Mobile Home Park - Relacing Mobile Home Obstacles

[Curtis Mericle]

Hello everyone, My real estate partner and I are looking to purchase our first mobile home park. We were told by the city zoning ordinances once a mobile home is removed from the pad, whether the tenant moves and takes the home with them, or it's destroyed by a natural disaster, we cannot replace the pad with another mobile home. I have asked the city multiple times for the zoning documents and I have not received the information yet. I've read a lot of material from the state of Illinois on how a park could be grandfathered in, but have not found out anything conclusive in my area. Our next move is to talk with our lawyer and see if there is any way around this. Has anyone encountered this similar scenario? Thank you in advance. Curtis Mericle

[George Skidis]

We run a small park in South West Illinois.

Outside of the city limits parks with 5 or more homes are licensed by the State of Illinois Department of Public Health.

Inside City limits the cities can make their own rules. Most cities don't like mobile homes because they "allegedly" have more police incidents. It appears to be legal discrimination against poor families.

The other problem you will have is finding replacement homes. Those cities have chased the mobile home sales dealerships out of town. You may need to go one or two counties to find a home for your park. What that means is that no one is shopping for a mobile home in your area so they will not be showing up to rent your lots. You will end up owning the homes like we do.

Your best best is retaining a lawyer and having them submit a FOI request to get the specific laws.

Need an attorney send me a PM and I will get you connected to someone.