COEUR d’ALENE — Kiki Miller hopes a change in how mobile home owners are notified of a sale of their park gains legislative support.

“It’s really quite simple and straightforward,” the Coeur d’Alene City Councilwoman said Friday.

This week, Rep. Elaine Price, R-Coeur d’Alene, introduced House Bill 424 to the Idaho Legislature's House Business Committee. It would require mobile home park owners to notify tenants if they sign a purchase agreement for the property.

Miller said she decided to pitch the legislation to Price after what happened at Oak Crest mobile home park in Coeur d’Alene. It was purchased by new owners in 2022 and rents soon increased. Some said they would have to move. Few residents knew of the sale until after it was a done deal.

Miller said there needs to be a way to let mobile home park residents know an owner intends to sell the land they live on.

That, in turn, would give them an opportunity to form what is called a “resident-owned community” and work with a financial company to try and buy and own the park as a cooperative.

Miller said back in the old days, mobile homes could be moved easily and affordably. 

Today, it’s nearly impossible. It's expensive even if a another piece of land is found. And disposing of a mobile home is costly.

Notice of an intended sale could provide residents with an opportunity to act on their own to buy the land where their mobile homes sit.

“That way, they have a shot at making an offer before it's sold,” Miller said.

She said the bill requires no government intervention, funding or enforcement.

“It’s literally just a statute that kind of puts this notification in process,” Miller said.

She hopes legislators see it for what it is, a simple effort to help people who live in mobile homes.

"All we can do is have high hopes," Miller said.

A hearing is scheduled Feb. 5.

Rep. Price could not be reached for comment.