Park Safety Inspections and Pride of Ownership

Safety inspections are a valuable part of our specialty park insurance programs. When we insure a park, we generally send an inspector to the location to review what can be done to make the park a safer place. Loss control recommendations asking to repair potholes and sidewalks, remove trampolines and large dogs, and add hand rails to steps are common and clearly valuable. However, we also often receive recommendations regarding general clean up, building or structure maintenance issues, and adding skirting to homes. These latter requests may leave someone wondering how these issues affect safety at a park. The answer to this question is Pride of Ownership. Our loss history evidences that parks that have tenants and employees whose work and homes demonstrate pride of ownership have fewer claims. And as an agent, one of our missions is to help our customers have fewer losses. This saves time and lowers future insurance premiums.

Frank Rolfe has bought and managed hundreds of parks. The following is what he recently published on the topic of Pride of Ownership and how it relates to both financing and safety:
"Most lenders are not concerned about the age of a mobile home, or the quality of the car in the driveway. What they are focused on is the “pride of ownership” – how clean is that house, yard and car? You don’t have to have a lot of money to demonstrate “pride of ownership”. And there are brand new homes that show no pride of ownership. So it’s really a state of mind. We have found that there are many ways you, as a park owner, can contribute to the residents showing “pride of ownership”:

• Make sure the common areas are immaculate. You set the tone for the rest of the park, and there’s no way that you can expect the residents to have self-respect when you demonstrate none. You entry should be nice, with a new sign and white vinyl fencing (if applicable) and all common areas should be well mowed and edged, and all other structures painted and free of any ugly features. When you care, the residents care.
• Identify the worst offenders, and work with them to bring their homes and yards up to par. In some cases, you’re smart to get the job done yourself and bill it back to them in affordable installments or, in other cases, just do it yourself and look at it as a gift. Remember that it’s really hard to do home maintenance when you don’t have the money to hire it done.
• Recognize those that do a great job. Have a “yard of the month” or “home of the month” award. Congratulate those that do a good job. Create an atmosphere of positive works."

Well said. To make your park the best it can be, focus on Pride in Ownership. It’s makes for a nice place to live and work and helps you maximize your return on investment over the long run.

Kurt D. Kelley, JD, President
Mobile Insurance
Kurt@Mobileagency.com