Guide to Finding the Right Legal Services for You

There are numerous marina and manufactured dwelling park owner/landlord attorneys out there – there is plenty of money to be made representing that side.  With 1,000 park owners and approximately 35 marina owners doing everything they can to protect their business interests and also, considering that most of the 60,000 manufactured home park residents are low-income or elderly, living in retirement communities, it’s no surprise that there aren’t many lawyers serving the tenant side.

While we cannot offer legal advice of any kind on this site, we offer common sense advice for manufactured and floating home owners.
  1. Try to avoid a Termination Notice or an Eviction Hearing in court.
  2. If you are having problems with your landlord, try to work it out – court can be costly.
  3. If you have an issue, resolve it quickly – the statute of limitations on all of the floating home landlord-tenants laws is 1 year.  So, know your rights before you encounter a problem.  Often, when a manufactured or floating home owner’s rights are violated, it’s well over a year before they learn about their rights and the specific law that the park marina owner violated.  By then, it is typically too late to make a claim, but ask your attorney’s advice given your set of specific circumstances.
  4. Join OSTA so that you know and understand your rights before you encounter a problem.
  5. When seeking legal advice, choose an attorney who is REALLY familiar with ORS 90.505 – 90.830 from the tenant side.  And before you give that attorney any information about who you are, ask them if they (or anyone in their firm) has ever represented your landlord/marina owner.  This niche area of law is small – you’d surprised how many of these attorneys already represent the very people you might be considering litigating against.  And, because of the small pool of expert lawyers in this area, it may be necessary for you to leave Portland to find a good attorney who knows these laws.

When the Issue Gets Too Big to Handle by Yourself

Sometimes, the issue is too big, the timeline is too short, or you need to call in the reserves. Legal services can often provide you with the negotiation support you need to get through a logjam with your landlord.

Legal help can be expensive, but a landlord violating your rights can also be costly, sometimes, more costly than if you had hired a qualified attorney.

 There are also low-cost legal services available to low-income tenants that qualify.

Options for Initiating Legal Services

Even if you are unsure whether you need to speak with a lawyer, it can be helpful to initiate a call to one of the options below.  Many of the options below can help you figure out what kind of assistance you may need and give you more information about other government and community service programs that may be able to assist you.

It is always a good idea to use our website Search Tool to learn as much as you can about your issue prior to calling an attorney.

Where justice is denied, where poverty is enforced, where ignorance prevails, and where any one class is made to feel that society is an organized conspiracy to oppress, rob and degrade them, neither persons nor property will be safe.

Frederick Douglass, Abolitionist

We win justice quickest by rendering justice to the other party.

Mahatma Gandhi, Activist and Peaceful Protestor

Why has government been instituted at all? Because the passions of man will not conform to the dictates of reason and justice without constraint.

Alexander Hamilton, American Founding Father and Lawyer

Do you work in legal services and would like to get involved with OSTA?

Let us know.