Housing Insights

Analysis and practical guides on housing.

8 articles, checklists, and guides on housing law, written by the attorneys at MC Law. Every piece is general information, not legal advice — for a specific matter, contact the firm.

HousingManufactured Housing

Manufactured Housing Toolkit: Title Conversion, Lot Lease Review, and Park Closure Response

This toolkit provides the letters, worksheets, and records that protect a manufactured home owner's largest asset, each annotated with the loss it prevents. It includes a pre-purchase information request to a park, an itemized price demand for a dealer, a data plate record sheet, a lot lease review worksheet keyed to state park act provisions, the four written utility questions that expose improper submetering, responses to a rent increase and to a selective rule enforcement notice, a buyer rejection documentation letter that turns verbal brush-offs into a provable pattern, a sale-in-place request, a park closure response with the ninety-day sequence, an association formation outline, a warranty notice to all three responsible parties, and a state agency complaint.

Casey Scott McKayAugust 7, 202618 min read

HousingManufactured Housing

Manufactured Home Purchase and Park Tenancy Checklist: A Practical Checklist

This checklist runs a manufactured home from the sales center through the lot lease, the annual routine, and the two events that decide most outcomes — a defect found in the first year and a park closure notice with a purchase window measured in weeks. It covers the itemized price to demand before signing, the data plate to photograph, the loan to shop away from the dealer, and the lot rent history that tells you what you are really buying. It sets out how to read a lot lease against a state park act, the four written questions that expose improper utility charges, the documentation that protects a sale in place, and the eviction responses that keep a homeowner from losing a house over a month's rent.

Casey Scott McKayJuly 30, 20269 min read

HousingManufactured Housing

Buying and Living in a Manufactured Home: A Practical Guide

This guide walks a manufactured home from the shopping trip through the years of living in it and, eventually, selling it. It covers what to inspect and what to ask before signing, why dealer-arranged financing is rarely the best available, and the difference in cost between a chattel loan and a mortgage that turns on nothing but how the home is titled. It explains how to read a lot lease against your state's mobile home park act, what a park can and cannot do about rent, rules, utilities, and buyer approval, and how to respond to an increase, a rule change, or an eviction notice. It closes with the two events that decide most manufactured housing outcomes: a defect discovered in the first year, and a park closure notice with a purchase window measured in weeks.

Casey Scott McKayJuly 22, 202628 min read

HousingManufactured Housing

Manufactured Homes and Mobile Home Parks: Titles, Lot Rents, and the Law of a Home You Cannot Move

A manufactured home is the only kind of housing where the resident usually owns the house and rents the ground it sits on, and that split is the source of nearly every problem in the field. This article explains the HUD code that governs how these homes are built, why the title is usually a vehicle-style certificate rather than a deed, and what converting to real property actually accomplishes. It covers the ground lease relationship — lot rent increases, park rules, utility pass-throughs, and the evictions that leave a homeowner with a house they cannot afford to move and cannot sell in place. It examines park closures and the relocation assistance and opportunity-to-purchase laws that a growing number of states have enacted, the financing gap between chattel loans and mortgages, and the warranty and installation claims available when a new home is defective.

Casey Scott McKayJuly 13, 202627 min read

HousingSubsidized Housing

Subsidized Housing Toolkit: Hearing Requests, Recertification, and Accommodation Letters

This toolkit collects the letters and worksheets that decide subsidized housing cases, each annotated with what it accomplishes and the deadline it protects. It leads with the hearing request — the single most important document in the field — followed by a document production demand, an informal review request for a denied applicant, a preference claim letter, an income change report, a medical expense log that recovers money most households never claim, a rent calculation audit worksheet, a repayment agreement proposal with a specific number, a reasonable accommodation letter with a three-sentence provider template, a no-trespass agreement for guest-conduct cases, a search extension request, a special inspection request, an abatement response for landlords who bill the wrong party, and a one-page hearing summary.

Casey Scott McKayJuly 5, 202615 min read

HousingSubsidized Housing

Subsidized Housing Application and Hearing Checklist: A Practical Checklist

This checklist runs subsidized housing from the waiting list application through the hearing that saves a tenancy. It covers applying to every list including the shorter project-based ones, claiming preferences with documentation, and requesting the informal review that reverses discretionary denials. It walks the voucher search with the arithmetic to check before signing, then the annual routine of recertification and the reporting obligations that produce most terminations. It closes with the hearing sequence — requesting it within the deadline, demanding documents, auditing the rent calculation line by line, and arriving with a specific proposal — plus the reasonable accommodation requests that change outcomes at every stage.

Casey Scott McKayJune 26, 20268 min read

HousingSubsidized Housing

Applying for and Keeping Subsidized Housing: A Practical Guide

This guide covers subsidized housing from the waiting list application through the hearing that saves a tenancy. It explains how to get on every list you qualify for, which preferences to claim and how to document them, and why the informal review of a denial is the most winnable and least used proceeding in the field. It walks through the voucher search — reading the payment standard, understanding the forty percent cap, and what to ask a landlord before signing — and then through the annual routine of recertification and the reporting obligations that produce most terminations. It closes with the hearing: how to request it before the deadline, what documents to demand, how to check the arithmetic, and what to propose, because hearing officers grant specific things and rarely forgive general ones.

Casey Scott McKayJune 18, 202628 min read

HousingSubsidized Housing

Public and Subsidized Housing: Vouchers, Public Housing, and the Rules That Govern Your Tenancy

Subsidized housing runs on a body of federal law that most tenants and many lawyers never encounter, and its most important feature is that a tenant facing termination usually gets a hearing that private-market tenants do not. This article explains the difference between tenant-based vouchers, project-based assistance, and public housing, and why the difference decides almost everything else. It covers how rent is calculated, what an interim recertification is and why failing to report a change is the most common cause of a repayment demand, and what the grievance procedure and informal hearing actually provide. It works through the one-strike rule and Department of Housing and Urban Development v. Rucker, the good cause standard that applies in subsidized housing but frequently not in private tenancies, the reasonable accommodation duty that changes outcomes more often than any other tool, and the appeals available at every stage.

Casey Scott McKayJune 9, 202628 min read