Colleen and Don Fenrich have more time to enjoy travel to places near their new home now that they don't have so many home maintenance chores. Don snapped these photos on a recent trip to the Anza Borrego Desert, about an hour and a half from their Sun Meadows home.
Don and I are proud to belong to a large and happy group of first time buyers who are pleased with their manufactured homes and communities. In fact a recent national survey says nearly 90% of all owners are satisfied with manufactured home living. That’s an impressive endorsement! But what if we do have a problem - with either our home or our rental park? What can we do about it? Where can we go for help?
We discovered the first and best course of action is to apply for service and warranty work through our retailer. It’s really a simple process - all we have to do is identify the specific problem in writing along with the serial number of our home and the date we purchased it. Since all requests for service MUST be in writing, we keep a copy of the written request for follow up.
Fortunately our community provides a Service Coordinator who handles all requests for repair. When the Service Coordinator receives a written request for repair it is forwarded to either the manufacturer or supplier for action. For example, after about two months in our new home, a bedroom door began to stick and didn’t close properly. We prepared a written repair request, walked it up to the Club House and gave it to the Service Coordinator whose office is located there.
Within a week, the door was fixed to our satisfaction. Soon after the repair was made we received a call from the Service Coordinator asking if everything was okay and did we have any other requests for service. We received excellent service, but if for any reason our request for service through the retailer had not been successful, we could have contacted the manufacturer directly. It doesn’t matter if a service request is made to the retailer or the manufacturer, it must be in writing.
The manufacturer’s warranty is an important benefit. It is a written commitment to us as manufactured home owners that describes the use of the warranty and how to get service when we need it. Basically the warranty is a promise from the home’s manufacturer stating that the home is free from substantial defects in materials and workmanship. This includes factory induced failure of structural, mechanical, electrical, plumbing or weather-resistance systems of our home.
I strongly suggest that every new owner read their warranty carefully to find out what is covered and what is not covered for repair or replacement. The warranty period for us began on the date of delivery to our home site and will continue for one year from that date. All new manufactured home owners should remember that their warranty only applies to defects that become evident during the warranty period and when written notice is provided to either the retailer or manufacturer.
There are also separate warranties covering many of the individual items contained in our new home, such as appliances, fireplaces, furnaces, whirlpool tubs, water heaters and window treatments. We received literature on each of these items, reviewed the information and then mailed in Warranty Registration Cards to the various companies who supplied these extended warranties.
Although Don and I haven’t experienced any problems in this area, one of our neighbors did have some trouble with the kitchen stove. Since large appliances that come with the home are covered with their own warranty, the written request for repair was honored quickly by the supplier. Frankly, I haven’t heard any neighbors complain that they didn’t receive timely and satisfactory service when they put the request in writing within their warranty period.
It’s comforting to know that major problems with our home itself are protected with warranties. Another area of comfort for us is belonging to the Golden State Manufactured Home Owners League. GSMOL is a statewide, non-profit organization of over 80,000 California manufactured home owners. Its purpose is to protect and preserve the interest of manufactured home owners with assistance in local issues and legislative action that could impact the investment in our home.
We attended one of the monthly meetings of GSMOL right here in our own Club House and joined that same evening for a $20.00 annual fee. This group is the oldest organization in the country advocating the rights of mobile home owners. The active advocacy of GSMOL resulted in the Mobile Home Residency Law in 1969. Basically the law is a body of statutes in California that protects the rights of seniors and other people who have chosen mobile home living.
It’s interesting to note that the California Mobile Home Residency law has served as a model for other state legislation to protect the rights of manufactured home owners. Many states have now adopted similar legislation and organized state manufactured home owner associations of their own. A list of these state associations, along with their addresses and phone numbers can be found on the website of The Manufactured Home Owners Network. Just click on Associations for an up to date list. Additional information is available from the Manufactured Home Owners Association of America, Inc.
These state manufactured home owner associations are not affiliated with or subsidized by any mobile home manufacturer, dealer or park industry association. They depend on state, zone, regional volunteers and chapter leaders who hold monthly meetings in their parks to discuss new laws that are being considered that could impact manufactured home owners. State association meetings also advise and assist individual members with problems they may encounter with respect to their homes or their rights of tenancy in manufactured home parks.
It doesn’t cost very much in time or money to participate in a grassroots, volunteer manufactured home owners association. We look forward to attending the monthly meetings to learn more about our rights as homeowners and our park’s management responsibilities.
All in all, Don and I are delighted to take advantage of the exceptional value that our manufactured home offers. Although the manufacturer works hard to make sure that the design, the construction, and the comfort of our home meets our expectations, problems can and do pop up from time to time. When that happens it’s nice to know we’re not alone in getting the problem resolved.
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