Pennsylvania Mobile Home Park Laws

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

By Oleg Kachko · Updated August 22, 2026

✓ Law Verified August 2026

Pennsylvania 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 Pennsylvania sources as of August 2026.

Pennsylvania Mobile Home Park Laws at a Glance

The law that governs parks Manufactured Home Community Rights Act (formerly Mobile Home Park Rights Act), Act 261 of Nov. 24, 1976, P.L. 1176, 68 P.S. §§ 398.1–398.18, amended by Act 80 of 2010 and Act 156 of 2012
Notice before a lot rent increase 60 days written notice when the lease term is longer than 60 days or the community requires you to sign a new lease, amendment, or addendum; 30 days written notice in all other cases (for example a month-to-month lot lease with no new lease to sign). Notice must be mailed to residents by first-class mail and posted in the rental office or another conspicuous common area. Lot rent may not be changed more than once in any 12-month period, and it may not be raised during the term of a fixed-term lease.
Cap on lot rent increases NO CAP
Eviction notice periods Nonpayment of rent: written notice by certified or registered mail giving 20 days to pay if the notice is given on or after April 1 and before September 1, or 30 days to pay if given on or after September 1 and before April 1. Other lease or rule violations: written certified/registered mail notice describing the specific breach, and the community may file in court only if you commit another breach within six months of that notice. Only one nonpayment notice is required in any six-month period, so a second nonpayment within that six months can go straight to court. Closure or change of land use: the closure notice must give a vacate date at least 180 days out (see park_closure).

Why Park Living Has Its Own Rulebook in Pennsylvania

Pennsylvania treats it as a separate legal arrangement from apartment renting: you own the home as your property but lease only the lot/space, so the community owner controls the land under your home. The Act applies to communities with three or more manufactured homes where residents own or are buying the home and rent the space.

Because moving a home costs thousands and sites are scarce, the Act gives lot renters protections apartment tenants do not have — a mandatory written lease, only one rent change per 12 months, a closed list of eviction grounds, and relocation payments if the community closes.

The ordinary Landlord and Tenant Act of 1951 still fills gaps (for example security deposits), and the Act is enforced by the Attorney General’s Bureau of Consumer Protection, your county District Attorney, or a private lawsuit you may be able to bring yourself.

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 Pennsylvania 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: 60 days written notice when the lease term is longer than 60 days or the community requires you to sign a new lease, amendment, or addendum; 30 days written notice in all other cases (for example a month-to-month lot lease with no new lease to sign). Notice must be mailed to residents by first-class mail and posted in the rental office or another conspicuous common area.

Lot rent may not be changed more than once in any 12-month period, and it may not be raised during the term of a fixed-term lease.

Is there a cap? NO 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 Pennsylvania 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

Pennsylvania limits lot evictions to three grounds — (1) nonpayment of rent; (2) a second or additional breach of the lease or of the written community rules within a six-month period after written notice of the first breach; and (3) a change in the use of the community land or a part of it, including closure of the community.

Rules must be reasonable, must have been given to you in writing before you paid any deposit, fee, or rent, and must be applied uniformly to all residents in the same category. Retaliatory rules or non-uniform charges may give you a defense — check with your court or a legal aid office.

This list matters enormously: it means a park in Pennsylvania 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: If the community is sold or leased, the owner must give written notice of the sale or lease to every resident and tenant and to the Pennsylvania Housing Finance Agency (PHFA) within 30 days after the agreement of sale is signed; notice to PHFA goes by certified mail to its legal department.

Residents who register their contact information with PHFA are sent a copy of any notice of sale, lease, or closure within 10 days of PHFA receiving it.

Pennsylvania does NOT currently give residents a right of first refusal or a statutory right to make a matching offer to buy the community — that change is what SB 746 of 2025-26 would add. You may still be able to organize a resident association and negotiate directly with the seller; PHFA and nonprofit ROC lenders are the usual starting point.

When the park closes: The owner must give written notice of closure to residents, tenants, and PHFA within 60 days of deciding to close, and the notice must state an expected vacate date no less than 180 days (about 6 months) from the date of the notice.

The community owner must pay relocation expenses equal to the actual cost of relocating your home, capped at 4000 for a single-section home and 6000 for a multi-section home; these caps are adjusted annually for the Consumer Price Index by DCED, and published adjusted figures have reached 4543.72 single-section and 6815.58 multi-section — ask PHFA or DCED for the current-year figure before you settle.

If you cannot find a reasonably suitable replacement site or are unwilling to move the home, the owner must instead pay the greater of 2500 or the home’s appraised value, appraised by a certified residential real estate appraiser experienced with manufactured homes.

Fees the Park Can and Cannot Charge in Pennsylvania

Entrance fees and exit fees are barred outright. Installation and removal fees may not exceed the community owner’s actual cost of providing that service. All fees and all service charges payable to the owner — water, sewer, trash, electricity, gas piped underground to the unit, fuel, internet, and cable — must be fully disclosed in writing before you sign the lease, and undisclosed fees may not be collected.

Rental charges and rules must be applied uniformly to all lessees in the same or a similar category, so a fee charged only to you may be challengeable. A reasonable security deposit is still allowed under the Landlord and Tenant Act of 1951. A specific statutory cap on utility markups above the owner’s cost is UNVERIFIED.

The park’s side of the bargain: Every lot lease must be in writing and must set out the services and facilities the community owner provides, so what the owner owes you on roads, water, sewer, trash, lighting, and common areas is defined by that written lease and by the written community rules — read them before assuming a duty exists.

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The MHCRA itself does not spell out a detailed maintenance standard for roads, water, sewer, and common areas; those duties come from your lease, Pennsylvania’s implied warranty of habitability for residential leases, county and municipal property-maintenance and health codes, and DEP drinking-water and sewage permitting rules where the community runs its own system.

A community-specific maintenance standard inside the Act is UNVERIFIED — many residents get faster results by reporting failed water, sewage, or road conditions to the local code office or county health department alongside a written complaint to the owner.

The Trapped-Equity Problem and How to Protect Yourself

The economics of a mobile home park in Pennsylvania 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 Pennsylvania 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 Pennsylvania 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. Pennsylvania 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 Pennsylvania: HB 1250 of 2025, which would tie lot rent increases to the Consumer Price Index with carve-outs for extraordinary expenses and repairs, passed the Pennsylvania House 144-59 on June 10, 2025, but has stalled in the Senate and is not law as of August 21, 2026.

SB 746, which would give residents a right of first refusal when a community is sold, passed the Senate Urban Affairs and Housing Committee unanimously on June 8, 2026 and was re-referred to Senate Appropriations on June 30, 2026.

Governor Shapiro and legislators have publicly pushed these reforms after out-of-state and private-equity buyers imposed steep lot rent hikes, so check the General Assembly bill pages before relying on the no-cap, no-first-refusal status quo.

Pennsylvania Mobile Home Park Laws: Quick Answers

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

Making Pennsylvania Mobile Home Park Laws Work for You

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

This guide to pennsylvania 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 Pennsylvania 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.