This is Part 3 of WGLT’s series about the business practices at Oak Wood, a company that now owns five manufactured home parks in Bloomington-Normal. Coming Wednesday: How manufactured homes fit – or don’t fit – into the housing shortage around the country.
Twin City mobile home park owner Oak Wood is a part of a larger trend of manufactured home (aka mobile home) communities being taken over by private equity. As individual owners have sold off this part of their portfolios, advocates for affordable housing have risen to meet the need.
Here’s some advice for how Bloomington-Normal mobile home owners can protect themselves.
Laws to know
Erin Duncan, the supervising attorney at Bloomington-based Prairie State Legal Services [PSLS], is the attorney who filed a 2024 lawsuit against Oak Wood. She said one of the key laws for tenants to understand their rights is the Mobile Home Landlord and Tenant Rights Act.
“[It] is really the primary source where mobile home park tenants should go, and that’s when they’re looking for their rights related to rent increases, assessment of fines and fees, some about eviction, the right to list their home for sale without interference by the mobile home park, utility billing practices, park maintenance,” said Duncan.
Another important law is the Illinois Consumer Fraud and Deceptive Business Practices Act, which prohibits unfair and deceptive acts committed in the conduct of any trade or commerce.
“When we see misrepresentations about tenant rights or things like the unilateral imposition of fees and fines that were not originally in a tenant’s lot lease, those raise big red flags for us as legal aid lawyers,” said Duncan.
A state law that went into effect this year is the Landlord Retaliation Act. It prohibits a landlord from things like increasing rent, decreasing services, or refusing to renew a lease if someone has, say, joined a tenants’ union, sought help with an illegal landlord practice, or complained to a government agency about a problem.
Duncan said any resident who believes they have experienced an illegal or unfair business practice by a park owner should seek legal advice early. Prairie State Legal Services is available. Another resource she recommends is Illinois Legal Aid Online.
“It's really important to get individualized legal advice,” Duncan said. “Sometimes we see stuff floating around online, or people get information that is actually maybe related to a Chicago ordinance that doesn't apply downstate, and so there’s a lot of misinformation floating out there, and it's really important that people understand the rights in their particular situation.”
Leases: Automatic renewals and 90-day notices
You may be more familiar with leases as they relate to an apartment, townhome or a rental home. However, those leases are fundamentally different than someone living in a manufactured home [aka mobile home]. One example: The lease of a mobile home lot is automatically renewable.
“If you sign an initial lease, you lease up on certain terms. You say, these are the fees or fines that I would agree to pay … you should have a right to rely on those terms without unilateral changes to them by the park,” Duncan said. “[Park owners] can’t just say your lease has ended, so you can’t rent here anymore.”
Duncan said those conditions create sort of “good cause protection” against eviction or non-renewability, so landlords need to provide a reason for not renewing a lease. That’s different than an apartment, where a landlord can legally go without providing a reason for not offering a new lease.
Duncan said if there is a notice of reason to not renew a lease, the Mobile Home Landlord and Tenant Rights Act specifies how the notice must be completed.
State law also requires mobile home park owners to give a 90-day notice for a rent increase.
“But to be clear, that 90 days can’t come in the middle of your lease term,” she said. “So, if you’re in the middle of your lease term and you get a rent increase notice that says in 90 days your rent is going up, that wouldn’t be legitimate unless it’s aligned with the time when your lease is renewing, and that notice is given 90 days before your lease is actually renewing.”
Eviction
For mobile home residents facing eviction, Duncan stressed that eviction is a process. A notice of eviction does not require the immediate and complete removal of a tenant.
“There are notices that are required before an eviction complaint can be filed. Once a complaint and summons are filed, somebody has to be served with those,” she said. “You’re going to have a first appearance for a court date to go to court and then make a decision at that time about maybe negotiating a resolution or asking for a trial.”
After the first appearance in court, tenants have the right to ask for a separate trial date to argue evidence against their eviction. The entire process takes time, Duncan said, which is why she stressed a sense of urgency for seeking help early.
“As soon as you get an eviction notice is advisable. Your rights might change a little bit throughout that process with some timing considerations,” she said. “Getting advice early makes sense. We just want to make sure that people know only a judge can evict you. The notice itself doesn’t mean you have to move.”
Duncan said the opinion of PSLS is failing to sign a new lease is not appropriate grounds for eviction.
Residents organize and advocate
In recent years organizations have emerged to advocate for mobile home park residents in response to the consolidation of ownership of parks.
Paul Terranova, the Midwest community organizer for Manufactured Housing Action, or MH Action, supports resident leaders organizing in Illinois and Michigan. Terranova said MH Action fights for safe, healthy and affordable communities.
“We primarily do this in communities that have been purchased by the big, predatory private equity, real estate investment trust, corporate hedge funds and so on,” he said. “We’ll work with residents to figure out how they can bring pressure to bear on those landlords to do the right thing and treat residents fairly.”
"My experience is that you get the best results in terms of the policies you want and the best messaging on your issues if you become your own advocate."Dave Anderson, National Manufactured Home Owners Association
Terranova said he heard from residents soon after Oak Wood purchased its five parks in Bloomington-Normal. And it wasn’t just a few people at the organizing meeting at a Panera Bread.
“And I was expecting six or eight people, and 65 people showed up at a Panera. They basically filled Panera, and people were really upset,” Terranova said.
The pressing issue for the newly organized residents was Oak Wood’s rent increases.
The next meeting Terranova hosted in Bloomington-Normal was a workshop with Prairie State Legal Services. The workshop was an educational session to teach residents about how to stand up for themselves and know their rights. 70 people attended that one.
“A lot of what we’re trying to do is make sure that folks have the knowledge of what already exists in the law and are connected to resources like legal services and then are a part of larger campaigns to try to get stronger protections passed,” he said.
Still, mobile home residents can be a vulnerable group. Many are living on low or fixed incomes.
“If you stick your head up and start organizing, you’re not just risking a place to live, you’re risking the home you own,” said Dave Anderson, executive director of the National Manufactured Home Owners Association, which has an Illinois branch.
Anderson’s advice: “My experience is that you get the best results in terms of the policies you want and the best messaging on your issues if you become your own advocate, and especially if you can set up an organization to support your interests over time.”
Getting the Attorney General’s attention
Anderson said volunteers and legal networks provide free services to mobile home residents. But he said another powerful force is the Illinois attorney general’s office, or “the law firm of the state.”
“They’re broadly empowered to enforce the state’s laws. And they’re complaint-driven agencies, like a lot of agencies are, that the number of things they could get involved in far exceeds the resources they have,” he said. “But if it’s a significant issue, and many of the affected parties communicate that issue to the attorney general’s office in a way that is clear and focused, that’s a really good way to get the attorney general’s office to move that to the top of the stack.”
Here's how to file a complaint with the Illinois attorney general. Anderson said they can be a powerful ally, but he has this advice:
“You need to be clear. You need to be focused,” he said. “It’s probably not a great time to talk about how if your next-door neighbor only fixed their skirting, there wouldn’t be so many stray cats living underneath that home. Save that issue for another day. If you and all your neighbors are instead suffering from the fact that there was a break in the water line and you’re now all worried that your water is contaminated, focus on that and only that.”
Anderson said the attorney general can also provide language guides and fact sheets for mobile home residents regarding their rights.
