Legislative findings and determinations

The Legislature finds and determines that:

a. It is in the public interest that the Legislature address the difficult questions raised in litigation over the tax status of manufactured homes;

b. Manufactured homes located in mobile home parks receive fewer public services than manufactured homes or other single family dwelling units located on privately owned lots, and thus the former homes occasion a lower level of public expenditures than the latter homes;

c. With respect to purchaser financing, manufactured homes located in mobile home parks are not treated in the same manner as manufactured homes located on private lots owned by the homeowner or other residential property, and thus are not typically financed through mortgage arrangements, but are typically financed through installment credit;

d. Because of the differences in siting between manufactured homes in mobile home parks and manufactured homes otherwise located, it is difficult to equate the two for property title purposes, and thus for the purposes of property tax enforcement;

e. The Legislature has provided that certain property owned by public utilities which would otherwise constitute real property for the purposes of taxation is not real property for such purposes, and has provided an alternate means of ensuring that the owner of such property is responsible for reasonable payment for public services which that owner receives;

f. The factors which distinguish manufactured homes in mobile home parks from other dwelling units warrants a distinction between the former and the latter which is analogous to the distinction drawn in the case of public utilities property;

g. It is necessary to draw that distinction in a fair and equitable manner, which will not penalize the owners of the manufactured homes located in mobile home parks, nor absolve them of their responsibility to pay for the public services they receive;

h. It is further necessary to ensure parity, where taxation is concerned, between manufactured homes situated outside mobile home parks and other similar dwelling units;

i. The land and improvements thereto which together constitute a mobile home park, including those improvements added as part of the private provision of otherwise public services, are subject to taxation as real property, and the revenues derived from the assessment and levy of these real property taxes contribute to the defrayal of the costs of public services provided the owner of the park and lessees of sites in that park; and

j. It is appropriate and necessary to provide a method by which a municipality may receive reasonable payment for services provided the owners of manufactured homes in mobile home parks, the cost of which services is not defrayed by real property tax revenues.

L.1983, c. 400, s. 2, eff. Dec. 22, 1983.