The state’s Manufactured Housing Dispute Resolution Program, overseen by the Attorney General’s Office since 2007, collects complaints and facilitates negotiations between mobile home tenants and their landlords. Program staff serve as a neutral party, but can investigate claims, mediate resolutions or file for court interventions in some cases.
The program’s 2023 report listed an unprecedented 731 complaints from tenants – up 28% from the previous year’s 572 and double the approximately 360 complaints filed in 2019-2021. Landlords also filed three complaints in 2023, down from 10-20 in other years.
The report lists seven employees with the program, but noted it had seen “many staffing changes in 2023 and experienced staffing shortages for extended periods of time throughout the year.”
“Current staffing is not sufficient to resolve and/or investigate the quantity of complaints seen this year ‘quickly and efficiently’ as directed in [state law],” the 2023 report stated.
This story is a part of Cascade PBS’s WA Recovery Watch, an investigative project tracking federal dollars in Washington state.
Brionna Aho, spokesperson for the Attorney General’s Office, attributed some of the increase in complaints to broader public awareness of the dispute program as well as the expiration of pandemic-era eviction protections.
“Rent increases are a common complaint topic, so it may be that park owners were complying with the moratorium on rent increases,” Aho wrote in an email. “[Though] rent increases are not themselves prohibited, so long as they are properly noticed and not retaliatory.”
Aho noted the program has also taken on enforcement of a recent state law change that requires notice of pending park sales. The 2023 report included a recommendation to increase penalties on violations of that law, as well as requests for additional clarity from lawmakers on enforcing failures to register mobile home parks and procedures for changing rent rates.
While the Attorney General’s Office has not finalized its upcoming requests to the Legislature, Aho wrote that officials may ask for additional support for the dispute resolution program.
“Our office is exploring options to expand the budget for the program,” she wrote.
Farah Eltohamy
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