Defining Lot Space in a MHP

[Cindy McHugh]

I bought a 56-lot park in March. It was bank-owned and in poor condition. We've done some evictions and are working to turn the place around. We're at the point of moving in new homes and an issue has come up regarding the lot space allocated to each resident. The spaces are fairly small: 56 lots on 7.23 acres.

Most of the residents have been there for quite a while and have worked it out themselves. For the most part, they use the space from their front door up to the back side of the next trailer. Some have steps off the back door that go into the front yard of the next home, but this hasn't been a problem, since everyone appears to use their front door. This seems to be working, but I have some concerns with making it the "formal" policy. My biggest concern is lawn maintenance. If the person next to you has use of the space up to the back of your home, he is also responsible for maintaining the yard and I'm afraid that weedeating could damage his neighbor's skirting. For this reason, I thought maybe we should make the lots end midway between the homes, but this really cuts the "useable" part of the yard down, since it's divided on each side of the trailer. So I was thinking of making it within 4' of the back of the home on the adjoining lot. Any ideas?

There's one exception already in place, where the person is using the yard on the back side of her home. So the person on the next yard is using the back side of his home. The next lot is empty. We're planning to move a home onto the empty lot, so we need to address the issue and I'm curious how others parks define each resident's lot.