Delaware’s Department of Justice wants to “put all manufactured home community owners on notice” to charge fair rental rates, per an open letter.
The letter, from the DOJ’s Director of Consumer Protection to owners of manufactured housing communities, said rents can only increase once a year by the Consumer Price Index or by market rent value, but not by both.
The Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers is a measure of inflation in the Philadelphia-Camden-Wilmington region. Market rent value is the price based on demand, phased in over years.
The letter noted that the DOJ ombudsman who oversees Manufactured Housing resident rights received “multiple complaints from residents regarding recent rental increases in manufactured housing communities.”
Joyce O’Neal, president of the Delaware Manufactured Home Owners Association, said manufactured homeowners are in a unique situation that makes them vulnerable. Like apartments, rental payments are involved.
But unlike in apartments, she points out, "This is the largest investment many of us make in our lifetime. We have bought a home. We cannot pick up our home and move and say, 'Oh gee, it's too expensive here.' Our options are limited: we have to sell it at a price that hopefully we can find a new place to live."
As of 2024, around one in 16 households in Delaware was a manufactured home. O’Neal says many are on a fixed income, or are first-time home buyers.
O’Neal didn’t know the DOJ was putting out a letter, but she’s happy it’s acting.
"You're at the mercy of a landowner, and per this letter, you can see landowners... I'd like to say their heart is in the right place and they care for their homeowners," O'Neal said. "But be honest with you, they don't."
The DOJ letter addressed all manufactured housing community owners. Delaware has approximately 170 manufactured housing communities. O’Neal said this accounts for more than 20,000 households, mostly in Sussex County.
O'Neal encourages manufactured homeowners who think that their lot rent bill went up unfairly should check their bill to make sure it’s only based on one economic metric.
The DOJ letter tells community owners that have increased rents more than once in the same year to take corrective action. And failure to do so risks enforcement action from DOJ’s consumer protection arm.
