Local Taxation of Mobile Homes and Trailer Camps in Pennsylvania - Meeting the Burden

The house trailer or mobilehome industry has grown to tremendous proportions within the past twenty-five years. The interest in this mode of living began in the late 1940\u27s due to a shortage of available permanent homes. Although this type of abode is called a trailer or mobliehome, its nature is actually permanent. The average mobilehome is ten to twelve feet wide and often greater than fifty feet in length. Such trailers are not movable through the ordinary use of an automobile. Special tractors are needed for this task and hauling permits are required for use of the state\u27s highways and roads. Since they are not easily moved, house trailers and mobilehomes have become fixed in nature. They take on many, if not all, of the characteristics of permanent dwellings. For this reason inhabitants of mobilehomes become an integral part of the municipality or community in which they live. Several writers have suggested that the owners and inhabitants of these dwellings should bear their proportion of the local burden of securing and promoting the health, cleanliness, comfort and safety of the citizens of their particular community. This includes the regulation and taxation of the house trailer and mobilehome