up with a better risk analysis with this information.
You should probably speak to an attorney about these things, get legal answers instead of opinions. I have to say though, you are starting off with a bunch of "iffy" people to begin with. Not all people who live in mobile homes are bad people, but they phrase 'trailer trash' has a reason for its existence. Also, I've never seen a 'COPS' episode in a trailer park that ends well.
Areas I'm familiar with you hire an attorney, there's a particular day evictions are handled in court, you give whatever notices required, the deputy is there that day just to keep the peace, you have already hired movers and locksmith and do the put out and change the locks.
No one can guarantee what the response might be with tenants like this, though.
I own land and someone is renting a plot to place their mobile home on but decide to not pay rent after a few months. Asides from initiating an eviction process, what would be next steps for recourse if they still refuse to move no matter what I offer? What if they don't own their mobile home outright but are current on their note and just are not paying the rent of the land? Is there a Towing service that I can call at some point to come and remove their house from my land?
Another scenario..
I own the land and carry the mortgage that the tenant is living in (under a rent-to-own contract). The tenant stops paying so I then start the eviction process but they still won't leave. What would be my next steps? I have read the "cash for keys" option and buying the tenant out, but lets say they love the place and refuse to leave even if I pay them X amount of dollars. What would be my next steps? At some point can they be arrested and banned from returning to the property?
I am wanting to start a trailer park community where I offer lots for rent or homes for rent-to-own. I am worried however about the scenario that I take on a bad tenant such as those described above and what my recourse would be. I understand that is part of the business before someone jumps in with that, I am more interested in what do the recourse actions look like. I am hoping to come up with a better risk analysis with this information.
Thanks everyone!
You need to do a lot of research and have a lot of start up money before you even think about doing something like this and before you do any of that you need a very good attorney who can get all of the legal details written out step by step.
You need permits for sewer, water, electric, someone to pour the concrete pads for, tons of insurance, and the list goes on.
What I've seen happen if people quit paying space rent is a lien is put against the trailer. Eventually, the trailer park owners also owns the trailer and a sheriff's auction is held.
If a renter quits paying rent, then you start eviction proceedings. Eventually, the sheriff comes out and removes them per court order.
Your eviction process will depend upon state law. Generally, however, it can take some time to get someone legally removed--especially if the renters know how to game the system. I think a worse scenario would be for renters to just leave a dilapidated trailer behind...because then you'd be stuck with the costs of removing it.
But...you're really jumping ahead of yourself. In order to even consider building a trailer park community, if you're in a community with zoning, you'd need to have land zoned for that use. If it's not zoned appropriately, you'd have to seek to rezone the land--which can be difficult to accomplish if the neighbors would object, as they probably rightly should.
Even if you have land that is zoned appropriately, it would be a very expensive proposition to establish a trailer park community. Some of the expenses that you might be liable for would include permit and impact fees, engineering and platting costs, tree surveys and mitigation, trailer site preparation, utility connections, water lines and/or wells, fire hydrants, streets, storm and/or sanitary sewers--or a community septic system or treatment plant, or even sidewalks and streetlights. Preparation costs for a large trailer park can easily run into the millions of dollars. Even to set up a smaller one isn't cheap.
But...since you're only asking about eviction procedures, I rather doubt that you have thought about the big picture yet. I guess it will all depend upon the amount of headaches that you are willing to buy--and at what price. Frankly, unless you've thoroughly researched your plan, there are probably much better, and easier, real estate investment opportunities--not that trailer parks can't be lucrative to the right investors. A trailer park community just doesn't seem to be a wise investment choice for a novice.
Last edited by jackmichigan; 02-01-2015 at 07:45 AM..
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