House committee debates sublease limits, tax changes in manufactured-housing bill

The Vermont House General & Housing Committee on Feb. 6 continued a detailed walkthrough of Act 857, a bill that would change how manufactured-home parks organized as limited-equity cooperatives (LECs) can handle subleases and tax treatment.

At issue was existing language in Subdivision 7 that caps a sublease payment at 110% of the proprietary-lease payment. Cameron Wood of the Office of Legislative Council told the committee the statutory text is ambiguous about whether that 110% limit applies only to the proprietary-lease component or to the total amount a sublessor may charge. "You can only pass that on to someone else at a 110%," Wood said when explaining the current statutory phrasing. The chair summarized the practical problem: if a resident owns a home and pays a mortgage while the cooperative owns the land, capping allowable sublease…