(1) The owner of a mobile home park, or the agent of such owner, shall neither pay to nor receive from an owner or a seller of a mobile home an entry fee of any type as a condition of tenancy in a mobile home park.
(2) As used in this section, "entry fee" means any fee paid to or received from an owner of a mobile home park or his agent except for:
(a) Rent;
(b) A security deposit against actual damages to the premises or to secure rental payments, which deposit shall not be greater than the amount allowed under this part 2. Subsequent to July 1, 1979, security deposits will remain the property of the home owner, and they shall be deposited into a separate trust account by the landlord to be administered by the landlord as a private trustee. For the purpose of preserving the corpus, the landlord will not commingle the trust funds with other money, but he is permitted to keep the interest and profits thereon as his compensation for administering the trust account.
(c) Fees charged by any state, county, town, or city governmental agency;
(d) Utilities;
(e) Incidental reasonable charges for services actually performed by the mobile home park owner or his agent and agreed to in writing by the home owner.
(3) The trial judge may award court costs and attorney fees in any court action brought pursuant to any provision of this part 2 to the prevailing party upon finding that the prevailing party undertook the court action and legal representation for a legally sufficient reason and not for a dilatory or unfounded cause.
(4) The management or the resident may bring a civil action for violation of the rental agreement or any provision of this part 2 in the appropriate court of the county in which the park is located. Either party may recover actual damages or, the court may in its discretion award such equitable relief as it deems necessary, including the enjoining of either party from further violations.
ANNOTATIONS, INCLUDING SOURCES AND COURT CASES RELATED TO THIS SECTION
Source: L. 87: (2)(b) and (2)(e) amended, p. 1313, 9, effective May 8.