An opinion was requested of the California Attorney General on whether mobilehome park management may rent mobilehomes in their park if they have enacted rules prohibiting owners of units in the park from renting or subleasing their mobilehomes to others.
The Attorney General concluded mobilehome park management may not rent a mobilehome if they previously established rules prohibiting mobilehome owners from renting their mobilehomes unless:
- the park management only rents the mobilehome to park employees; and
- renting the mobilehome to employees is necessary to fulfill their management responsibilities. [Ops.Cal.Atty.Gen (July 26, 2013)]
Editor’s note — The relationship between mobilehome park management and mobilehome owners is not a typical landlord/tenant relationship.
Although mobilehome owners are tenants of the park, they own the unit in which they live — the mobilehome. Thus, when mobilehome owners lease their mobilehomes, they also sublease the lot owned by park management. This subleasing is sometimes prohibited by mobilehome park management as the absence of any contract between park management and a sublessee makes park rules and regulations difficult to enforce.
