Mobilehome Residency Law Protection Act.

Existing law, the Mobilehome Residency Law Protection Act, establishes the Mobilehome Residency Law Protection Program within the Department of Housing and Community Development to assist in taking and resolving complaints from homeowners relating to the Mobilehome Residency Law. Existing law requires the department to refer any alleged violations of law or regulations within the department's jurisdiction to the Division of Codes and Standards. Existing law requires the department to use good faith efforts to select the most severe, deleterious, and materially and economically impactful alleged violations, as specified. This bill would delete the requirement that the department select the most severe, deleterious, and materially and economically impactful alleged violations. Existing law requires the department to contract with one or more qualified and experienced nonprofit legal services providers and refer complaints selected for evaluation, as described, to those nonprofit legal services providers for possible enforcement action. If the department selects a complaint for referral to and evaluation by a nonprofit legal services provider, existing law requires the department to send a notice to the complaining party and the management or mobilehome park owner. Existing law requires that notice to advise the parties that they are required to negotiate the matter in good faith to resolve the matter in 25 days. If after 25 days either party responds to a department inquiry that the matter is not resolved, existing law authorizes the department to refer the complaint to an appropriate enforcement agency or a nonprofit legal services provider. This bill would remove the requirement that the department send the above-described notice and the requirement that the parties negotiate the matter in good faith to resolve the matter in 25 days. Existing law required the department, on January 1, 2023, to submit a written report to the Legislature outlining data collected from the program and to make that report available on its internet website, that included, among other things, the amount of registration fees collected, the total number of complaint allegations received, the total number of complaint allegations processed, and the total number of complaint allegations referred to another enforcement agency or to a nonprofit legal services provider. This bill would instead require the above-described information to be included in the department's annual report, as specified. Under existing law, the Mobilehome Residency Law Protection Act is repealed on January 1, 2024. This bill would extend the above-described January 1, 2024, repeal date to January 1, 2027. Existing law, the Administrative Procedure Act, sets forth procedures a state agency is required to follow when adopting, amending, or repealing any regulation, including providing public notice and time for public comment, with exceptions for emergency regulations in the case of a situation that calls for immediate action to avoid serious harm to the public peace, health, safety, or general welfare. This bill would authorize the department to adopt regulations as necessary or appropriate to implement the Mobilehome Residency Law Protection Program. This bill, until January 1, 2027, would deem the adoption and readoption of regulations to be an emergency and necessary for the immediate preservation of the public peace, health and safety, or general welfare for purposes of the Administrative Procedure Act and would exempt the department from the requirement that it describe facts showing the need for immediate action. This bill would require the department, before submitting an emergency regulation to the Office of Administrative Law, to solicit and consider stakeholder comments in the design and implementation of the program in at least one 30-day public comment period and provide responses in writing to substantive written comments received during the comment period.