Municipal service fee; ordinance; imposition on manufactured homes in mobile home park; determination of amount; collection by owner of mobile home park; transmittal; interest on delinquencies; rent surcharge

a. A municipality, by ordinance, shall provide for the imposition of an annual municipal service fee, on manufactured homes installed in a mobile home park within its corporate boundaries. In setting this fee, the municipal governing body shall take into account the extent to which the taxes assessed and levied pursuant to Title 54 of the Revised Statutes against the land and improvements thereto which together constitute the mobile home park in which the homes are installed defray the costs of services provided, or paid for, by the municipality, or provided by any other appropriate taxing authority, for lessees of sites in the park. The ordinance imposing the municipal service fee shall provide for the proration of that fee, as necessary, in order to account for vacancies in the mobile home park.

b. The municipal service fee shall be collected from each owner of a manufactured home on a monthly basis by the owner of the mobile home park in which the home is installed. The park owner shall issue a receipt to the homeowner upon each collection.

The park owner shall transmit the fees collected, in a manner set forth in the ordinance imposing the fee, to the tax collector of the taxing district constituting the municipality in which the fee is imposed, and shall transmit therewith a copy of each receipt issued pursuant to this subsection.

The governing body of the municipality may, by ordinance, fix a rate of interest to be charged a homeowner by the municipality for failure to pay the municipal service fee when due and payable, and to be charged a park owner for failure to transmit fees actually collected when so required. This rate shall be fixed within the limits established for interest charged for delinquent property taxes pursuant to R.S. 54:4-67.

c. An ordinance adopted pursuant to subsection a. of this section shall set forth the manner in which the municipal service fee shall be allocated among the owners of manufactured homes within the mobile home park. To the extent that the respective portion of the municipal service fee allocated to the owner of a manufactured home constitutes a new fee or an increase of any similar fee imposed before the effective date of this act, this new fee or increase, as appropriate, shall in turn constitute a rent surcharge, collectible in addition to any surcharge or increase permitted by any rent control or rent levelling ordinance adopted by the municipality.

d. Notwithstanding any provision to the contrary of subsection c. of this section, the respective portion of a municipal service fee allocated to the owner of a manufactured home shall be deemed rent for eviction purposes.

L.1983, c. 400, s. 5, eff. Dec. 22, 1983.