BALLSTON SPA — Calling their conduct illegal and fraudulent, the state attorney general sent a letter to the owner of 16 mobile home parks across three Capital Region counties to demand that it halt the practice of having tenants pay the park’s property taxes.In the letter dated Oct. 15, Assistant Attorney General Chris Lee wrote to Hoffman Homes and ASH Management that Real Property Law prohibits “the charging and collection of any fee other than rent, utilities and charges for facilities and services available to the tenant.”“’The park owner may not charge tenants with a fee for ‘taxes,’” Lee wrote. “You have unjustly and illegally charged and collected fees for ‘taxes’ in violation of law.”Generally speaking, those who live in mobile home parks do not own the land on which their manufactured homes sit. Rather, they purchase their homes and then pay rent to owners of the land who are responsible for the property taxes.However, residents in many of Hoffman Homes’ area properties —14 in Saratoga County and one each in Albany and Fulton counties — say they’ve been billed for years to cover their landlord’s taxes. At Saratoga West in Ballston Spa, resident Tracey Bentley said she has paid about $9,000 since 2016.
Amber Hickey, who is the president of the Hoffman Tenants Advocacy Group and lives in Hyspot Park in Greenfield, said she started receiving bills for property taxes this year. In January, she paid more $526 for town taxes. Her September bill from Hoffman Homes shows she was charged $947.40 for 2025-26 school taxes, in addition to her lot rent of $645. Knowing the charge for the taxes was illegal, she said she didn’t pay it. Yet, she says, Hoffman Homes is still seeking the money. In a bill shared with the Times Union, taxes are itemized on her November bill.
In the past, Hickey said tenants paid the taxes even if they understood it to be wrong. If they didn’t, she said they knew they would be fined and face eviction…