This article of the Fredville Code of Ordinances explains how the city identifies dangerous manufactured housing and mobile homes and how it orders them repaired, vacated or torn down. It covers these topics:
- Definitions
- When a mobile home is considered dangerous
- Standards for ordering repair, vacation or demolition
- Dangerous units as public nuisances
- What the code compliance manager does
- What the Fire Department does
- What the Police Department does
- What the Building Advisory and Appeals Board does
- What the City Attorney does
Definitions
Within this article, the terms below carry the following meanings:
- Dependent mobile home: a mobile home without the sewer and water hookups needed to serve a flush toilet, a tub or shower, and a sink or lavatory inside the unit.
- Dwelling: a building built for, and lived in by, no more than one family.
- Independent manufactured housing: manufactured housing whose approved sewer and water hookups serve a flush toilet, a tub or shower, and a sink or lavatory inside the unit.
- Mobile home: a structure built before June 15, 1976, that can be moved in one or more sections; that measures at least 8 body feet wide or 40 body feet long while on the road, or covers at least 320 square feet once set up on site; that rests on a permanent chassis; and that is intended to serve as a home, whether or not it sits on a permanent foundation, once hooked up to required utilities. The term covers the unit's electrical, plumbing, heating and air-conditioning systems.
- HUD-code manufactured home: a structure built on or after June 15, 1976, under the rules of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, that fits the same size, transport, chassis and home-use description given above for a mobile home, together with its electrical, plumbing, heating and air-conditioning systems. A recreational vehicle, as defined in federal rules at 24 C.F.R. Section 3282(g), does not count.
- Manufactured housing or manufactured home: covers both mobile homes and HUD-code manufactured homes; the terms refer to the two types together.
- Mobile home park: a lot, tract or parcel, all or part of which is set aside for parking mobile homes that people use, or plan to use, as temporary or permanent homes or sleeping quarters, whether by the day, by the week or longer and whether or not anyone is paid, where parking is also provided for one or more cars along with the mobile homes. A "mobile home court" means the same thing.
- Owner: anyone who controls, directs, maintains or supervises a mobile home park.
- Unit plot: the space set aside, permanently marked and labeled on a manufactured housing park's site plan for one manufactured home, or the ground a manufactured home actually occupies inside a mobile home park.
When a Mobile Home Is Dangerous
A mobile home with any of the defects below is treated as a "dangerous mobile home":
- Interior walls or other vertical structural members lean, tilt or buckle so badly that a plumb line dropped through the center of gravity lands outside the middle third of the base.
- Not counting the foundation, its supporting members show 33 percent or more damage or deterioration, or its non-supporting outer walls or coverings show 50 percent or more.
- Floors or roofs carry loads that are poorly distributed or too heavy, or the structure lacks the strength to be reasonably safe for its current use.
- Fire, wind or another cause has damaged it so seriously that it now threatens the life, safety, morals or overall health and welfare of the people living in it or of the public.
- It is so run-down, decayed, unsafe or unsanitary, or so lacking in the basics needed for decent living, that it is unfit to live in or likely to spread sickness or disease, putting its occupants' safety, health, morals or general welfare at risk.
- Its lighting, ventilation or sanitation falls short of what is needed to protect the safety, health, morals or general welfare of anyone who lives there now or may in the future.
- It lacks adequate ways to get out in a fire or other emergency.
- Parts of it are fastened so poorly that they could fall and hurt people or damage property.
- Because of its condition, it is unsafe, unsanitary or a danger to the safety, health, morals or general welfare of Fredville residents.
- It violates any building, fire, gas, mechanical or electrical provision of the city code.
Standards for Repair, Vacation or Demolition
When ordering manufactured housing repaired, vacated or demolished, the Building Advisory and Appeals Board and the code compliance manager (or an authorized designee) will generally follow these standards:
- If a dangerous unit can reasonably be fixed so that it no longer violates this article, the owner will be ordered to repair it.
- If its condition puts the safety, health, morals or general welfare of the people living in it at risk, it will be ordered vacated.
- A dangerous unit will be ordered demolished when it has lost 50 percent or more of its original value or structure to damage, decay or deterioration, or when it cannot be repaired to the point of compliance with this article. Demolition will also be ordered whenever the unit is a fire hazard that violates this code, another city ordinance or state law.
Dangerous Units Are a Public Nuisance
Any manufactured housing that is dangerous under this article is declared a public nuisance. It must be repaired, vacated or demolished as this article provides.
Duties of the Code Compliance Manager
The code compliance manager, or an authorized representative, will:
- Inspect, or arrange inspections of, any manufactured housing or mobile home park as the manager sees fit, to find out whether conditions there make a unit dangerous under this article.
- Inspect any manufactured housing named in a complaint alleging that it violates this article.
- Inspect any manufactured housing that the Fire or Police Department reports as likely to be in violation, as described below.
- Inspect manufactured housing across the city to decide whether it meets this article's definition of a dangerous unit.
- Report each dangerous unit found to the Building Advisory and Appeals Board. Once the board authorizes it, notify in writing each owner, occupant, lessee, mortgagee and agent, plus anyone else holding an interest in the property according to the county clerk's land records, that:
- the owner must vacate, repair or demolish the unit as directed by the notice and this code;
- the occupant or lessee must move out, or may have the unit repaired as the notice requires and stay; and
- the mortgagee, agent or any other person with a recorded interest may, at that person's own risk, repair, vacate or demolish the unit or have the work done.
- Describe the unsafe unit in the notice, list the specific conditions that make it dangerous and order that it be brought into compliance with this article within a reasonable period of no more than 30 days.
- Report any failure to follow the notice to the chair of the Building Advisory and Appeals Board.
- Attend every hearing the board holds on the unit and testify about its condition.
- When the City Council authorizes it, post a placard on each dangerous unit that reads: "The code compliance manager or an authorized representative has determined that this manufactured housing is dangerous. This placard must stay in place until the unit is repaired, vacated or demolished as required by the notice sent to the owner, occupant, lessee, mortgagee or agent and to everyone else with an interest in the property shown in the county clerk's land records. Taking down this placard before the notice has been obeyed is against the law."
Duties of the Fire Department
Fire Department employees must notify the code compliance manager or an authorized designee in writing about any mobile home that is or may be dangerous under this article, or that they suspect is dangerous. Each report should reach the code compliance manager as quickly as practical once a Fire Department employee comes across the unit.
Duties of the Police Department
Police Department employees carry the same duty. They must send a written report to the code compliance manager or an authorized designee about any manufactured housing that is or may be dangerous under this article, or that they suspect is dangerous, and deliver it as quickly as practical after an officer or other department employee finds the unit.
Duties of the Building Advisory and Appeals Board
After receiving a report from the code compliance manager or an authorized designee under this article, the Building Advisory and Appeals Board will notify in writing the owner, lessee, occupant, mortgagee, agent and every other person with an interest in the unit shown in the county clerk's land records. The notice directs them to come before the board on a set date and explain why the unit reported as dangerous should escape an order to repair, vacate or demolish it under the conditions listed in the code compliance manager's statement of particulars. After hearing the evidence, the board decides what action to order.
Duties of the City Attorney
The City Attorney's Office advises the board and code compliance staff on enforcing this article and may take legal action on the city's behalf when an owner or other responsible party fails to obey an order to repair, vacate or demolish dangerous manufactured housing.
Questions
To report a manufactured home in poor condition, contact Code Compliance at (555) 010-2786 or [email protected], or file a complaint online. Permit information for placing a manufactured home is on the residential manufactured and mobile home page.
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