Resolve Helps People Stay in Their Homes

There are many reasons people find themselves in dispute with their landlords…

Manufactured Dwelling Parks have been in the news quite a bit recently over rising space rents and other fees and costs. Oregon has a state law offering Mandatory Mediation in these housing situations and Resolve is responding to many of these cases, though the issue of Rent Increases is specifically excluded as a topic in the law (https://oregon.public.law/statutes/ors_90.767).

One recent Mandatory Mediation involved a tenant who desired to change their landscaping to be more “water wise”. Many parks have installed individual water meters, making this an economic as well as environmental issue. Tenant was frustrated by the hoops the park manager was demanding they jump through and threatened to just have her landscaper make the change without prior approval. Tenant’s nerves had also been frayed by a neighbor’s amazingly loud vehicle which was interfering with the tenant’s sleep.

Resolve advised a “pause”, because the on-site manager had some medical issues and the out of state upper manager had recently visited and was rebuffed by the tenant because of lack of prior notice. After the pause, Resolve hosted a Zoom meeting which resulted in an agreement to proceed with the landscaping change. The agreement included a clause stating that the tenant did NOT have to change the landscaping back to the original if the tenant sold and moved out.

Result: lower water bills, attractive stone instead of bark mulch, making the home more fire safe (this park is near the Almeda fire footprint). The tenant planted some lovely bee and butterfly friendly bushes/flowers which are aesthetically pleasing while helping to preserve wildlife.

The Times, They Are a-Changin’

In all areas of housing, rents just keep getting higher.

In a recent eviction prevention case the tenant was behind in rent and utilities to the point that they exclaimed,

“I owe more in rent right now than I paid for my first house in my home state!”

After some general banter about the good old days, the property manager agreed to allow the tenant to stretch the payment of the back rent over the full six months permitted by the Jackson County courts.

The tenant was pleased. Ironically their home state was the same as the mediator’s. The mediator’s parents paid $21K for a brand new four bedroom brick ranch in 1966. Times have changed, indeed.