Delaware Mobile Home Park Laws

Delaware Mobile Home Park Laws — Lot Rent and Evictions (2026)

By Oleg Kachko · Updated August 22, 2026

✓ Law Verified August 2026

Delaware mobile home park laws are their own world: you own the home, you rent the ground, and a separate set of rules, different from ordinary landlord-tenant law, decides what the park can charge, when it can evict, and what happens if the land is sold out from under the whole community. This guide covers those rules in plain English, verified against official Delaware sources as of August 2026.

Delaware Mobile Home Park Laws at a Glance

The law that governs parks Manufactured Homes and Manufactured Home Communities Act, 25 Del. C. ch. 70 (Subchapters I-VI, including Subchapter IV “Right of First Offer” and Subchapter VI “Rent Increase Justification”); enforced with help from the Delaware Department of Justice Office of the Manufactured Housing Ombudsperson
Notice before a lot rent increase 90 days minimum written notice, and not more than 120 days, before the first day the increased rent is due (25 Del. C. § 7051). The notice must identify every affected homeowner by lot number, name, group, or phase. Rent may be raised only once in any 12-month period.
Cap on lot rent increases NO CAP as a flat statewide percentage, but Delaware limits increases two ways. Under the Rent Increase Justification Act (Subchapter VI), any increase above the average annual rise in the CPI-U must be directly related to operating, maintaining, or improving the community and justified by listed factors, and affected homeowners may demand a DEMHRA meeting within 30 days and then petition within 30 days for a nonbinding arbitrator. Under HB 212 (signed November 2, 2024), if a community owner raised rent 5 percent or more in the prior year or rental period, the next increase is capped at 3 percent, with narrow exceptions for phased market-rent increases already allowed by law and for communities where more than 50 percent of homeowners use the home as a second residence.
Eviction notice periods Nonpayment of rent: written demand giving at least 5 days to pay before a summary possession action may be filed for a manufactured home lot; the DOJ Ombudsperson summary describes the payment notice as running 7 days from mailing or personal service, so count from the later date and confirm with your court. Material breach of a rule or covenant: written notice specifying the acts or omissions, with at least 7 days to cure, and the notice must warn that if the violation continues 12 days or more after receipt the agreement may be terminated. Repeated nonpayment (fourth incident in 12 months after three written notices) and conduct or a conviction causing immediate and irreparable harm: immediate termination, no cure period. End-of-term nonrenewal for due cause and month-to-month terminations: 60 days written notice. Change in land use: 1 year (365 days) written notice. Only the Justice of the Peace Court can order you removed; a park cannot lock you out or tow your home on its own.

Why Park Living Has Its Own Rulebook in Delaware

Chapter 70 governs rental agreements for a manufactured home LOT, where you own the home and rent only the ground under it, and it displaces the ordinary residential Landlord-Tenant Code (25 Del. C. ch. 51-59) for those tenancies.

Because moving a home costs thousands and often is not possible, Delaware gives lot tenants protections apartment renters do not have: the park may end or refuse to renew your agreement only for “due cause” (25 Del.

C. § 7010, § 7010A), rent increases above CPI-U must be justified and can be pushed to nonbinding arbitration, residents get a right of first offer if the park is sold, and a state trust fund (DEMHRA) pays relocation money if the land use changes.

You keep ownership of the home and may sell it in place, and the park generally cannot charge an entrance or exit fee to do so.

Owning the home while renting the ground under it creates a kind of leverage no apartment landlord has: moving a manufactured home typically costs thousands of dollars, and many older homes cannot be moved at all without falling apart.

Lawmakers know that “just move” is not a real option for park residents, which is exactly why Delaware mobile home park laws give lot renters protections apartment tenants never get, limited eviction grounds, longer notice periods, and rules about what happens when the park itself changes hands.

Lot Rent Increases: Your Rights Before You Pay More

Required notice: 90 days minimum written notice, and not more than 120 days, before the first day the increased rent is due (25 Del. C. § 7051). The notice must identify every affected homeowner by lot number, name, group, or phase. Rent may be raised only once in any 12-month period.

Is there a cap? NO CAP as a flat statewide percentage, but Delaware limits increases two ways.

Under the Rent Increase Justification Act (Subchapter VI), any increase above the average annual rise in the CPI-U must be directly related to operating, maintaining, or improving the community and justified by listed factors, and affected homeowners may demand a DEMHRA meeting within 30 days and then petition within 30 days for a nonbinding arbitrator.

Under HB 212 (signed November 2, 2024), if a community owner raised rent 5 percent or more in the prior year or rental period, the next increase is capped at 3 percent, with narrow exceptions for phased market-rent increases already allowed by law and for communities where more than 50 percent of homeowners use the home as a second residence.

Whatever the number on the notice, read it against the rules above before paying. An increase served with short notice, or one that violates a cap where Delaware has one, is challengeable, and park residents who organize respond far more effectively than neighbors acting alone. Many states saw lot-rent fights turn into new legislation in the last two years for exactly this reason.

The Park Cannot Evict You for Just Any Reason

Only “due cause” (25 Del. C. § 7010, § 7010A). Due cause means either (1) a good-faith change in the use of the land, or (2) tenant grounds under § 7010A: nonpayment of rent or lawful fees; a material breach of a rule or a covenant of the rental agreement or of Chapter 70; repeated late payment of rent (a fourth nonpayment incident within 12 months after three written notices);

conduct causing or threatening immediate and irreparable harm to a person or property in the community; conviction of a class A misdemeanor or felony during the tenancy that caused or threatened immediate and irreparable harm; material misrepresentation on the rental application; and failure to notify the community owner of a sale or transfer of the home when the home stays in the community.

Delaware does not allow no-cause, “we just want you out” terminations of a lot tenancy.

This list matters enormously: it means a park in Delaware cannot simply non-renew you to free up the lot the way an apartment landlord might. If an eviction notice arrives, check it against the legal grounds first, park evictions fail in court most often because the stated reason is not on the list, or the notice skipped a required warning step.

If the Park Sells or Closes

When the park is sold: Subchapter IV gives residents a right of first offer. Before selling, transferring, or conveying all or part of the community, the owner must send the homeowners association a right-of-first-offer notice at least 60 days before the date of sale, and the association has 30 calendar days from mailing to respond. The owner and the association must then negotiate in good faith.

The association may instead submit an alternative price offer, which stays valid 6 months, may be refreshed within 7 days of expiration for another 6 months, and may be refreshed every 6 months until the property sells or 18 months pass from the initial notice.

If the owner later accepts a lower third-party price, the association must be sent notice by overnight service with signature receipt stating the price and material terms, and gets 30 calendar days to match.

Tenants must also be notified within 20 days of the owner’s acceptance of any bona fide offer to buy or rent the community. Failure to comply lets either party seek declaratory and injunctive relief, appointment of a receiver, and actual damages; willful and intentional noncompliance is a per se Consumer Fraud violation allowing treble damages plus attorney fees and costs.

When the park closes: A good-faith change in land use requires at least 12 months (1 year) written termination or nonrenewal notice to every affected tenant, telling them of the change and of the need to find another location for the home (25 Del. C. § 7010).

With that notice the owner must give each affected tenant a plain-language relocation plan listing housing options within a 25-mile radius for tenants with disabilities and older tenants, government and community agencies that can help, and a preliminary statement of whether each home can be moved;

the plan goes to the Delaware Manufactured Home Relocation Authority at the same time and must be updated and redistributed every 3 months, and missing a quarterly update extends the termination date.

DEMHRA Trust Fund benefits for a change in use: for a relocatable home, the lesser of actual reasonable moving, takedown, and setup costs within a 25-mile radius or the board-set maximum, currently 9500 for a single-section home and 13500 for a multi-section home; for a non-relocatable home, up to 5000 single-section and 9000 multi-section; for a tenant who elects to abandon the home, up to 1500 single-section and 2500 multi-section.

A community owner who issues a change-of-use notice without genuinely intending to change the use has committed misrepresentation with intent to deceive.

Fees the Park Can and Cannot Charge in Delaware

A landlord may not assess an entrance fee or an exit fee (25 Del. C. § 7020). An application fee is allowed but may not exceed the greater of 50 or 10 percent of the monthly lot rent, and a security deposit may not exceed one month’s rent. Late fees may not exceed the greater of 25 or 5 percent of the monthly rent.

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Utility charges may not exceed the utility’s retail consumer rate, so markups above the retail rate are barred.

Optional user fees for things like a pool or tennis courts are allowed only if the amount is reasonably related to the cost of providing the facility, and every utility, facility, service, and related charge must be spelled out in a services rider attached to the rental agreement.

The park’s side of the bargain: The rental agreement must obligate the landlord to keep all water, electrical, plumbing, gas, sewer, septic, and other landlord-provided utilities and services in good working order and to repair them within 48 hours of written notice, or as soon after as practicable if 48 hours is not practicable (25 Del. C. § 7008).

Where the community has an on-site wastewater treatment and disposal system, the landlord must have it emptied by a DNREC-licensed Class F liquid waste hauler and serviced at least every 3 years, with an independent third-party inspection at each servicing, and must maintain sufficient sewage capacity under state and local law.

Common areas — shared land and facilities the landlord controls — plus private streets, driveway access, access to fire hydrants, and access to central mailboxes must be kept in good repair, unobstructed, and free of accumulated materials.

DNREC began a statewide assessment of wastewater infrastructure in manufactured home communities in April 2026, so you may be able to report a failing park sewer system to DNREC as well as to the DOJ Ombudsperson.

The Trapped-Equity Problem and How to Protect Yourself

The economics of a mobile home park in Delaware are unlike any apartment: you own the home, but moving it typically costs thousands of dollars, often more than an older home is worth, and many parks will not accept a home past a certain age. That is why lot-rent disputes feel so different here: walking away is rarely a real option, and park owners know it.

The law is what balances that power gap, which makes knowing the exact notice rules, fee limits, and eviction grounds in Delaware worth more to a park resident than to almost any other kind of tenant.

Protect yourself the way the long-time residents do: keep every rent notice and rule change in writing, photograph the condition of your lot and the park’s common areas a couple of times a year, and read the community rules before signing anything, in most states the written rules you were given are what a court will hold both sides to.

Selling Your Home Without Losing Its Value

When it is time to leave, most residents sell the home in place rather than move it, and this is where park rules matter most.

Many states limit a park’s power to block an in-place sale: the park can usually screen the buyer the way it screens any new resident, but it generally cannot force you to remove a home just because you are selling, and it cannot demand a cut of your sale price unless it actually acted as your sales agent.

Get the park’s buyer-approval requirements in writing early, keep the lot rent current through the sale, and never sign a rule change mid-sale without reading it, a home that can stay on its lot is worth far more than one that has to be moved.

The Strongest Protection Is the Lot Next Door

Everything about park life is shared, the roads, the water lines, the rent schedule, the fate of the land itself. That is why the single most effective move a park resident in Delaware can make is joining or forming a residents association. A park owner can ignore one complaint about a rent increase; ignoring a letter signed by sixty households is a different decision.

Associations are also how residents use park-sale rights in the states that grant them, organized communities have bought their own parks across the country, usually with help from nonprofit lenders who specialize in exactly this.

Keep your own records the same way any tenant should: the lease for your lot, every rent notice, every rule change, photos of anything the park fails to maintain. Delaware mobile home park laws reward the resident who can show a judge dates and documents, and most disputes never reach a judge once the park realizes you have them.

Recent changes in Delaware: HB 212, signed November 2, 2024, added the rule that a community owner who raised lot rent 5 percent or more in the prior year or rental period may raise it only 3 percent the next time, and required community owners to give DEMHRA their contact information within 60 days of taking ownership.

The same act directs the DOJ Manufactured Housing Ombudsperson to hold at least two informational meetings per county each year on the lot rental assistance program and other help, and it made rent reduction plus repayment of excess rent a penalty for any Chapter 70 rent violation.

Delaware still has no flat statewide lot-rent cap like New Jersey’s 3.5 percent or Oregon’s roughly 6 percent, and rent-cap bills remain contested — check the current status with the Ombudsperson before relying on any percentage.

Delaware Mobile Home Park Laws: Quick Answers

Can the park raise lot rent whenever it wants? The Delaware mobile home park laws above set the notice rules, and any cap, that apply before an increase is valid.

Can the park make me remove my home? Only for the legal grounds listed in the Delaware mobile home park laws, and only through the court process, never by padlock or tow truck.

Do apartment tenant rights apply to me? Partly. The Delaware mobile home park laws are their own chapter, and this page plus the state guides linked below cover both layers.

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Official Delaware Sources & Resources

Making Delaware Mobile Home Park Laws Work for You

The Delaware mobile home park laws only protect residents who use them, and parks count on most residents never reading the act. Read your lot lease against this page, calendar every notice deadline the moment a letter arrives, and talk to your neighbors, nearly every protection in the Delaware mobile home park laws gets stronger when residents act together.

If the park ignores the rules, the state agency and local legal aid both handle park disputes, and a written complaint citing the act gets a very different response than a phone call. Under the Delaware mobile home park laws, the resident with documents and neighbors is never as trapped as the park hopes.

This guide to delaware mobile home park laws was last verified against official sources in August 2026. Lot-rent caps and park-sale laws are moving fast in many states, re-check before acting on a deadline.

More Delaware Tenant Rights Guides

Disclaimer: This guide is informational only and is not legal advice. Landlord-tenant laws change and vary by city and county within a state. Verify current rules with your state, your local court, or a free legal-aid office before acting. If you are facing eviction, contact a local tenant attorney or legal-aid organization right away.

Renting? Protect your belongings — compare renters insurance at Home Insure Guide. Divorce involving a lease? See Divorce Help Guide. Unsafe housing / toxic mold injury? Some cases qualify — see Mass Tort Info.