Ciresi touts unanimous passage of bill protecting mobile home owners
Rep. Joseph Ciresi June 25, 2020 | 5:02 PM
HARRISBURG, June 25 – State Rep. Joe Ciresi, D-Montgomery, hailed the unanimous passing of a bill that will help a significant number of constituents in his 146th Legislative District who live in manufactured homes.
The legislation, H.B. 1564, passed both the Senate and the House this week and is next headed to the desk of Governor Tom Wolf, who is expected to sign the bill into law.
Ciresi was an early cosponsor of the bill, supported it in the Local Government Committee and authored an amendment that ensures the most recent evaluating manual would be used to properly assess the value of manufactured homes.
“This is a good, bipartisan bill that helps protect the financial interests of those who live in manufactured – or mobile – homes,” Ciresi said. “Unlike brick and mortar homes that typically appreciate in value, most manufactured homes are similar to vehicles in that they depreciate in value. This legislation makes sure that when it’s time to assess the value of a manufactured home, it’s done so to determine a fair market value at the time of the assessment rather than at the time of the original purchase.
“When a property is over-assessed because of an improper assessment method, those homeowners end up burdened with an unfairly high property tax bill. This bill will provide necessary property tax fairness for the over 240,000 Pennsylvania families who live in manufactured homes.”
H.B. 1564 will require an assessor to determine the actual value of a manufactured home by utilizing its value in the most recent directory of valuation guide that analyzes manufactured home sales and other relevant data, per Ciresi’s amendment. It will also require the assessor to determine any deprecation in the value, the ability for a home to be transported to another site, and the fair-market value of the home.
More information on this bill is available by calling Ciresi’s office at 484-200-8265.