Maine Mobile Home Park Laws

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

By Oleg Kachko · Updated August 22, 2026

✓ Law Verified August 2026

Maine 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 Maine sources as of August 2026.

Maine Mobile Home Park Laws at a Glance

The law that governs parks Maine’s mobile home park law is a separate act from ordinary landlord-tenant law: 10 M.R.S. ch. 953, “Regulation of Mobile Home Parks; Landlord and Tenant,” 10 M.R.S. §§ 9091-9099 (related Manufactured Housing Act at 10 M.R.S. ch. 951, §§ 9001 et seq.)
Notice before a lot rent increase 90 days’ written notice before any increase in lot rent or fees (10 M.R.S. §9093-B). The notice must state the owner’s name, address, phone and email, the dollar amount of the increase, the type of fee, average lot rent and fees at comparable communities in the area, the percentage change in the U.S. Department of Labor Consumer Price Index for the previous 12 months, and a statement of your right to request mediation. Separately, at least 30 days’ written notice is required before the park changes any park rule (§9093).
Cap on lot rent increases NO CAP. Maine has no statewide percentage cap on lot rent increases. Instead, under 10 M.R.S. §9093-B, if the proposed increase exceeds the Consumer Price Index (Northeast Region) plus 1 percent, affected homeowners may demand mediation by mailing a certified-mail request to the community owner within 90 days of the notice; the parties must then meet with an independent third-party mediator within 30 days, and the community owner pays all mediation costs. Mediation does not block the increase — the owner must negotiate in good faith but may still proceed. A 2026 change (LD 2231) limits a park to raising lot rent no more than once per calendar year and bars the owner from requiring a non-disclosure agreement as a condition of mediation. Some Maine municipalities (for example Sanford) have debated local mobile-home rent-stabilization ordinances, so check your town.
Eviction notice periods Nonpayment of lot rent: 30 days’ written notice to quit, and the notice must state the amount owed and tell you the notice is cancelled if you pay the full amount due before it expires (10 M.R.S. §9097). Other causes (lease or park-rule violations, ordinance/law violations, damage): 45 days’ written notice, and the notice must cite the lease provision or park rule involved and state the reasons for termination. Temporary eviction for reconstruction or renovation required by a government body: 30 days’ written notice, unless the work is needed to correct an immediate threat to tenant health or safety. Permanent eviction of the homes (other than for government-required reconstruction): 1 year (12 months) written notice, OR 6 months’ written notice if the park owner has found a reasonable alternative location acceptable to you AND pays your removal and relocation costs. Even on a nonpayment notice, no possession action may be maintained if before the notice expires you pay or tender all arrearages plus 5 percent of the outstanding rent, capped at 5 dollars in liquidated damages. The notice must be handed to you in person; the park may mail it and leave a copy at your home only after trying for 3 days to serve you in person. After the notice expires the park must still file a forcible entry and detainer case in District Court — it cannot lock you out or tow your home.

Why Park Living Has Its Own Rulebook in Maine

Chapter 953 covers you when you own the mobile or manufactured home and rent only the lot beneath it.

Because your home is expensive or impossible to move, Maine gives park residents protections apartment tenants do not get: a park may terminate your lot tenancy only for the specific causes listed in 10 M.R.S. §9097 (no “no-cause” eviction), notice periods are far longer than the 7 or 30 days used in ordinary tenancies, lot rent increases require 90 days’ notice with a mediation right under §9093-B,

you have an option to buy the park if it is sold (§9094-A),

and the park may not unreasonably block the sale of your home in place (§9094).

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 Maine 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’ written notice before any increase in lot rent or fees (10 M.R.S. §9093-B).

The notice must state the owner’s name, address, phone and email, the dollar amount of the increase, the type of fee, average lot rent and fees at comparable communities in the area, the percentage change in the U.S. Department of Labor Consumer Price Index for the previous 12 months, and a statement of your right to request mediation.

Separately, at least 30 days’ written notice is required before the park changes any park rule (§9093).

Is there a cap? NO CAP. Maine has no statewide percentage cap on lot rent increases.

Instead, under 10 M.R.S. §9093-B, if the proposed increase exceeds the Consumer Price Index (Northeast Region) plus 1 percent, affected homeowners may demand mediation by mailing a certified-mail request to the community owner within 90 days of the notice; the parties must then meet with an independent third-party mediator within 30 days, and the community owner pays all mediation costs.

Mediation does not block the increase — the owner must negotiate in good faith but may still proceed. A 2026 change (LD 2231) limits a park to raising lot rent no more than once per calendar year and bars the owner from requiring a non-disclosure agreement as a condition of mediation. Some Maine municipalities (for example Sanford) have debated local mobile-home rent-stabilization ordinances, so check your town.

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 Maine 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

A park may terminate a lot tenancy only for a cause listed in 10 M.R.S. §9097 — there is no no-cause eviction. Verified grounds include: (1) nonpayment of lot rent, utility charges or reasonable incidental service charges;

(2) failure of the tenant or the tenant’s cohabitees, guests or invitees to comply with local ordinances or state or federal laws, rules or regulations relating to mobile homes or mobile home parks, but only after the tenant is first given written notice of the violation and a reasonable opportunity to comply; (3) violation of a lease term or written park rule after written notice and an opportunity to cure;

and (4) permanent or temporary eviction of the homes because of condemnation, a change in the use of the land, or reconstruction/renovation required by a federal, state or local governmental body. Read the full current list in §9097 before relying on it.

A court may not order termination if you prove the eviction is primarily retaliation for your participation in or membership in a tenants’ organization or for asserting any right under chapter 953.

If a lienholder holds a lien on your home, the park must mail that lienholder written notice of the eviction by certified mail at the time it serves your notice to quit.

This list matters enormously: it means a park in Maine 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: Under 10 M.R.S. §9094-A, before the park owner makes a final unconditional acceptance of an offer to buy the park, the owner must give 60 days’ written notice to every mobile home owner in the park and to the Maine State Housing Authority.

A group of mobile home owners or a mobile home owners’ association has a first option to purchase and may submit an offer within 60 days after that notice is mailed;

the owner must consider any offer received by the 60th day so long as the owners of at least 51 percent of the homes in the park support making the offer, and must negotiate in good faith during that window.

The 2025 amendments (LD 1145, “An Act to Protect Residents Living in Mobile Home Parks”) strengthened this into a right of first refusal letting residents match the price and substantially equivalent terms of a third-party offer the owner intends to accept.

The owner may not unreasonably refuse, or unreasonably delay execution of or closing on, a purchase and sale agreement from a qualifying resident group, and may not reject a resident group’s proposed agreement solely because it includes a financing contingency.

Separately, 10 M.R.S. §9094-B (enacted 2025, from LD 1016) imposes a per-lot transfer assessment on purchasers of mobile home parks whose net worth exceeds 50000000, with the money going to a Mobile Home Park Preservation Fund for residents at risk of displacement; the exact per-lot dollar figure is UNVERIFIED — confirm in the current text of §9094-B.

When the park closes: If the park permanently closes or the land use changes, the closure is treated as a permanent eviction under 10 M.R.S. §9097: the park owner must give each tenant 1 year (12 months) written notice in writing, or may give 6 months’ written notice only if the owner has found a reasonable alternative location acceptable to that tenant and pays that tenant’s removal and relocation costs.

Maine sets no fixed statewide relocation-payment dollar amount — the obligation is to pay actual removal and relocation costs, and only in the 6-month alternative-location scenario. Whether a separate advance notice to the Maine State Housing Authority is required on a change of use, and any state relocation fund payment amount, is UNVERIFIED — ask MaineHousing or Pine Tree Legal Assistance.

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Fees the Park Can and Cannot Charge in Maine

Under 10 M.R.S. §9093, the park must fully disclose every fee, charge and assessment; any fee, charge or assessment that was not fully disclosed may not be collected, and the park may not use your refusal to pay an undisclosed charge as a ground for eviction in any court.

The park must give at least 30 days’ written notice before changing any park rule, and any rent or fee increase notice must follow §9093-B (90 days) and 14 M.R.S. §6016.

Section 9093-A limits fees charged to applicants for a lease of a mobile home or a mobile home park lot. Section 9092 restricts the park from requiring you to buy equipment from the park, and §9095 restricts the park from requiring you to buy fuel oil or bottled gas from the park or its designated supplier.

Section 9094 restricts the park’s ability to block the sale of your home in place or to demand a sales commission when it did not sell the home.

Late-payment penalties are limited by §9097-C and security deposits by §9098. Specific statutory caps on entry fees, exit fees, guest fees and utility markups above the park’s actual cost: UNVERIFIED — verify against the current §§9093, 9093-A and PL 2025, c. 399 text.

The park’s side of the bargain: Under 10 M.R.S. §9099, in every written or oral agreement to rent a space in a Maine mobile home park the park owner or operator is deemed to covenant and warrant that the space and its associated facilities are fit for human habitation.

If a condition makes the space unfit, you may file a complaint against the park owner or operator in District Court or Superior Court;

if the court finds the allegations true, the owner is deemed to have breached the warranty as of the date actual notice of the condition was given, and the court may issue injunctions ordering the owner to repair all conditions that endanger or materially impair residents’ health.

In practice this covers the park-controlled infrastructure serving your lot — water and sewer service, drainage, and access. A detailed statewide statutory list of park duties for roads, water lines, sewer lines and common areas is UNVERIFIED at the state level; specific road, drainage and common-area maintenance duties are largely set by municipal mobile home park ordinances and by 30-A M.R.S. §4358, so check your town’s ordinance too.

The Trapped-Equity Problem and How to Protect Yourself

The economics of a mobile home park in Maine 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 Maine 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 Maine 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. Maine 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 Maine: In 2025 Maine enacted a package of mobile home park reforms, including LD 1145 (resident right of first refusal on park sales, 10 M.R.S. §9094-A), LD 1016 (per-lot transfer assessment on buyers worth over 50000000 funding a Mobile Home Park Preservation Fund, §9094-B), and PL 2025, c. 399 (90-day lot rent increase notice plus mediation when an increase exceeds CPI-Northeast plus 1 percent, §9093-B).

Maine still has NO statewide percentage cap on lot rent — unlike New Jersey or Oregon — and press reporting in August 2025 found some park owners raising rents while blaming the new notice law, which pushed towns such as Sanford to consider local mobile-home rent stabilization.

LD 2231, signed April 13, 2026 and effective July 29, 2026, limits lot rent increases to once per calendar year, bars non-disclosure agreements in §9093-B mediation, and opens a mortgage-market pathway for park residents; if a notice looks wrong you may be able to challenge it, so check with Pine Tree Legal Assistance or your District Court.

Maine Mobile Home Park Laws: Quick Answers

Can the park raise lot rent whenever it wants? The Maine 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 Maine 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 Maine 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 Maine Sources & Resources

Making Maine Mobile Home Park Laws Work for You

The Maine 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 Maine 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 Maine mobile home park laws, the resident with documents and neighbors is never as trapped as the park hopes.

This guide to maine 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 Maine 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.