DOVER, Del. (AP) — The state House has rejected a bill requiring mobile home park owners in Delaware to justify raising rents on homeowners beyond a certain level.
The measure was easily defeated Tuesday after narrowly winning Senate passage last month.
Under the bill, a park owner wanting to raise lot rents more than the Consumer Price Index for urban consumers would have had to seek approval of the Governor's Advisory Council on Manufactured Housing.
Opponents argued that the bill amounts to government rent control and will result in fewer mobile home parks.
Supporters, who spoke to disappointed mobile home tenants after the vote, said the bill was designed to protect tenants, many of them senior citizens, from exorbitant rent increases. They plan to push the issue again next year.
