Advice: BC’s stalemate on manufactured home parks must end

For more than 65,000 people in British Columbia, manufactured home parks (often called Stacaravan parks or trailer parks) represent one of the last paths to affordable homeowner.

In smaller and more rural communities, these home parks can make a tenth of the local housing stock. But despite their interests in the home mix, a little -known contractual issue between park managers and money lenders has seen this vital housing option in a bureaucratic stalemate that is currently unique for British Columbia.

Lenders in conflict with park managers

The core of the problem is a critical bank form called the “Landlord voting model assignment of permission for manufactured houses agreements”, or better known as the “1097.” It defines the relationship between lenders, park managers and residents in involving the financing, whereby obligations are explained in cases of the tenant and an earlier lease agreement can be assigned to a new tenant when the home park is sold. For the first time introduced by the Canadian Bankers Association In 2002, over time, the 1097 has evolved into at least nine different versions of the form, where each large bank creates its own internal variation.

For years, park managers in BC have been worried about certain clauses in the versions of the lenders of the 1097, in particular on a lack of park manager protection and an abundance of protection protection in the agreement. This culminated in the Manufacture Home Park -owners Alliance of BC The release of their own version of the 1097 in October 2024, however, Lenders in turn refuse to sign it, with reference to federal regulations that block them to make some of the requested changes.

Residents and brokers stayed on while deals collapse

After more than a year, the stalemate between money lenders and park managers and the brokers they have confronted with the consequences. Buyers of manufactured houses, even those who have finance approved by the bank and a willing seller are unable to handle their house because the 1097 is not signed. According to these current rules, sales are essentially veto, creating a considerable barrier for transacting manufactured park housing.

In one case at the end of 2024, a Coquit lamb -pair had continued several offers because the required paperwork was not signed, so that they had the feeling that they were “held hostage” by a process outside of their control. In the province, brokers and their customers have felt this newly created uncertainty firsthand, so that consistently collapses at the last minute because they cannot get a signature on this mandatory form.

The lack of a standardized and generally accepted 1097 form is disproportionately damaged to harm residents and sellers. Those who feel the most impact are the older, low-income families and those who live in rural areas without other feasible housing options. As it looks now, buyers cannot buy and sellers cannot sell; This issue requires the intervention of the federal government.

Bottom Line

This impasse cannot be solved by private negotiations. The federal government must intervene and draw up clear guidelines on the form of 1097 and its use. As one of the last bastions of affordability in an increasingly expensive housing market, manufactured home parks are too essential part of the living landscape to be ignored.

This is not about lenders versus park managers, but about an essential process that is currently fundamentally broken. Housing Minister Robertson must intervene and regulate the use of the 1097 form to restore the consistency and basic protection of the consumer to one of the most overlooked housing options in Canada.