Plantation Village (Sarasota, Fruitville: rental, homeowners association, insurance)

[slodown]

Does anyone have any info on Plantation Village C0-0p? Is there an advantage to buying into a mobile home co-op?

[Sunshine Rules]

I do know the general location, there are several 55+ mobile home parks in that immediate area. There are also some not so nice duplexes just a few blocks east of that part of 63rd.


I can give you some info on mobile home park co-ops as I have dealt with them in the past. There's a co-op park in Sarasota, on Fruitville Road.

Instead of you having title to the individual lot under your mobile home, when you buy into a mobile home co-op you become a shareholder.

The co-op is a corporation that owns all of the land and the members of the co-op collective run the corporation. When you buy into a co-op, you become a member/owner and sign a perpetual lease (sometimes called an occupany agreement) that gives you the exclusive right to occupy and use a specifically designated lot within the community. That exclusive right is subject to the conditions and rules of the co-op. The co-op is responsible for paying expenses of the co-op, such as maintaining the land and common buildings, paying taxes and insurance and other related costs of the co-op. The co-op then bills the member/owners through a monthly or quarterly fee.

When you belong to a co-op vs renting a lot, the co-op only bills the shareholders for actual expenses. In a rental situation, the investor/owner of the mobile home park expects to make a profit on his investment, which is padded into your monthly lot rent. You also will not have to worry about the investor owner selling the land to another investor or developer to use for other commercial purposes. Once you move a mobile home into a rental lot, it's not so easy to pack up and move if the park owner decides to increase the lot rental fees on you.

As to negatives of a co-op, I'd have to say the rules and regulations can become problems when the residents vote on the mobile home park rules and are also responsible for enforcing them. It's not a perfect system. In some ways it is similar to a homeowners association. If you get a bad board of directors or a group within the co-op that uses political leverage to make changes to the rules that they want, you can have problems.


If you are looking into a co-op mobile home park, I would recommend asking for and reading the minutes of the last 6 months meetings. You can then get a sense of how the co-op is run.

[Grizelda1]

I own here. It sucks. Rules constantly CHANGE AS TO PET OWNERS. ON A MORE POSITIVE NOTE- IT IS A GREAT PLACE TO DIE-IF YOU ARE INTO DYING..