Contents of this Page
Good News on HB 186!!  The hard work has paid off!!
Convention News! Save the Date! New!
Install. Inspect. Protect. New!
AMHRO Officers

Find a Lawyer

Victory with the Media
AMHRO  Mission and Vision
What is Intimidation?

Who Are Residents?
How to Tornado-Proof Your Mobile Home     NEW!
Be Extremely Careful   NEW!
Ginnie Mae Announces New Program    NEW!
AMHRO Contact Form.   Add Your Comments

Notice of Affiliation:  Who is AMHRO affiliated with?  

 AMHRO stands alone. AMHRO is not affiliated with any other organization.

Good News!!   The hard work has paid off!!                         February 24, 2010

AMHRO and OMHA working together have been able to improve some issues for manufactured home residents. Here is the House Bill 186 Summary:

·         Transfers, from the Department of Health (ODH) and the Public Health Council to the Manufactured Homes Commission (OMHC) regulatory authority related to manufactured home parks.

·         Prohibits a park operator from prohibiting an owner of a unit in a manufactured home park from displaying a for sale sign on that owner’s lot.

·         Prohibits a park operator from prohibiting an owner or a tenant from displaying a political sign on that owner’s or tenant’s lot.

·         Alters the method and type of relief a tenant or owner may obtain from a park operator's violation of certain duties.

·         Establishes adjudication procedures for violations of the Manufactured Home Park Law (MHPL).

·         Requires a mortgagee to notify the OMHC when initiating foreclosure action against a manufactured home park and requires the OMHC to notify park residents.

·         Requires a park operator to pay relocation expenses when a manufactured home park is converted or sold for another use.

·         Requires the OMHC to develop a list comprised of organizations that have an interest in the sale or purchase of parks and persons that assist in financing manufactured home parks, and to notify persons on the list when a park is offered for sale or at any other time in the Commission's discretion.

·         Establishes continuing education requirements for manufactured home park operators.

·         Establishes the OMHC Regulatory Fund for the administration and enforcement of the MHPL.

·         Diverts certain fees from the General Operations Fund (OGF)to the Occupational Licensing and Regulatory Fund (OLRF)for the administration and enforcement of the MHPL.

·         Requires the Director of Budget and Management to transfer cash from the OGF that previously was collected pursuant to the MHPL into the OLRF for the administration of the MUPL.

·         Repeals a provision in motor vehicle dealer’s law regarding a vehicle repair guarantee.

·         Revises the application requirements for a new motor vehicle dealer's license and for a motor vehicle salesperson's license.

·         Repeals the exception under current law that permits two or more motor vehicle dealers to sell manufactured or mobile homes in the same manufactured home park without having to agree to joint, several, and personal liability.

·         Makes changes to motor vehicle dealers law to conform with Am. Sub. H.B.1 (Biennial Operating Budget).    

·         Establishes special effective dates for the bill's provisions.

Convention News!!      Save the dates!!        The MHOAA 2010 Convention dates are Ocotober 22-23, 2010 and will be held in Salt Lake City, Utah  More details will follow soon.

AMHRO encourages you to inspect your smoke alarm often to ensure is function. Why?

Every year in the United States, about 3,000 people die in all types of home fires.
    Most of these deaths occurred in homes that didn’t have a working smoke alarm.

           Functioning smoke alarms save lives and your life is important.

     The Install. Inspect. Protect. Campaign is part of the U.S. Fire Administration’s effort to reduce fire deaths and injuries across the nation by urging residents to install smoke alarms in their homes and inspect and maintain them on a regular basis. Working smoke alarms and sprinklers save lives.

      A working smoke alarm can help you and your family escape a deadly home fire. It can also help save the lives of firefighters who would otherwise have to risk their lives by searching a burning home for residents. A working smoke alarm continuously scans the air for smoke, 24 hours a day, seven days a week. It never sleeps. The USFA is encouraging you to practice fire safety and do your part to get out before firefighters have to come in. 

AMHRO Officers
President  Bill Geniella, 24 Birch Row Dr., Delaware, OH 43015 
(614) 207-2800 bgeniell@columbus.rr.com

Vice-President Russ McPherson, 27202 Cook Rd. #138, Olmsted Twp., Ohio 44138 (440) 235-9279 r.pherson@sbcglobal.net

Secretary Lois McPherson, 27202 Cook Rd. #138, Olmsted Twp., Ohio 44138 (440) 235-9279 r.pherson@sbcglobal.net

Treasurer Kathleen Demitrus, 8974 Wood Thrush Drive, Streetsboro, Ohio  44241 (330) 626-5941 kdblarney@aol.com

Assistant Vice-President Jim Demitrus, 8974 Wood Thrush Drive, Streetsboro, Ohio 44241  (440) 465-8236 lacbobs@aol.com

Assistant Vice-President Brenda Kocevar, 7 Friendship, Olmsted Twp., Ohio 44138   (440) 235-9195 bmkocevar@yahoo.com

All AMHRO Officers are volunteers. Everything they do is done at their own expense. Your membership and donations will help AMHRO continue their work for you.

 Find a Lawyer           All Counties for Persons age 60 and over
                                 Pro Seniors Legal and Referral Service      800/488-6070

Victory in Media     I have always felt offended when someone referred to my home as a trailer. It is my home! Trailers are not used for human habitation. It associates me with what is referred to as “trailer trash.” That offends me and many others. I was challenged while attending the MHOAA National Convention when I heard many others who felt the same as I. We were challenged to stop using the “T” word and to educate others who did use it rather than “home” or “manufactured home.”

   I wrote a lengthy e-mail to a local newscaster. I explained the many, many amenities and benefits of a manufactured home. The e-mail had definitions from Webster’s Dictionary, an invitation to visit my home and community, to a home owners meeting, to the Ohio Manufactured Home Commission Meeting, to the Ohio Manufactured Home Association, to a manufactured home company, to a lending institution and to an insurance company. My hope was to educate the media.

   Here is part of his first reply to me.

   For communicating with the general public, if it has wheels it’s a trailer.  A “Manufactured home” is a much broader term that would include dwellings never intended to be pulled behind anything.  The federal government may have decided all such dwellings will be called a “manufactured homes”, and that’s their business.  Influencing what we call them is not their business, that’s ours. 

   We speak to the public in the terms we believe they use, understand and accept. To me, and most, the media resource center is still the library. News deals with what is. 

   We live in a time when interest groups put much effort into co-opting the language to suit their interest.  For people who have the time or interest to read a lengthy thesis like yours, your term may have meaning and value.  But we tell stories in 20 or 30 seconds.  The term “manufactured home” is much broader than trailer…. In the limited time we have for telling a story we work hard to use the most precise and familiar language possible.  Trailer.

   February I sent the newscaster this e-mail: As I watched the 6:00PM news tonight you reported from somewhere that the strong winds did much damage on homes. You referred to a "manufactured home" rather than a "trailer." Thank you for recognizing these are "homes" rather then "trailers."

   February 14, 2009 this came my way:

Glad to have caught up with the times, Russ.  Had a long discussion with someone a few years back that “mobile homes” aren’t mobile these days, so “mobile home park” doesn’t cut it.  “Manufactured homes” doesn’t roll off the tongue as easily as the former name, but IS accurate, and, besides, I’ve become tired of terms like “trailer park people” and “trailer park trash”, so, just trying to do my small part.  Glad you caught it

   I did not know it but one of our local Trustees has a husband who works for the same TV station. She forwarded our e-mails to her husband and he personally presented them to the newscaster and thanked him for a job well done.

   Lesson learned: It pays to know your city officials for you don’t know who they know. Be courteous and persistent. You can help us make the necessary change!   

What is Intimidation? Are You Being Intimidated?                  

Intimidation plays a big role in the strategy of some community owners. But why do they do it? Here is the definition of "Intimidation."

1.    To make timid; to fill with fear.2. To coerce or inhibit by or as if by threats.
Intimidation implies the presence or operation of a fear-inspired force.

The synonyms are: brow beat, bull doze, bully, coercion, threatening, demoralizing.
These verbs mean to frighten into submission, compliance or acquiescence.

Intimidation is:

·         Threatening to use power or control to get others to do what you want them to do.

·         Using coercion or force to get what you want from others. Making others
 feel like you are more powerful or forceful than what you really are.

·         Wearing a mask of being ‘untouchable’ so that people keep an emotional   distance from
you and yet do for you what you desire.

·         Using verbal and non-verbal cues to let others know you are not going to
reward any unfaithfulness to what you desire them to do for you.

·         Using verbal, physical, sexually or emotionally abusive behaviors to get
 people to ‘stay in line.’

·         Using physical size, statute and strength to get others to respect and obey
 you.

·         Using punishments such as seven-day notices or threats of eviction. Using quick temper,
anger or rage to get people to do what you want.

·         Acting in such a way that no one would dare question or stand up to you over any of your decisions, opinions or directives.

·         Using money, wealth or status to put others into their place so that your power over them is secured and not questioned.

·         Keeping others loyal to you by threats of pulling back your support, love,
 caring, interest or approval of them.

     Using dictatorial, "Gestapo," or autocratic behaviors to get people to do what you want. The affects of intimidation of residents in manufactured home communities are obvious. Residents are afraid. They are afraid of making the manager upset, afraid of retaliation and ultimately afraid of being evicted. They don’t dare question what management says or does. They don’t dare "make waves." They try to live "under management’s radar." In essence, they submit to the will of management. The management’s goal is then realized. So what should residents do?

1. Don’t go it alone. Management wins as long as you go it alone. 
    Remember the saying “Divide and conquer”? That’s exactly the strategy
    of management. As long as it’s one on one with management,
    management always wins.

2. Knowledge is Power. Understand your rights. Understand management 's 
    reason for eviction. Know when you are being intimidated.

3. You are first a human being. We are all Americans. 

4. Managers can’t take your power. You have to give it to them.
    So, DON’T GIVE THEM YOUR POWER!

5. We will support you in your community. But the first thing to do is start
     talking with your neighbors and friends. Form a small group. Meet in
     someone’s home. Form a home-owners association.  Take back your
     community now!
         used by permission from CoMo-CAL in California www comical.org 

Who are Residents?

~Residents are the most important people in the entire management business.
~Residents are not dependent on management. Management is dependent on residents.
~Residents are not an interruption of the manager's work, but the purpose of it.
~Residents do management a favor by choosing to live in their community. Management 
  isn't doing the residents a favor by allowing them to live there.
~Residents go to the community manager with their problems. It's the manager's job to do 
  something about it.
~Residents deserve courteous service. Without residents, managers would have vacant
   homes and there would be no money for their paychecks.  Managers should not forget this.

  As published from Manufactured Homeowners Legislative Association of Michigan 

How To Tornado-Proof Your Mobile Home First, tie down your water heater.  By Torie Bosch      

   Concrete foundations are safest. What can mobile-home owners do to stay safe during a tornado?  

   Get out. So-called manufactured homes—dwellings built in factories and transported to their final destination—lack the structural support to keep residents safe during a tornado. In a well-built standard home, a basement or interior hallway can offer some protection during a catastrophic weather event. But the lightness that makes mobile homes easily transportable also means they aren't sturdy enough to stand up to a tornado's winds. As many as half of all tornado-related fatalities occur in mobile homes.

   If you must be in a mobile home during a tornado, it's best to stay in one that's not so mobile. The safest manufactured home is one that's anchored to a concrete foundation like a standard home. The next best thing to concrete is a semi permanent anchoring system that uses rods or chains to attach your trailer to beams that are driven into the ground. Anchoring can be difficult if the ground is hard and rocky, and if the soil is too soft then a powerful tornado could still rip your home from the earth. Even with anchoring, a mobile home can be damaged in a "weak" tornado (one with maximum wind speeds of 112 mph) that probably wouldn't damage a standard house.

   If your mobile home is on private property, another option is to install an underground tornado shelter made of concrete, steel, or fiberglass. These bomb-shelter like structures cost anywhere from $2,500 to $10,000. It's unlikely that you'll be allowed to build an underground shelter if you live in a trailer park. Some parks do have community shelters that double as laundry rooms, community lounges, or management offices during the day. These rooms can be small, though, and often have glass windows, which can splinter during high winds.

   Most mobile homes are made of lumber with metal or vinyl siding and metal or shingled roofs. There's not much you can do to keep these materials from flying loose, but you can anchor down outdoor structures (like swing sets or sheds) to keep them from becoming flying weapons. It's also a good idea not to store heavy objects on high shelves. You can use metal brackets to fasten furniture to the wall, and wires or cables to secure large objects like water heaters. Don't think about boarding up windows at the last minute—you won't have nearly enough advance warning to do the job.

   It's best to flee if at all possible. Community siren systems aren't always effective—but many residents say they don't hear them. Weather radios that broadcast warnings from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration might be more effective. They work like alarm clocks, broadcasting a piercing warning tone if severe weather is imminent. On average, the National Weather Service can alert residents about 18 minutes before an anticipated tornado strike. That gives mobile-home owners time to evacuate to a shelter or a sturdier house nearby.

    Harold Brooks of the National Severe Storms Lab, Thomas W. Schmidlin of Kent State University, and Bruce Savage of the Manufactured Housing Institute.

       Be extremely careful of person who portrays themselves
              as a local home repair company!!!

   In the wake of a violent storm can attract out-of-state storm chasers, who try to carve out a chunk of the home-repair market by masquerading as trusted local contractors. They try to carve out a chunk of the lucrative home-repair market by masquerading as trusted local contractors.

   These out-of-state storm chasers pay local roofing and construction companies’ big bucks to lease the local firms' good names, reputations and phone lines so they can pose as a home-grown business. Their normal mode of operation is to grab a company's name, import their own out-of-state work crews, hit up homeowners for repairs to be paid for by home-insurance policies and blew back out of town.

   Some local construction company owners have raised an alarm about the secretive deals that allow storm chasers to cloak themselves in another business' reputation so completely that, under some agreements, these outside companies advertise under that name and even answer the local business' phones.

   The local companies solicited tend to have excellent ratings with the Better Business Bureau or Angie's List, exactly the thing consumers look for when they hire contractors. Sometime business owners have been offered at least $100,000 to allow a storm-chasing company to exclusively use their business names for six months. But these deals could ultimately harm the very local businesses it targets, leave local construction crews idle and stick homeowners with little recourse if work turns out to be shoddy. Because Ohio doesn't have home repair contractor licensing, there's no real way to see how widespread the practice is, or to police it.

   One companys’ ownergot a call from a salesman stated "a chance to make some big bucks . . .you don't even have to do the work." The storm chaser wanted to do insurance-funded work in Northeast Ohio under his business name and, in return,  give him an 8 percent cut, which he was told would amount to between $100,000 and $200,000. Others have turned down similar pitches from storm chasers.  The contract, a fairly vague document, would require the parties to keep the agreement's existence secret.

   The salesman stated he planned to import Mexican crews to do the work, handle all phone calls and contracts and collect the insurance payments. Homeowners would be left with a two-year warranty, with the local company covering the warranty in the second year. In a case like this, "There's no recourse for the homeowner."

Cost of shoddy repairs falls to the home owner:  So if a homeowner gets a shoddy roofing job and has to replace it a few years later, the cost of those repairs would fall on the consumer. The "rent-a-name" tactic is not new. This has happened before. A company whose reputation was sterling is now out of business. Another, saw its complaint rise to double digits.

   Local companies get bonded, they register with communities that require it, they pay workers' comp and pay the going wage to employees -- all of which makes it hard to compete on price with companies that cut costs in all those areas.

   Homeowners dazzled by salesmen's promises of a "free" roof after a disaster may not question the necessity or quality of the job -- especially if a slick sales job includes promises of enough cash back to cover their insurance policy's deductible. What they may not realize is that unnecessary claims can change the equation insurers use to calculate risk -- which could drive up insurance rates.  

   Not all storm chasers do poor quality work, local roofers grudgingly admit.  But even if the work is done well, the practice has larger ramifications for the local economy -- both because work crews get little of the available work and because the bulk of the money made on these jobs leaves the state.

Licensing contractors would halt storm chasers:  In some states that license home repair companies and subcontractors, this sort of revolving-door business wouldn't be possible. But in more than a dozen years of attempts, Ohio's legislature has repeatedly failed to pass a law that would license home repair contractors as a way to protect homeowners from contractor fraud.

   Most notably, in 2008, public outcry killed a so-called "homeowner protection" bill that legislators reworked to exempt some contractors from consumer protection laws and make it harder for homeowners to sue over shoddy work. Word is that another home repair licensing bill is in the works.

   Until the legislature creates a meaningful system for ridding the home repair industry of fly-by-night contractors, Ohio consumers and the state's home-grown construction industry are going to continue to be easy pickings.

  This is a brief summary of a Plain Dealer article written by Sheryl Harris May 16, 2010

Ginnie Mae Announces New MBS Program for Manufactured Housing
     June 10, 2010  - Ginnie Mae is pleased to announce its plans for the implementation of a new mortgage-backed security ("MBS") program for manufactured home loans. The program has been created in response to recent changes in the Federal Housing Administration’s ("FHA") Title I Program for manufactured housing, as communicated in Title I Letters TI-481 and TI-484,and in support of the Housing and Economic Recovery Act of 2008 ("HERA"). The program is designed not only to fulfill the needs of borrowers and lenders, but also to provide for prudent risk management. Eligible manufactured housing loans may only be pooled as Ginnie Mae II MBS, using the Manufactured Housing Custom Pool type ("C MH").

    Effective immediately, Ginnie Mae will accept applications for participation as Issuers of MBS backed by new Title I manufactured home loans ("MH MBS"). Issuers that are currently approved to issue manufactured housing securities are required to re-apply in order to participate in the new program. The major change to the program will be that all approved Issuers will be required to maintain a minimum adjusted net worth of $10 million, as calculated in accordance with the HUD Audit Guide, plus 10% of the amount of MH MBS outstanding.

     Ginnie Mae will provide full program guidance no later than September 1, 2010. The new MH MBS program will also feature the following:

• The program applies to pools backed by loan collateral for which the loan application date is June 1, 2009, and thereafter, in order to reflect the effective date of FHA’s newly revised Title I program. Guidance for the new FHA Title I program can be found at the FHA Title I letters page. Loans originated with manufactured home loan application dates made prior to June 1, 2009, are ineligible for pooling within the C MH pool type, and will no longer be eligible for pooling within any Ginnie Mae securities beyond a September 1, 2010, issuance date;

• Issuers must provide to Ginnie Mae, at pooling, an acceptable FHA loan application date, otherwise the loan will be rejected;

• The guarantee fee for MHMBS shall remain at 30 bps; however, the minimum pool origination balance will increase to $1mm;

• Title I loans are ineligible for pooling as multiple issuer pools (MIPs), and for immediate issuance transfer (PIIT) pools; and

• Issuers may only use Concurrent Date ("CD") accounting methods for the C MH pooling type.

If you have any questions regarding this memorandum, please contact your Ginnie Mae Account Executive in the Office of Mortgage-Backed Securities at (202) 708-1535.

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