Over the past year, RVtravel.com has published several articles pertaining to disputes between RV park owners/operators and tenants. One was the legal battle between City of San Rafael v. Chessen (now owned by Harmony Communities), and another, a class-action lawsuit, Mary Gilbert v. Rising River Resort LLC.
While these previously reported lawsuits were working their way through the courts, another one, a Washington state case, began to unfold under the radar because it did not get to the federal court level. It did, however, result in a “cease and desist” action by the Attorney General of Washington, Bob Ferguson, along with another lawsuit, State of Washington v. Beacon Charters and RV Park, LLC.
The Beacon RV Park in Ilwaco, WA, is a badly run-down RV and mobile home park in southwest Washington state, on Baker Bay, just north of Cape Disappointment.
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Beacon Charters and RV Park ordered to cease and desist after violating tenants’ rights
On July 22, 2022, Washington Attorney General Bob Ferguson issued a Cease and Desist Order to Beacon Charters and RV Park, LLC.
The Order was issued after an investigation by the Washington State Manufactured Housing Dispute Resolution Program (MHDRP), which is a program within the Attorney General’s Office that resolves disputes between manufactured housing landlords and tenants. The MHDRP also covers Recreational Vehicles and Park Models, encompassing both manufactured homes and recreational vehicles used for residential purposes. It aims to resolve disputes between RV park owners and residents, including issues related to rent increases and evictions, with a regulatory framework with the ability to influence legal proceedings and negotiations over lawsuits against RV parks over rent increases.
Unlawful notice to vacate and termination of utilities
The Program received complaints from tenants of Beacon Charters and RV Park in March and April 2022, alleging that the landlord had violated the Manufactured/Mobile Home Landlord-Tenant Act (MHLTA) by issuing a notice to vacate on February 25, 2022, and by giving notice that utilities would be shut off on April 12, 2022.
The MHLTA prohibits landlords from evicting tenants without good cause and from shutting off utilities without providing tenants with at least ten days’ notice. Beacon Charters and RV Park’s actions, in this case, violated both provisions of the MHLTA, according to the Office of the Attorney General.
The Cease-and-Desist Order requires Beacon Charters and RV Park to:
- Cease and desist from issuing any further notices to vacate to the tenants who filed the complaint.
- Pay the tenants $1,000 in damages for each violation of the MHLTA.
- Pay the Attorney General’s Office $1,000 for the cost of investigating the complaint.
Beacon Charters and RV Park did not appeal the Order, so it became a final order of the Attorney General and is not subject to review by any court or agency.
In addition to the Cease-and-Desist Order, on August 2, 2022, the Attorney General’s Office also filed a lawsuit against Beacon Charters and RV Park in Pacific County Superior Court. The lawsuit seeks to enforce the Order and recover additional damages for the tenants.
The lawsuit is still pending, but the Cease-and-Desist Order has already had a significant impact on Beacon Charters and RV Park. The park has been unable to evict the tenants who filed the complaint, and it has been forced to pay them $1,000 each in damages. The park has also been forced to pay the Attorney General’s Office $1,000 for the cost of investigating the complaint.
The Cease-and-Desist Order is a significant victory for the tenants who filed the complaint and for all manufactured housing tenants in Washington state. The Order sends a clear message that landlords cannot violate the MHLTA without facing consequences.
The future of Beacon Charters and RV Park is uncertain. The park is still facing a lawsuit from the state of Washington, and it is presently unclear whether the park will be able to continue operating.
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It is not the governments fault that the RV industry is producing “park models” & here in Florida a LOT of Rv parks are at least 2/3 “park models” and 1/3 either transient or seasonal. A major problem in housing is minimum acceptable square footage. Here in Highlands County, county regulations changed to make 1200 sq feet the minimum acceptable size for stix and brix. Prior to then no footage requirements existed.The lakefront cabin was 2 bed 1 bath 850 sqft. If you don’t need the extra space why should you be required to purchase, clean, heat and a/c it?? Poppa got around it by enclosing the screen porch to make the house acceptable if we needed to ever sell it. Now at 1200 sq ft exactly
That change occurred in 1994
How many years during the rent moratorium did they not pay rent? Landlords all over are selling. Can’t move your own crap? Hand out for more! The demands with nothing but poor me BS. Good luck finding any place that will rent to you deadbeats feeding off taxpayers.. Your lack of planning…
Bob Ferguson, thank you for taking this matter in hand. Please get a percentage rent cap established for the state. Doubling rent on low income people is causing more homelessness!
I recently sold my home and bought home in park. When I went in to office to sign papers i was informed space rent was doubling Sept 1. Over 55 Park. Trying to figure out how to pay space rent more than income. Any ideas?
Quick question ❓ Where these seasonal sites? Cause it seems to me that it is a trailer park not an RV campground.
The images published in the AG’s report suggest that these RVs were set up as long-term dwellings, with skirting, porches, etc.
I must admit that I don’t know the facts or situation about this specific situation here but am surprised so many are dumping on the tenants here and speaking up for the ownership group. I may be wrong but I am making a wild guess and assuming most of the tenants have been there for years and not on a nightly basis as some are stating here. Over the last several years large real estate companies have been buying up properties, apts, and places such as these then put a token management team in place to hide the true owners. The token managing team then starts a massive eviction operation and or huge rental increase pricing them out of their spot. So basically evicting them. Not all are in rvs so not only do the have to move they can’t afford to have their manufactured home moved so they lose that as well. Just so share holders can make profits on the land even though they know the problems being caused to these tenants. I’m thinking that is what is happening here. Many of these people are on are on fixed income and these places are their final places to live out the rest of their time and who can blame them for fighting to stay. I can see both sides of the story here but my gut says I have more understanding for real people with their real lives and real circumstances over well off people just trying to profit just for profits sake. It’s because of the methods of these companies that not only are these people struggling to get by but it is making it harder and harder for everyone else to live in all other housing areas with properties bought up as they over bid and then over charge on the flip side driving costs up for all. Just saying. Have a good day.
Profit for profits sake?? Do you work for free?? Or do you have legitimate reasons to earn money?? Just like everyone else. Maybe you should provide some space for these poor unfortunate souls instead of criticizing other people for not doing it…
You sir, as are a lot of others commenting here, are assuming facts not in evidence. How do you know the owners are well off? How do you know the tenants are on a fixed income and just trying to get by? could it be the tenants are not abiding by their rental agreement…maybe not paying rent or utilities? You don’t really know do you!
Its quite clear to me after reading everything that the park was sold and the new owners wanted to clean the place up but they were not able to get rid of the people that were staying there. Im not sure of what rights they had to evict people that were already there when they bought it, but quite clearly they didnt go about it the way they should have. Legally. Probably because the legal way for landlords to do anything is usually expensive and always takes too long. Landlord tenent laws are not fair to the landlord. There is nothing equal about them. I know a few different people that own quite a few properties and rent them out and actually make a really great income from it. They have done this for a long time and they have the money to take care of the tenent that refuses to leave or trashes the place or takes them to court. But if you are like me and need to rent out your place so that you can make the mortage payment because you need to move to another town. And you end up with a bad tenent that doesnt pay or want to leave. Then you are screwed. You will have to take them to court and during all of this no money eill be coming in for the mortage or for the costs of taking them to court and if you didnt have a property manager taking care of your place you will also need to be there to go to court. Needless to say i lost my house to forscloser. That is when i found out how messed up the laws are for landlords. Im no longer a home owner i rent the house im in. I also pay my rent and bills. I have respect for landlords because i know first hand what they have to deal with.
The company that bought becon charters and RV is call RV in style resorts and they are crooked company and the way they do business is not right at all!!! They think they can push tenants and employees around
The galloping growth of big government is constantly expanding into and redefining areas of jurisdiction. A campground should be just that – a campground in which there are TEMPORARY occupants with varying lengths of stay. To label these temporary occupants as residential tenants is just another one of those political power grabs.
This article leaves me with more questions than answers. Why was the RV park trying to evict people? Were these tenants violating rules, not paying their bills, causing problems? How much notice were they actually given? Why is shutting off utilities illegal (I assume they’d only do that for not paying bills)? As I start volunteering and researching homeless issues and vehicle residency issues, I’m learning that I need more facts to fully understand each situation.
I am currently facing a non renewable lease due to a inconclusive background check ran on me and partner three months after living here. We have passed Sec 8 housing authority and have a two bedroom voucher but no funds to fill it. We have paid our lot rent of 600 each month on time and In full. We have no criminal activity at all. We didn’t get a eviction notice. Only told that because of the inability of someone else to run background check we are getting kicked out on the 1 of September. We pay from the fifth to fifth. Also it was sent as a email. They claimed we were a liability and that it puts the park at risk. Since we have been here for three months we have had a man who was arrested for child {bleeped} crimes and a man who was arrested for pulling a gun and domestic and violating a protection order.
I need help really bad at this point because we pay our rent and keep our yard clean. They have no reason to kick us out do they if they can’t run a background check?
The state of Washington requires a state seal on park models and charges a fee for it. So now the Attorney General redefines what a park model is and changes the definition. So instead of enforcing law and regulations, he’s making laws and regulation.
Thanks, Randall.
Looks like the park was sold over a year ago, the new owners wanted to fix it up to build an rv resort, but they can’t get rid of the current tenants. Maybe the state should buy it for low cost housing.
While I agree that a few more details would be nice and that there was way more than ten days notice, the pictures clearly show the condition of this park. Not one I would stay in. More telling is that the owners of the park decided not to try to overturn the order. If they were following the law in all respects one would think they would have put up some kind of objection.
Why? They wouldnt win.
I’d love to do some sort of RV Airbnb type thing on my property for $20-40/night for people passing through the area. Just a safe, quiet place to park for the night.
No way in heck am I putting myself into that position in this state though. “Landlords” have zero rights, and incur all the costs of trying to remove someone that violates the agreement.
You can thank the states that allow this silliness for less places to stay, and higher costs where you can.
And just to concrete this thought process…this RV park is trying to evict people (assumedly to clean up the place) and the state stops them. This place DOESN’T clean up, and the city sues them for not doing so. https://www.king5.com/amp/article/news/local/kent/city-of-kent-lawsuit-phoenix-court-apartments-public-nuisance/281-90b7927b-d335-405e-a22d-738578e8277f
Once again, this seems to ba a somewhat slanted article by omission of facts surrounding the background of why the eviction notices. “…badly run-down RV and mobile home park …” Perhaps the “park” owners are trying to clean it up. Also note 25 Jan to 12 Apr is more than the requisite 10 days notice to shut down utilities. There HAS to be more to the story.
Totally agree, a lot of missing information to the article.
There is a lot to this article, but no missing information. That’s why I posted a link to the Attorney General’s Office filing. I’ll post it again here for your further edification concerning the details.
The Order filed by Washington State Assistant Attorney General Sebastian Miller is 19 pages long–far exceeding the space constraints in RVtravel.
Can I get one of those “park model” RV’s. I will quit working, sell our Tiffin 40 QSH DP, and get free housing and utilities.
Plus a thousand bucks!!! How long before the government requires the park to feed and clothe them. And then provide internet with game consoles.
The galloping growth of big government is constantly expanding into and redefining areas of jurisdiction. A campground should be just that – a campground in which there are TEMPORARY occupants with varying lengths of stay. To label these temporary occupants as residential tenants is just another one of those political power grabs. The face of both the nation and ‘camping’ are changing – not always for the good i fear.
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