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

✓ Law Verified August 2026

North dakota 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 North Dakota sources as of August 2026.

North Dakota Mobile Home Park Laws at a Glance

Why Park Living Has Its Own Rulebook in North Dakota

You own the mobile home but rent only the lot, so the park is your landlord for the land and you keep title to the home. N.D.C.C. § 47-10-28 says a park owner or purchaser may not require a tenant who owns a mobile home on the lot to sell or transfer that home to the park owner, except as otherwise provided by law.

Because the home is yours, an eviction from the lot also raises the separate cost of moving or selling the home, and § 47-10-28 gives lot renters protections apartment tenants do not get — a longer rent-increase notice, a late-fee cap, a utility-markup cap, and (since SB 2385, 2025) the ability to raise a park’s violation of § 47-10-28 as a defense in an eviction case.

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 North Dakota 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 a rent increase takes effect on a month-to-month mobile home park tenancy under N.D.C.C. § 47-10-28 (ordinary apartment tenants get only 30). Separately, a buyer of an existing park may not raise the monthly rent for 6 months if rent was already raised within the 60 days before the sale closed.

Is there a cap? NO CAP — North Dakota sets no percentage limit on lot rent increases. The only limits are the 90-day notice and the 6-month post-sale freeze in N.D.C.C. § 47-10-28. Unlike New Jersey (3.5 percent) or Oregon (about 6 percent), North Dakota has no rent cap.

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 North Dakota 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

North Dakota does NOT limit park evictions to a short “good cause” list the way many park acts do. The general grounds in N.D.C.C. § 47-32-01 apply — nonpayment of rent, material breach of the lease or park rules, waste or damage, unlawful activity on the premises, and holding over after the tenancy ends. A month-to-month lot tenancy can also be ended without stating a reason on proper notice.

Since SB 2385 (2025), you may be able to defend an eviction by showing the park violated N.D.C.C. § 47-10-28, and a court may decline to order eviction in that situation.

This list matters enormously: it means a park in North Dakota 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: North Dakota gives NO statutory right of first refusal and NO statutory opportunity-to-purchase window for residents when a park is sold — the 2025 SB 2385 as introduced was described as including a right of first refusal, but the enacted version dealt with park licensing, receivership, and an eviction defense.

What you do get under N.D.C.C. § 47-10-28: written notice to each tenant within 5 business days after the change of ownership takes effect, including a designated phone number, an emergency contact number, and contact information for a person with authority to make decisions for the owner; acknowledgment of tenant inquiries or complaints within 2 business days;

a copy of your existing lease terms within 10 business days of a written request; the 6-month rent freeze described above;

and a bar on the new owner forcing you to sell your home to the park. A pre-sale notice period to residents: UNVERIFIED.

When the park closes: UNVERIFIED — North Dakota does not appear to have a statute setting a fixed closure or land-conversion notice period, and there is no state relocation-assistance fund or dollar payment for displaced mobile home owners. Absent a lease term, a month-to-month lot tenancy would end on the ordinary 30-day notice. Check with your city or county, which may impose its own conditions on closing a licensed park.

Fees the Park Can and Cannot Charge in North Dakota

Late fees are capped by N.D.C.C. § 47-10-28 — a monthly late fee may not exceed 10 percent of the monthly rent, and any daily late fee may not exceed 5 dollars per day.

Utilities: the park may bill you as part of rent or as a separate charge based on actual usage, but may not charge more than the actual per-unit cost the park pays the utility provider, plus a reasonable administrative fee that may not exceed 3 dollars.

If utilities are bundled into your rent, the park may not back-charge you unless its cost of providing the service actually increased. A violation of § 47-10-28 can carry a civil penalty of at least 2500 dollars and up to the greater of 10000 dollars or actual damages, plus actual attorney’s fees and costs.

Entry fees, exit fees, and guest fees: UNVERIFIED — North Dakota does not appear to ban them by statute.

The park’s side of the bargain: The park itself must hold a state license and meet the mobile home park rules in N.D. Admin. Code ch. 33-33-01, enforced by North Dakota Health and Human Services and local public health units under N.D.C.C. ch.

23-10 — covering a safe and tested water supply, approved sewage and plumbing meeting the state plumbing code, refuse handling, fire and life safety requirements, service building maintenance, and noxious plant and animal control.

Under SB 2385 (2025) a court may place a park into receivership, with the commissioner or a designee using park income to correct violations, and may suspend or revoke a park’s license. Ordinary landlord repair duties under N.D.C.C. ch. 47-16 also apply to what the park supplies.

The Trapped-Equity Problem and How to Protect Yourself

The economics of a mobile home park in North Dakota 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 North Dakota 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 North Dakota 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. North dakota 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 North Dakota: SB 2243 (2023) expanded park owner disclosure duties and penalties under N.D.C.C. § 47-10-28. SB 2385, signed April 23, 2025, added court-ordered receivership for troubled mobile home parks, tightened licensing under N.D.C.C. ch. 23-10, and lets a park tenant raise the owner’s violation of § 47-10-28 as a defense in an eviction.

Resident groups in Bismarck and Minot pushed for a right of first refusal on park sales after out-of-state buyers raised lot rent and fees, but no rent cap or purchase right became law — verify the current text with the Legislative Branch before relying on it.

North Dakota Mobile Home Park Laws: Quick Answers

Can the park raise lot rent whenever it wants? The North Dakota 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 North Dakota 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 North Dakota mobile home park laws are their own chapter, and this page plus the state guides linked below cover both layers.

Official North Dakota Sources & Resources

• North Dakota State Agency: attorneygeneral.nd.gov/consumer-resources/tenant-rights/
• North Dakota Park Act Statute: ndlegis.gov/cencode/t47c10.pdf
• U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development: hud.gov
• Cornell Legal Information Institute: law.cornell.edu/wex

Making North Dakota Mobile Home Park Laws Work for You

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

This guide to north dakota 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 North Dakota Tenant Rights Guides

• North Dakota Tenant Rights
• North Dakota Eviction Process
• North Dakota Security Deposit Law
• North Dakota Rent Increase Laws
• North Dakota Repairs & Habitability
• Breaking a Lease in North Dakota
• Eviction Timeline Calculator
• All 50 States

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.