Manufactured Homes: What Happens If I'm Behind on My Land Lease Payments?

If you own a manufactured home on land owned by someone else, you most likely lease or rent the land. If you fall behind on the payments for the site, you might be evicted and have to move your manufactured home.

What Happens If You Don't Make Mortgage or Land Lease Payments on a Manufactured Home?

Manufactured homes, formerly called "mobile homes," are constructed on a permanent chassis, with a tongue, axles, and wheels that are transported to a residential site in one or more sections.

Here's what happens if you fall behind on mortgage or land lease payments for a manufactured home.

Missed Mortgage Payments Can Lead to Foreclosure or Repossession

A manufactured home may be assessed as real or personal property and can be foreclosed (or repossessed) if you have a loan on the home itself and you stop making the payments.

Missed Land Lease Payments Can Lead to Eviction

If the manufactured home is on land owned by a third party, you probably lease or rent the land. If you stop making the payments for the land, you can be evicted and might have to relocate the manufactured home.

Special Protections for Homes Located in Manufactured Home Parks

Manufactured home owners generally must move their home off the land following an eviction.

But once a manufactured home has been deposited in a park and hooked up to electricity, sewer, and water, it can be quite difficult to relocate the home. In fact, moving the home might cause permanent damage to the structure.

So, some states strictly regulate manufactured home parks to protect manufactured home owners from eviction.

Evictions and Manufactured Home Parks

Manufactured home parks generally can't evict a resident for no cause. For example, certain states provide that a manufactured home owner who rents a space or site in a licensed manufactured home park can only be evicted for "just cause" such as:

• nonpayment of rent
• not living up to a condition in the lease agreement (like not maintaining your space), or
• conduct in the park that constitutes an annoyance or danger to other tenants.

Generally, the park owner has to file an action in court to evict you. Some states have a procedure similar to regular landlord and tenant actions, while others have particular laws that address manufactured home park evictions. Some laws might even permit the park owner to seize your home.

Residents' rights in manufactured home parks usually differ from those of manufactured home owners who don't live in a park. Also, laws vary from state to state.

Talk to a Lawyer

Check with a local attorney in your state if you have concerns about being evicted from a manufactured home park or another site. You might also be able to get information from a manufactured home park tenants' association or a manufactured home owners' association.

How Does the Manufactured Home Eviction Process Work?

Once you fall behind in rent payments, the land owner will typically have to send you a written eviction notice, sometimes called a "Notice of Termination of Tenancy" or a "Notice to Quit," that begins the eviction process. Next, the owner usually must file a lawsuit asking the court to order you to remove the home from the site and leave.

Then, you have a specific number of days to respond to the suit. If you don't file an answer, the court will grant a default judgment in favor of the owner, and you'll have to move the home.

Even if you respond to the lawsuit, the court might still decide in favor of the land owner and order you to leave the site taking the home with you. (If you're a tenant renting both the space and the manufactured home, generally, you'll be treated in the same manner as an apartment tenant in an eviction. To learn how that works, visit our Renters' and Tenants' Rights area.)

Resident-Owned Manufactured Home Communities

Small mom-and-pop business owners operate many of the country's manufactured home parks, while large corporations own others. Either of these third parties may implement excessive rent increases or fees from residents to generate profits.

To avoid rent and fee increases, a growing trend is for residents to come together to purchase the manufactured home park in which they reside. They then own shares of the community. This arrangement is often referred to as a "resident-owned community."

The residents form a board of directors, which determines the bylaws for how the park will operate as a cooperative. After the park becomes a co-op, any new person moving into the park is normally required to become a member.

Benefits of Living in a Resident-Owned Manufactured Home Community

Resident-owned communities are becoming more popular because they protect residents from many downsides of renting from a park owner. For instance, the community members, rather than a third-party park owner, decide matters like rent escalations.

Also, sometimes third-party park owners choose to sell the park's land to developers to make way for expanding commercial development or other growth, forcing residents to move. When residents own the community, there's little risk of this event occurring.

For More Information

For general information regarding manufactured homes, go to HUD's website and enter "manufactured home" in the search box to find a list of relevant links.

If you lease or rent a space in a manufactured home community and have questions about your legal rights, consider talking to a lawyer.