Sunset Mobile Home Park v. Parsons

• Decision Date: 29 September 1982
• Docket Number: No. 66106,66106
• Parties: SUNSET MOBILE HOME PARK, Raymond Wright and Bella Wright, Appellees, v. Gerald E. PARSONS and Rose Parsons, Appellants.
• Court: Iowa Supreme Court

Page 452

324 N.W.2d 452

SUNSET MOBILE HOME PARK, Raymond Wright and Bella Wright, Appellees, v. Gerald E. PARSONS and Rose Parsons, Appellants.

No. 66106.

Supreme Court of Iowa.

Sept. 29, 1982.

Clemens Erdahl, Iowa City, for appellants.

John Titler, Cedar Rapids, for appellees.

Considered en banc.

SCHULTZ, Justice.

We granted discretionary review of a district court affirmance of a small claims court judgment that required the removal of the tenants in a forcible entry and detainer action pursuant to Iowa Code chapter 648. This review contains our first interpretation of the Mobile Home Parks Residential Landlord and Tenant Act, Iowa Code chapter 562B (1981). We find no merit in the tenants' allegations of error and affirm.

Bella L. Wright and Raymond L. Wright operate a mobile home court known as Sunset Mobile Home Park in Hiawatha, Iowa. Gerald E. Parsons and Rose M. Parsons occupy a mobile home and are tenants of the Wrights. The Parsons are tenants under an oral lease with the Wrights for a mobile home lot. Their rent is due on the first of the month.

Testimony at trial revealed the series of events that led to this dispute between the parties. The first noteworthy event occurred on June 4, 1980, when Mr. Wright called the Hiawatha Chief of Police and requested his help in enforcing a tenant parking rule. The Parsons argued there was no violation of the mobile home park rules, but the landlords evidently disagreed. On June 5, Mr. Wright signed a sixty-day notice which stated that the Parsons tenancy was being terminated "for refusing to abide by the rules and regulations of Sunset Mobile Home Park." The notice was served on June 9. No further action, however, was taken by the Wrights with respect to that notice.

On June 10, the Parsons had a gathering on their lawn outside their mobile home with other tenants. Mr. Parsons indicated that the rules and regulations of the mobile home park were discussed.

Finally, on July 10, the Parsons were served with a sixty-day notice of termination that is the basis for the forcible entry and detainer action in the small claims court. They refused to move out on September 10 and were served with a three-day notice to quit shortly thereafter.

On appeal, the tenants assert: (1) the district court erroneously used a substantial evidence standard in reviewing the magistrate's ruling rather than a de novo review; (2) the written offer of a written rental agreement provided by the plaintiffs-landlords did not comply with section 562B.14(1) which requires landlord to offer tenants a written rental agreement; (3) chapter 562B abrogates the landlords' common-law right to terminate a month-to-month tenancy without cause; (4) the sixty-day notice of termination required by section 562B.10(4) must be given at least sixty days before the last day of a rental period, rather than sixty days before the termination; and (5) plaintiffs-owners' termination of defendants' tenancy constituted "retaliatory action" prohibited by section 562B.32(1). Tenants have also made other claims which we reject without detailing.

The landlords claim that the rulings of the small claims and district courts were correct. The landlords also assert that the tenants have agreed, pursuant to district court order in an unrelated replevin action by a bank, to vacate their mobile home. The landlords in the last division of their brief assert that this appeal should be dismissed as the case is now moot. We are forced to summarily dispose of this mootness issue adversely to the landlords as they have provided us no record of the matters contained in their argument. Our rules provide for motions to dismiss supported by affidavits or other papers. Iowa R.App.P. 22(c).

I. Standard of review. The district court in its ruling on the small claims appeal made an abbreviated finding of facts as follows:

The Court having reviewed the file and heard the arguments of counsel and being fully advised in the premises finds as follows:

Substantial evidence was presented at the trial of the above referenced case on October 2, 1980, to support the ruling of the Judicial Magistrate dated October 3, 1980.

The tenants claim that the district court should have used the de novo, not substantial evidence, standard of review. The tenants also claim that the district court incorrectly construed ambiguities in the record to uphold the judgment of the magistrate. They then indicate that because no explicit findings or rulings were made by the district court on appeal, the remainder of their argument is on the errors made by the magistrate. The tenants request that we either reverse the district court based on the record from the original trial or remand for the presentation of additional evidence. We decline both requests.

An appeal from a small claims court to a district court is governed by Iowa Code § 631.13(4) (1981). The district court conducts a de novo review on the record before the magistrate unless it finds the record inadequate for the purpose of rendering a judgment, in which case it may order additional evidence to be presented. Ravreby v. United Airlines, Inc., 293 N.W.2d 260, 262 (Iowa 1980). While the language used by the district court may suggest that the district court did not use de novo review, no prejudice results. The underlying action on this appeal is a forcible entry and detainer action, which is tried as an equitable action. Iowa Code § 648.5 (1981). On discretionary review of equity cases our review is de novo. Iowa R.App.P. 4, 203. Thus, assuming, without deciding, that the tenants were denied de novo review in the district court, they have de novo review through this appellate process. This court will "review the facts as well as the law and determine from the credible evidence rights anew on those propositions properly presented, provided issue has been raised and error, if any, preserved in the trial proceedings." In re Marriage of Full, 255 N.W.2d 153, 156 (Iowa 1977). We also note, as a sidelight, that the tenants did not file a motion for enlargement of findings and conclusions.

II. Rental agreement. The tenants maintain that chapter 562B creates a new statutory scheme for the regulation of mobile home space rental. They make two attacks on the landlords' contention that an oral month-to-month lease arose from the notice. First, they assert that this chapter gives the tenant a right to a term of one year, or at least sixty days. Thus, they claim that the landlords' notice for a written lease constituted an unenforceable rental agreement. Secondly, they claim that this notice with the attached rules was unconscionable. Consequently, the tenants maintain that the magistrate and the district court erred in considering them as tenants at will and subject to removal at the whim of the landlords.

The legal status of the tenant in possession of a mobile home lot has importance on the claims of the parties. We find it appropriate to review briefly the forms of tenancy and the requirements of a termination notice prior to the enactment of chapter 562B and the effect of chapter 562B on them. Tenancies at will or tenancies for a term are two common forms of tenancies in Iowa. The former is easily created, for "[a]ny person in the possession of real estate, with the assent of the owner, is presumed to be a tenant at will until the contrary is shown." § 562.4. This presumption is one of fact, not law, and is not conclusive; consequently, it may be shown that the tenancy was for a term. McCarter v. Uban, 166 N.W.2d 910, 912 (Iowa 1969). A thirty-day termination notice is required in a tenancy at will. A tenancy for a fixed period is a tenancy for a term. If there is an agreement for a termination date, the tenancy is for a term and is not a tenancy at will. Benschoter v. Hakes, 232 Iowa 1354, 1358, 8 N.W.2d 481, 484 (1943). An agreement for a tenancy may be written or oral and may be inferred from the situation and surrounding circumstances; if it is oral, however, it may be subject to the Statute of Frauds (Iowa Code § 622.32 (1981)). McCarter, 166 N.W.2d at 913. When an agreement is made setting the time for termination, "whether in writing or not, it shall cease at the time agreed upon, without notice." § 562.6.

A third type of tenancy, periodic tenancy, is a tenancy that endures for a certain period and will continue for subsequent successive like periods unless terminated by one of the parties at the end of a period. 51 C.J.S. Landlord and Tenant § 130(1) (1968); 49 Am.Jur.2d Landlord and Tenant §§ 70-73 (1970); Restatement (Second) Property § 1.5 (1977); see also Iowa Code § 562.6 (farm tenancies continue for the following year upon the same terms unless written notice is timely given). At common law a month-to-month periodic tenancy required a thirty-day or a month notice to terminate prior to the end of a recurring monthly period. 51 C.J.S. Landlord and Tenant, §§ 149, 150(3) (1968); 5 Am.Jur. 2d Landlord and Tenant §§ 1207, 1209 (1970); Restatement (Second) Property § 1.5 (1977).

The Mobile Home Parks Residential Landlord and Tenant Act became effective on January 1, 1979. Act of June 26, 1978, ch. 1173 § 38, 1978 Iowa Acts. The avowed purpose and policy of the chapter are: "(1) To simplify, clarify and establish the law governing the rental of mobile home spaces and rights and obligations of landlord and tenant. (2) To encourage landlord and tenant to maintain and improve the quality of mobile home living." Iowa Code § 562B.2. Unless displaced by provisions of the Act, previous principles of law and equity supplement the Act. § 562B.3. Responsibility was placed on the landlord to offer a tenant an opportunity for a written lease. § 562B.14(1). Oral leases are not prohibited and were inferentially recognized by the clause "[i]f there is a written rental agreement." § 562B.14(5). Nowhere in the Act is a written lease required. Further, the term and time period for cancellation of the...