Mobile home legislation in Arizona is converging on issues residents say affect everyday household costs and tenant protections, with lawmakers weighing bills that target utility charges, administrative fees and the treatment of homes after eviction.
The efforts build on a prior change to state law in 2024, which a coalition of groups helped make illegal what they described as park owners restricting which air conditioners or cooling devices residents could use on their mobile homes. As the new legislative session proceeds, Arizona Association of Manufactured Home Owners President Kath Noble said her group and partners spent months deciding which bills to introduce and how to structure them, holding eight listening sessions that included residents, utility companies and Wildfire AZ.
Noble said the coalition drafted one bill aimed at requiring more education for park managers, and it worked with Wildfire AZ to draft two utility-related bills intended to prevent park owners from charging residents more than the residents pay for gas, electricity and water. According to the Associated Press report, the initiative also sought additional enforcement mechanisms, and stakeholders spent time navigating the Arizona Legislature, where Noble said sponsor selection can determine whether legislation survives committee review.
The group’s bill priorities include a proposal now called SB1805. The Associated Press report describes SB1805 as a “striker,” meaning it began under a different bill number, HB2459, before its contents were moved into SB1805 when the earlier bill did not gain traction. If enacted as described, SB1805 would change how landlords can charge for gas, water or electricity utilities by limiting landlords to recovering charges imposed by the utility provider and by capping administrative fees at $8.
The report also says that the Manufactured Housing Communities of Arizona, which represents park owners, was named as an opponent of SB1805, and that the group did not respond to a request for comment. Noble said she is hopeful about the bill because she believes it would help people who she said may not realize they are paying more than they should for utilities.
Beyond SB1805, the bill list described in the Associated Press story includes measures that would address manager training, tenant utility overcharge complaints and court involvement. HB2199 would require park managers to complete at least four hours of education within six months of starting the job, provide proof of completion, and complete training again every two years; tenants could file a formal complaint with the Arizona Department of Housing if the manager cannot produce proof. HB2852 would create a process for tenants to raise concerns about utility overcharges by requiring written notice to a landlord; if the dispute is not resolved within 30 days, tenants could file a civil complaint, and the attorney general could investigate situations where landlords may be charging above the regular single-family residential charge.
Other bills described by the report also target broader landlord-tenant issues in manufactured housing. HB2850 would clarify when a mobile home is abandoned, including conditions tied to whether a tenant is away for at least 30 days without telling the landlord, whether rent has not been paid for at least 30 days, whether there is reasonable evidence someone lives in the home a week after an eviction notice is delivered, and whether the home remains on the premises after an eviction judgment; the report says landlords could not attempt to sell the home until it meets the abandonment criteria described in the bill. The report says HB2713 would make a landlord violation of the Mobile Home Landlord Tenant Act an instance of consumer fraud, while HB2300 would require changes to rental agreements, including additional contact and disclosure provisions and steps such as four-day notices of non-payment of rent, with a pause if a tenant can pay at least 50% of past-due rent within the notice period.
The Associated Press report also lists SB1558 as a bill that would require tenants’ bills to specify total utility usage, the total utility charges landlords must pay per billing period, any administrative fee and contact information for billing inquiries, along with the same written-notice and 30-day dispute pathway described for HB2852. It also lists SB1393, which would amend details on the abandonment of a mobile home, including a requirement that the home be examined before being removed to ensure no one is living there and that there are no human or animal remains.
As the session continues, the number of bills moving forward remains limited so far, the report said, with several measures introduced but fewer advancing out of their originating chambers. Noble’s statements to the Associated Press underscored how the coalition is trying to translate listening-session input into bills that could survive legislative process—while also focusing on enforcement and on mechanisms she said would reduce utility markups and improve resident protections.