59.30.050 - Registration process, fees.

Registration process, fees.

(1) The department shall annually register all manufactured/mobile home communities. Each community must be registered separately. The department must deliver by certified mail registration notifications to all known manufactured/mobile home community landlords. Registration information packets must include:

     (a) Registration forms; and

     (b) Registration assessment information, including registration due dates and late fees, and the collections procedures, liens, and charging costs to tenants.

     (2) To apply for registration, the landlord of a manufactured/mobile home community must file with the department an application for registration on a form provided by the department and must pay a registration fee as described in subsection (3) of this section. The department may require the submission of information necessary to assist in identifying and locating a manufactured/mobile home community and other information that may be useful to the state, which must include, at a minimum:

     (a) The names and addresses of the owners of the manufactured/mobile home community;

     (b) The name and address of the manufactured/mobile home community;

     (c) The name and address of the landlord and manager of the manufactured/mobile home community;

     (d) The number of lots within the manufactured/mobile home community that are subject to chapter 59.20 RCW; and

     (e) The addresses of each manufactured/mobile home lot within the manufactured/mobile home community that is subject to chapter 59.20 RCW.

     (3) Each manufactured/mobile home community landlord shall pay to the department:

     (a) A one-time master application fee for the first year of registration and, in subsequent years, an annual master renewal application fee, as provided in RCW 19.02.075; and

     (b) An annual registration assessment of ten dollars for each manufactured/mobile home that is subject to chapter 59.20 RCW within a manufactured/mobile home community. Manufactured/mobile home community landlords may charge a maximum of five dollars of this assessment to tenants. Nine dollars of the registration assessment for each manufactured/mobile home shall be deposited into the manufactured/mobile home dispute resolution program account created in RCW 59.30.070 to fund the costs associated with the manufactured/mobile home dispute resolution program. The remaining one dollar shall be deposited into the master license fund created in RCW 19.02.210. The annual registration assessment must be reviewed once each biennium by the department and the attorney general and may be adjusted to reasonably relate to the cost of administering this chapter. The registration assessment may not exceed ten dollars, but if the assessment is reduced, the portion allocated to the manufactured/mobile home dispute resolution program account and the master license fund shall be adjusted proportionately.

     (4) Initial registrations of mobile/manufactured housing communities must be filed with the department before November 1, 2007, or within three months of the availability of mobile home lots for rent within the community. The manufactured/mobile home community is subject to a delinquency fee of two hundred fifty dollars for late initial registrations. The delinquency fee shall be deposited in the master license fund. Renewal registrations that are not renewed by the expiration date as assigned by the department are subject to delinquency fees under RCW 19.02.085.

     (5) Thirty days after sending late fee notices to a noncomplying landlord, the department may refer the past due account to a collection agency. If there is no response from a noncomplying landlord after sixty days in collections, the department may file an action to enforce payment of unpaid registration assessments and late fees in the superior court for Thurston county or in the county in which the manufactured/mobile home community is located. If the department prevails, the manufactured/mobile home community landlord shall pay the department's costs, including reasonable attorneys' fees, for the enforcement proceedings.

     (6) Registration is effective on the date determined by the department, and the department shall issue a registration number to each registered manufactured/mobile home community. The department must provide an expiration date, assigned by the department, to each manufactured/mobile home community who registers.

[2007 c 431 § 6.]

Notes: Implementation -- 2007 c 431: See note following RCW 59.30.010.