AARP Survey Focuses On Residents of Mobile Homes

Among the 19 million Americans who call trailers and other manufactured dwellings home are 2 million people age 65 and older, according to a recent study by the American Assn. of Retired Persons.

Almost eight in 10 senior mobile home residents say they have or have had problems with construction or installation of their homes, the study found. And because the warranties on many of these types of homes are often limited or unenforceable, many respondents of the study paid an average $1,140 per problem out of pocket.

AARP is opposing a new bill before Congress called the Manufactured Housing Improvement Act, which would update the 1974 Manufactured Housing Act by revising federal construction and safety provisions for manufactured homes.

Instead of establishing a national, federally regulated standard for warranties on mobile homes, as AARP wants, the bill would provide a five-year window that allows individual states to come up with their own standards.

However, the bill is solidly supported by the Coalition to Improve the Manufactured Housing Act, an alliance of the Manufactured Housing Institute and the Manufactured Housing Assn. for Regulatory Reform.

Bruce Savage, spokesman for the institute, said AARP’s informational campaign has been misleading. “We think it was a little unfair of AARP to make it sound like only mobile homes have these problems,” he said. “Every new home has these problems.”