(Pictured left to right, Councillor Jason Alderson, Mayor Tammy Burke, Councillor Randy Brown and Councillor Dave Auld) Public meeting with town council to discuss the recent proposed manufactured homes porperty tax transfer bylaw.

By Adam Ophus

Property Taxes

Mobile home park tax transfer bylaw postponed

Dec 5, 2019 | 9:10 AM

On Tuesday, Rocky Town Council postponed the proposed Manufactured Homes Property Tax Transfer bylaw for six months, while they attempt to work with park owners.

If implemented, the bylaw would have put full onus on the owner of a manufactured home community (MHC) who is the landholder, to pay the property taxes for all designated manufactured home (DMH) owners and in turn, charge each tenant the owed amount.

One of the reasons behind the proposed bylaw was because when those homes are sold, a tax search is not triggered since there is no exchange of land, so new owners can become burdened with years of unpaid property taxes without their knowledge.

A delegation, led by local resident Maureen Janke, who spoke on behalf of DMH owners, attended Tuesday’s council meeting to voice their concerns.

“Our mobile home communities largely consist of lower income families, seniors, young adults just starting out and homes like myself with just one income,” Janke said, mentioning she felt that with the town’s high tax rate, this was the only option for some to have home ownership.

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Janke mentioned on multiple occasions that she felt as though since they were lower tax paying citizens, they were being overlooked.

Mayor Tammy Burke later responded that it was not their intention, and they never meant to cause such angst.

“There are no stipulation, restrictions or guidelines outlined for the landlords in determining what the increases will be,” Janke had referenced to possibilities of added costs, such as an administration fee to the tenants.

Another issue, Janke says, was the lack of communication, stating that only the MHC landholders were initially informed, and that no tenants would have known if not for word of mouth between residents.

Out of 195 homes in Rocky’s five mobile home parks, nearly one-third are behind on their taxes, according to CAO Dean Krause.

The town had spoken to the MHC landowners about doing a 6-month trial period of cooperation, with hopes that no changes will have to be made, and that the owners will more closely follow the current rules of informing tenants and the town of all changes.

Council discussed what other options could be done if after the six months things went back to the way they were.

They considered changing the rules so that new home buyers would have to do a tax search.

Another option the council discussed was a mandatory tax installment plan that would force tenants to pay their taxes on a monthly basis.

Currently on an annual property tax payment, a resident would have to miss two years’ worth before the town can step in, the goal for a monthly plan would be to catch non tax payers before it goes too far.

Council chose to postpone the proposed bylaw for six months in the hopes that manufactured home community landowners more closely comply with the rules and guidelines.