Articles

The insurance you have for your manufactured home community serves a different purpose than the insurance a resident has on their home. While some manufactured homes may be owned and rented out by the community, and thus covered on the community’s insurance policy, tenant owned homes are only insured on tenant mobile home owners policies. This means that if their homes or belongings are damaged, they could face significant out-of-pocket expenses unless they have mobile home owners insurance. Why Is It Important for Residents to Carry Their Own Insurance at a Manufactured Home Community? Residents' insurance plans can help protect them [...]

Resident background checks are a great tool to help you reduce risk in your manufactured home community and provide valuable information to help you make informed decisions. When conducting background checks and other tenant screening, there are many things to consider, such as how to keep your screening process consistent and what you need to do to stay in compliance with Fair Housing laws and local and state regulations.  Allowing residents with a history of assaulting and attacking others can make you liable for those bad residents’ acts. How Can Resident Background Checks Reduce Risk?  Although background, credit, and rental history [...]

As a manufactured home community owner, you are responsible for maintaining common areas and addressing potential hazards to the community members' and visitors’ safety. Premises injuries, most commonly in the form of slip and fall or trip and fall accidents, come in many forms. For example, broken playground equipment causing a cut, a child falling onto hard ground from playground equipment, or unsecured signage falling on someone and causing a head injury. These injuries can potentially result in large liability claims and cause your insurance rates to increase for years. With proactive maintenance and inspections, many premises injuries are preventable. What [...]

Now that summer is here and your residents are fully utilizing the community pool, keeping up with maintenance is crucial to keeping your residents safe and reducing risks. While a pool can be a wonderful community amenity and a great draw for new tenants, without the proper precautions and maintenance, it can quickly become a huge liability. Pool maintenance at your manufactured home community can help reduce this liability and protect your investment. Pool Maintenance and Reducing Liability Risks There are many accidents that can happen when your pool’s maintenance isn’t kept up to date. You could be held financially liable [...]

Now that summer is here, there are a multitude of events and gatherings you can host at your manufactured home community to boost community engagement and improve tenant satisfaction. Residents who feel connected to their community are more likely to renew leases and refer the community to their friends and family. Strong community engagement fosters better communication with residents. With kids out of school and the warmer weather, summer is a perfect time for these summer event ideas for improving community engagement and retention. Why Community Events are Important for Resident Engagement and Retention Community events like these can create a [...]

Flooding can damage buildings, park infrastructure, disrupt operations, and damage tenant owned homes. Flooding caused by ditches or drainage pipes plugged with old debris can cause liability issues for you as the community owner. While not every single situation can be prevented, proactive maintenance and planning can help reduce severity and mitigate risks of flooding at manufactured home communities. Why Flooding at Manufactured Home Communities is a Major Concern  Liability Issues  Flooding can create many hazards that can turn into legal disputes and insurance claims. Standing water can make sidewalks slick and increase the chances of a slip and fall accident. [...]

While landscaping maintenance improves your community's curb appeal and appearance, it also plays a big role in liability and safety. When trees, bushes, and vegetation are not properly maintained, it can create hazards that lead to injuries and property damage that you could be held liable for. Taking proactive steps and keeping up with your manufactured home community landscaping can help you lower your liability and protect your community and residents. Why Manufactured Home Community Landscaping is Important  Neglected vegetation and landscaping can quickly turn into lawsuits and insurance claims. If a resident or visitor is injured on your property due [...]

March is the beginning of the heavy storm season in much of the country.  Around 70% of all tornadoes and hailstorms in the United States happen between March and June. In the interior United States, May is the most destructive month for storm damage. With the storm season starting, now is the ideal time to confirm you have the insurance coverage you need to protect your property and business. What Your Policy Covers: Insured Property   To determine what you have insured, review your insurance policy. It will generally list every building or improvement that is insured. If you know you have [...]

Minor maintenance issues can become big liability risks when improper drainage isn’t addressed. These might just seem like small aesthetic problems, but after a big storm, they can lead to insurance claims. Understanding how manufactured home community drainage issues impact your liability as a community owner is essential to protecting your community and your property. What are Common Drainage Issues at Manufactured Home Communities?  Blocked Drains and drainage ditches: Leaves, trash, sediment, and other debris can build up in your drains and drainage ditches. This can reduce and redirect the water flow, causing it to back up into streets, walkways, and [...]

Signage is a vital tool for manufactured home community owners, providing safety and effective communication. Clear signage can help protect your community from liability and help reduce risk. As a community owner, you will need various signs for your community. The manufactured home community signage could be the difference between dealing with a lawsuit and being found not liable. Manufactured Home Community Signage You Need Entrance Signs The entrance sign isn’t only a way to market your community to new residents, but also allows first responders to quickly identify the property in case of an emergency. The entrance signage should include [...]