MUNICIPAL CORPORATIONS--REGULATION OF HOUSE TRAILERS UNDER BUILDING CODE AS PERMANENT DWELLINGS

Authors

John W. Potter S.Ed., University of Michigan Law SchoolFollow

Abstract

An ordinance of the township in which defendant maintained a trailer camp defined a house trailer as any vehicle used for living or sleeping purposes, and provided that any house trailer so used within the township for an aggregate of more than thirty days in a period of one year should be considered a single family dwelling for all purposes of the building code. Many trailers in defendant's camp rested on boxes or jacks, and they had been used as dwellings for several years. While all trailers were connected with water and electric lines and provided with communal lavatory and laundry facilities, they clearly did not comply with the requirements of the building code. Defendant contended that a trailer camp could be prohibited or regulated only by a zoning ordinance, and that the current house shortage ought to make this restriction void. Held, the ordinance was not an attempt to regulate trailer camps, but dwellings under the building code. Thirty days was a fair standard to determine whether the use was temporary or permanent and as such subject to the code. As the court was not concerned with the wisdom of the ordinance, the house shortage could not be considered as a reason for invalidating the ordinance. Lower Merion Township v. Gallup, 158 Pa. Super. 572, 46 A. (2d) 35 (1946).

Recommended Citation

John W. Potter S.Ed., MUNICIPAL CORPORATIONS--REGULATION OF HOUSE TRAILERS UNDER BUILDING CODE AS PERMANENT DWELLINGS, 45 Mich. L. Rev. 225 (1946).
Available at: https://repository.law.umich.edu/mlr/vol45/iss2/16