Supervisors endorse legislation to streamline mobile home aid

The county of San Diego has endorsed state legislation which would allow counties rather than the state to issue documentation required by lenders to finance mobile homes or manufactured homes in resident-owned parks.

The San Diego County Board of Supervisors voted 5-0, March 14, to direct county Chief Administrative Officer Helen Robbins-Meyer to draft a letter to the county’s state legislators expressing the board’s support for Assembly Bill 1943.

“It helps those in resident-owned parks that are having difficultly securing financing,” Supervisor Dianne Jacob said.

The state’s Health and Safety Code provides a process for owners of mobile homes or manufactured homes to obtain documentation to convert the residence from personal property to real property, which makes the home subject to property tax rather than to a license fee. Currently the county is authorized to issue a Form 433A if the resident also owns the individual lot under the mobile home, but if residents share a fractional ownership of an entire mobile home park, an escrow agent must process a Form 433C. Many lenders do not accept a Form 433C when a resident is seeking financing.

State Assemblywoman Marie Waldron, R-Escondido, introduced AB-1943, Jan. 29, which will allow owners of mobile homes or manufactured homes within a resident-owned park to utilize the Form 433A process rather than the Form 433C process.

“The state law needs to be changed,” Supervisor Bill Horn said. “We could amend the state law so that the county could issue these.”

The Dec. 7 Lilac Fire, which burned 4,100 acres in Fallbrook and Bonsall, started near the Rancho Monserate mobile home park, and more than 70 Rancho Monserate homes were destroyed.

“The major structural damage took place in Rancho Monserate,” Horn said.

Horn said that Rancho Monserate residents have experienced difficulty in rebuilding their homes due to current state law. Jacob said that residents of mobile home parks in her district have also experienced difficulty when attempting to obtain financing.

AB-1943 has been assigned to the Assembly’s Committee on Housing and Community Development.