Maine Mobile Home Park Laws
Maine's mobile home park law, chapter 953 of Title 10, governs the tenancy of a resident who owns the home and rents the lot beneath it in a park of two or more homes, and three rules carry most of the weight: lot rent may be raised only once per calendar year and only on ninety days' written notice, a tenancy may be ended only for one of nine listed reasons, and closing the park or changing its use takes a year's written notice.
Cited to 10 M.R.S. ch. 953 and 7 more sources · Verified August 18, 2026
There is no ceiling on lot rent. What the statute builds instead is a disclosure and mediation route, under which the increase notice must publish a benchmark figure drawn from the average lot rent for comparable communities in the area plus one percent above the Northeast regional consumer price index, and residents of fifty-one percent or more of the households may force an above-benchmark increase into mediation at the park owner's expense. Maine also gives residents a genuine first option to buy the park: the owner must send notice of an intent to sell to every home owner and to the Maine State Housing Authority by certified mail, may not accept an offer for at least sixty days, and must hand the park to a residents' group whose agreement matches the price and terms of the offer on the table. Residents may assign that right by majority vote to their municipality, to a housing authority or to a nonprofit. Two acts signed in April 2026 and in force since July 29, 2026 added the once-a-year rent limit, extended the sale rules to a transfer of a controlling interest in the park's owner, and rewrote a $10,000-per-lot transfer assessment on large purchasers.
| Governing act | Regulation of Mobile Home Parks; Landlord and Tenant — 10 M.R.S. ch. 953 |
|---|---|
| Federal lender protections already required by state law | 5 of 8 (see the table) |
Each row below is a state rule (with its citation) or an honest "no state rule" with what governs instead — lease terms and the general landlord-tenant law still apply where the park act is silent. This page covers a resident who owns the home and rents the lot; a home rented from the park is an ordinary Maine tenancy.
On this page: Scope · Lot rent, fees and utilities · Lease, rules and disclosure · Termination and eviction · Closure and change of use · Sale of the park · The resident's home · Federal lender protections · Common questions · Citations
A. Scope — who and what the act covers
| Rule | Maine law | Source |
|---|---|---|
| State agency with a role in park tenancies | Maine State Housing Authority, which receives every park-sale notice and decides transfer-assessment exemptions, with the Attorney General enforcing the chapter through the unfair trade practices laws and the Manufactured Housing Board licensing communities and setting the used-home standard Maine has no manufactured-home ombudsman and no state dispute resolution program; enforcement runs through the courts and the unfair trade practices laws. The Maine State Housing Authority must be sent the notice of intent to sell a park by certified mail, and since July 29, 2026 it decides within 45 days whether a purchaser is exempt from the transfer assessment. The Attorney General may investigate transfer-assessment violations and sue for damages and license forfeiture. The Manufactured Housing Board adopts the used manufactured home standard that a pre-1976 home must meet at the time of sale. | 10 M.R.S. § 9094-A (1); 10 M.R.S. § 9100; P.L. 2025, c. 688, § 14 (10 M.R.S. § 9094-B) § 9094-B(3-A), (6); 10 M.R.S. § 9094 (2)(F-1) |
| Resident may sue under the act | Yes A resident may sue under the chapter. Any park resident may sue to enforce the rental-agreement section and the court may award damages or grant injunctive or other appropriate relief. A resident, a group of residents or a residents' association aggrieved by a violation of the park-sale rules may sue in Superior Court for injunctive relief, damages and attorney's fees. Wrongful retention of a lot security deposit carries double damages plus reasonable attorney's fees and court costs, and a habitability complaint goes to the District or Superior Court. | 10 M.R.S. § 9097 (6); 10 M.R.S. § 9094-A (4); 10 M.R.S. § 9098 (3); 10 M.R.S. § 9099 (2) |
| Minimum park size for the act to apply (lots) | 2 lots The chapter applies to a park of two or more homes. A mobile home park is any parcel of land under single or common ownership or control that contains, or is designed, laid out or adapted to accommodate, two or more mobile homes. A tenant is a mobile home owner who rents a parcel of land in such a park, which is the relationship this record covers. | 10 M.R.S. § 9091 (2), (5) |
| Other size thresholds that switch rules on | No state rule No lot count switches any rule in the chapter on or off. Every rule applies once two or more homes can be accommodated. A neighboring definition sets three homes as the line for a manufactured housing community in the licensing chapter, but the rent-increase section closes by pulling mobile home parks into its own scope regardless of that count. The thresholds in the transfer assessment are net-worth figures of $50,000,000 and $75,000,000, not lot counts. | 10 M.R.S. § 9091 (2); 10 M.R.S. § 9081 (2); 10 M.R.S. § 9093-B final paragraph |
| Park-owned rental homes | Partly covered by this act A home the park itself owns and rents out is partly covered. Ending that tenancy is governed by the terms of the lease, or by the tenancy-at-will rules of Title 14, rather than by the grounds this chapter lists. But the lot security deposit rules and the implied warranty of habitability both reach a person who rents the home and the lot together, so those two protections apply either way. | 10 M.R.S. § 9097 (12); 10 M.R.S. § 9098 (4); 10 M.R.S. § 9099 (6) |
| RVs and park-model homes | No state rule The chapter never uses the words recreational vehicle or park model. Coverage turns entirely on a dimensional definition: a mobile home is a structure eight body feet or more in width and thirty-two body feet or more in length, built on a permanent chassis and designed to be used as a dwelling with or without a permanent foundation when connected to the required utilities. A unit below those dimensions falls outside the chapter, while a large park model on a permanent chassis used as a dwelling could fall inside it. Nothing in Maine law draws the line by vehicle type. | 10 M.R.S. § 9091 (1) |
| Local rent regulation of park lots | No statute addresses local regulation of lot rents No Maine statute addresses local regulation of park lot rents. The chapter neither preempts nor authorizes it, and the rent-increase section speaks only to the community owner. Maine's general municipal power statute runs the other way from preemption: a municipality may exercise any power the Legislature could confer that is not denied expressly or by clear implication, an ordinance enacted under it carries a rebuttable presumption of validity, and the Legislature is not held to have implicitly denied a power unless the ordinance would frustrate the purpose of a state law. The one statute that does limit municipalities on parks restricts only physical requirements such as lot size, roads, setbacks, buffers and utilities. | 30-A M.R.S. § 3001 (1), (2), (3); 30-A M.R.S. § 4358 (3); 10 M.R.S. § 9093-B |
B. Lot rent, fees and utilities
| Rule | Maine law | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Notice before a lot-rent increase | 90 days Ninety days' written notice is required before a lot rent or fee increase takes effect. The notice must carry a list of disclosures set out in the statute, including the owner's contact details, the dollar amount and type of the increase, the average lot rent and fees for a community with equivalent services and amenities in the area, a benchmark figure built from that average, the twelve-month change in the Consumer Price Index for the Northeast Region, and a statement of the resident's right to request mediation. Since July 29, 2026 the section does not apply to a resident-owned community, meaning one in which the residents form a cooperative that controls, manages and operates the community. | 10 M.R.S. § 9093-B (1), (2); 10 M.R.S. § 9093 (2); P.L. 2025, c. 688, § 13 (10 M.R.S. § 9093-B) § 9093-B(5) |
| How often rent may be raised | Lot rent may not be raised more than once per calendar year. An owner may not increase the lot rent more than once per calendar year. The limit was added by the 2026 act and took effect on July 29, 2026; the Revisor's statute page for the section had not yet been regenerated when this record was written. It reaches lot rent, and the section sets no equivalent frequency limit on fees, though every fee increase still needs the same ninety days' notice. | P.L. 2025, c. 691, § 1 (10 M.R.S. § 9093-B) § 9093-B(1-A); 10 M.R.S. § 9093-B (1) |
| Statewide limit on lot-rent increases | No state rule Maine sets no ceiling on lot rent. What the statute builds instead is a disclosure and mediation route: the increase notice must state a benchmark figure, calculated as the average lot rent for a community with equivalent services and amenities in the area increased by one percent above the Consumer Price Index for the Northeast Region, and the notice must also state the twelve-month change in that index. The statute calls that figure the allowed lot rent increase, with a parallel figure for each type of fee, but nothing makes a larger increase unlawful or void. An increase above the benchmark can be pulled into mediation, and the only consequence the statute attaches is delay, not invalidity. What limits an increase is therefore the ninety days' notice, the once-a-calendar-year rule and the mediation route, together with whatever the rental agreement says. | 10 M.R.S. § 9093-B (2)(C)–(E), (3), (4); P.L. 2025, c. 691, § 1 (10 M.R.S. § 9093-B) § 9093-B(2)(D), (G), (3) |
| How a resident can challenge an increase | Residents of at least 51 percent of the households may force an above-benchmark increase into mediation, at the owner's expense, by certified mail within 90 days of the notice. Mediation is the route, and it is available only where the increase exceeds the benchmark the notice must disclose. Since July 29, 2026 the trigger is stated as a percentage: mediation may be requested where the percentage increase in lot rent or fees is greater than the twelve-month change in the Consumer Price Index for the Northeast Region plus one percent. Residents representing fifty-one percent or more of the households must sign a written request and mail it by certified mail to the community owner within ninety days of the notice. The parties then have fifteen days to choose an independent third-party mediator together and must meet within thirty days of the request being mailed. The community owner pays all costs of the mediator and the mediation. If the owner acts in bad faith the increase may not take effect for at least six months from the date the request was mailed. Failing to take part is bad faith, and so, since July 29, 2026, is requiring, requesting or obtaining a nondisclosure agreement or similar agreement from a resident as part of the process. | 10 M.R.S. § 9093-B (3), (4); P.L. 2025, c. 691, § 1 (10 M.R.S. § 9093-B) § 9093-B(2)(G), (3), (4) |
| Entrance fee prohibited | No An entrance fee is allowed but capped. The park may charge no fees other than rent, utilities, reasonable incidental service charges, entrance fees or security deposits, unless the original lease or agreement provides otherwise, and an entrance fee charged to a resident moving into a home already in the park may not be greater than two times the monthly rent, whatever the fee is called. A separate section bars any fee simply for submitting or reviewing a rental application, allowing only the actual cost of a background check, a credit check or another screening process, and only once in any twelve-month period. | 10 M.R.S. § 9097 (3); 10 M.R.S. § 9093-A (1), (2) |
| Exit or removal fee prohibited | No state rule No section bars an exit or removal fee. The fee section lists what may be charged without naming a charge for leaving, and the disclosure section points the other way, expressly permitting a park rule requiring all rent and other fees to be paid in full before the home is removed from the park, sold, or occupied by a new tenant or owner. What governs is therefore the closed list of chargeable items in the fee section together with the duty to disclose every fee in writing before occupancy, which makes an undisclosed charge uncollectible. | 10 M.R.S. § 9097 (3); 10 M.R.S. § 9093 (1), (3), (4) |
| Undisclosed fees uncollectible | Yes A fee the park failed to disclose cannot be collected. The park must disclose fully in writing all fees, charges, assessments and rules before a resident takes up occupancy, and where it fails to do so those fees, charges or assessments may not be collected. The park also may not use the resident's refusal to pay an undisclosed charge as a cause for eviction in any court. | 10 M.R.S. § 9093 (1), (3) |
| Utility billing rules | A park may not make a resident buy fuel oil or bottled gas from a particular dealer, and a park running its own central distribution system may not charge more than the county's average retail price. Maine's utility rules for parks are built around heating fuel. No park may require, as a condition of tenancy or continued tenancy, that a resident buy fuel oil or bottled gas from any particular dealer or distributor. That restriction does not apply where the park provides a centralized distribution system, but then the park may not charge residents more than the average retail price charged by other retail distributors in the county where the park is located. Utilities are one of the items the park may charge for, they must be disclosed in writing before occupancy, and nonpayment of utility charges is a ground for ending the tenancy. | 10 M.R.S. § 9095 opening paragraph, (1); 10 M.R.S. § 9097 (3), (1)(A); 10 M.R.S. § 9093 (1) |
| Submetering required or regulated | No state rule Nothing requires individual meters or regulates a submetering system. The utility section governs who a resident may be made to buy heating fuel from and what a central distribution system may charge; the fee section governs what may be charged at all; and the disclosure section governs what must be written down before occupancy. None of the three reaches how a utility is measured. Metering is left to the rental agreement and to the utility's own arrangements. | 10 M.R.S. § 9095; 10 M.R.S. § 9097 (3); 10 M.R.S. § 9093 (1) |
| Lot security deposit rules | A lot security deposit may not exceed three months' rent, must be held beyond the claim of creditors, and must be returned with interest, or accounted for in writing, within 21 days after the tenancy ends. The deposit must be held in an account of a bank or other financial institution under terms that place it beyond the claim of creditors. Nothing may be kept for normal wear and tear, which the chapter defines as deterioration occurring without negligence, carelessness, accident or abuse. Interest is either what the deposit actually earned in a segregated savings account or a reasonable annual amount, measured against a Federal Reserve secondary-market rate on a six-month certificate of deposit. A park that misses the twenty-one-day deadline forfeits the right to withhold any part of the deposit. Wrongful retention makes the park liable for double the amount wrongfully withheld together with reasonable attorney's fees and court costs, and the park carries the burden of showing the withholding was justified. The section also protects a person who rents the home and the lot together. | 10 M.R.S. § 9098 (1), (2), (3), (4), (5); 10 M.R.S. § 9091 (3), (4) |
C. Lease, rules and disclosure
| Rule | Maine law | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Written lease | Not required A written lease is not required; the chapter assumes an agreement may be oral. It bars the park from varying the terms of a written or oral rental agreement without the resident's express written consent, and the habitability warranty is written into any written or oral agreement for the rental of a space. What must be in writing is the disclosure package rather than the lease: before any rental agreement is entered into the park must give every resident and prospective resident a written copy of the park rules and a written copy of this chapter, and it must disclose all fees, charges, assessments and rules in writing before occupancy begins. | 10 M.R.S. § 9097 (5), (8); 10 M.R.S. § 9099 (1); 10 M.R.S. § 9093 (1) |
| Minimum lease term that must be offered | No state rule No minimum term must be offered, and none is the default. The rental-agreement section governs what the agreement may contain and how it may be ended without setting how long it runs, and it treats the lease's own terms and expressed conditions as a ground for termination, which presupposes whatever term the parties agreed. What governs the length of the tenancy is the agreement itself, with a tenancy at will falling under the general rules in Title 14. | 10 M.R.S. § 9097 (1)(H); 14 M.R.S. § 6002 |
| Notice to end a tenancy without cause | No state rule There is no notice period for ending a lot tenancy without cause, because there is no route to do so. A tenancy may be terminated by a park owner or operator only for one or more of the nine reasons the chapter lists, and each carries its own notice period. A separate section closes one gap directly: a tenancy may not be ended solely to free the space for someone who bought a home from the park owner. | 10 M.R.S. § 9097 (1); 10 M.R.S. § 9096 |
| Notice before park rules change | 30 days Thirty days' written notice must go to all residents before any park rule changes. A rent or fee increase is carved out of that rule and takes the ninety-day notice the rent section sets instead. Park rules must in any case be reasonable, uniformly applied, and reasonably related to preserving the order and peace of the other residents and the park. | 10 M.R.S. § 9093 (2); 10 M.R.S. § 9097 (4) |
| Disclosure document | Written rules and terms must be given Maine prescribes no state-drafted handbook, but three written packages are compulsory. All fees, charges, assessments and rules must be disclosed fully in writing before a resident takes up occupancy. Before any rental agreement is entered into, every resident and prospective resident must be given a written copy of the park rules and a written copy of this chapter. And every lot rent or fee increase notice must carry a list of contents fixed by statute, running to seven items since July 29, 2026. An applicant charged for a background check, credit check or other screening must also be given a complete copy of the information obtained. | 10 M.R.S. § 9093 (1); 10 M.R.S. § 9097 (5); 10 M.R.S. § 9093-B (2); 10 M.R.S. § 9093-A (2) |
| Residents' right to meet and organize | No state rule The chapter gives residents no right to meet, organize, distribute information or use common areas. What it gives instead is protection after the fact: a court may not order the termination of a tenancy if the resident proves the eviction is primarily in retaliation for participating in or belonging to an organization concerned with landlord-tenant relationships, and the general eviction statute raises a rebuttable presumption of retaliation on the same facts. Neither compels the park to allow a meeting, so what governs is the park rules, which must be reasonable and uniformly applied. | 10 M.R.S. § 9097 (1-A)(A), (4); 14 M.R.S. § 6001 (3) |
| Owner entry onto the lot or into the home | No state rule The chapter sets no rule on the park owner entering the lot or the home. It grants no right of entry and imposes no notice requirement or limit on one; entry is not mentioned anywhere in the chapter. Maine's general residential entry rule is written around entry into a dwelling unit, which in this relationship the resident owns rather than rents. What governs access to the rented lot is therefore the rental agreement and the park rules, which must be reasonable, uniformly applied and reasonably related to preserving the order and peace of the other residents and the park. | 10 M.R.S. § 9097 (4); 14 M.R.S. § 6025 |
| Retaliation prohibited | Yes A court may not order the termination of a tenancy where the resident proves the eviction is primarily retaliatory. The two protected reasons named in the chapter are the resident's participation in establishing, or membership in, an organization concerned with landlord-tenant relationships, and the resident's assertion of any right under the chapter. The general eviction statute adds a rebuttable presumption of retaliation where, within the previous six months, the resident asserted a right, complained of a code violation, asked for repairs or filed a fair-housing complaint, and a writ of possession may not issue unless that presumption is rebutted. | 10 M.R.S. § 9097 (1-A); 14 M.R.S. § 6001 (3) |
D. Termination and eviction
| Rule | Maine law | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Just cause required to end a tenancy | Yes A tenancy may be terminated by a park owner or operator only for one or more of the nine reasons the chapter lists. The limit reaches non-renewal as well as termination during a term, since the chapter states the grounds as the only route to ending the tenancy. A separate section adds that a tenancy may not be ended solely to make the space available to someone who bought a home from the park owner or the owner's agents. | 10 M.R.S. § 9097 (1); 10 M.R.S. § 9096 |
| Grounds for termination |
| 10 M.R.S. § 9097 (1)(A)–(I), (2) |
| Notice for nonpayment of lot rent | 30 days Thirty days' written notice is required to end a tenancy for nonpayment. The notice must state the amount owed and must tell the resident that paying the full amount of rent due before the notice expires cancels its effect on the rent arrears. The ground itself carries the same cure right in stronger terms: no action for possession may be maintained if, before the notice to quit expires, the resident pays or tenders all arrears due plus five percent of the outstanding rent, or a maximum of $5, as liquidated damages. | 10 M.R.S. § 9097 (1)(A), (2) |
| Notice for a rule or lease violation | 45 days Forty-five days' written notice is required for a rule or lease violation, and for every ground except nonpayment. The notice must refer to the relevant provisions of the lease or the park rules and must state the reasons for the termination. Before the park-rules ground or the law-and-ordinance ground can be used at all, the resident must first have written notice of the failure and a reasonable opportunity to comply. Notice is served by certified or first-class mail to the last known address, or, where the park has made at least three witnessed good-faith efforts on three separate days to serve the resident, by mailing first class and leaving the notice at the resident's space. | 10 M.R.S. § 9097 (1)(B), (1)(E), (2) |
| Repeat-violation rule | Three violations in a 12-month period of the nonpayment ground, the law-and-ordinance ground or the park-rules ground are themselves a ground for termination. The count runs across three of the chapter's grounds, so late rent, a code or ordinance failure and a park-rules failure can be added together toward the three. A separate ground reaches repeated conduct that disturbs the peace and quiet or safety of other residents without setting any count. | 10 M.R.S. § 9097 (1)(D), (1)(I) |
| Time to sell or remove the home after termination | 21 days A resident or lienholder who answers the park's notice has twenty-one calendar days to take possession of the home. After the park obtains a judgment for forcible entry and detainer it must mail written notice of its intent to dispose of the home, with proof of mailing, to the resident's last known address and to any known lienholder. If no one responds within fourteen calendar days the park may dispose of the home; if someone does respond, the twenty-one days run. This is a window to claim and remove the home rather than a right to sell it in place, and the chapter grants no post-eviction sale window. | 10 M.R.S. § 9097 (1-B) |
| Abandoned-home procedure | Yes The chapter sets a full procedure for a home left behind after an eviction judgment. The park must send written notice by first-class mail, with proof of mailing, to the resident's last known address and a copy to any known lienholder, stating that it intends to dispose of the home. Fourteen calendar days without a response lets the park dispose of it; a response starts a twenty-one-day period to take possession. The park may then condition release on payment, sell the home or dispose of it. A parallel rule protects secured lenders: before evicting the resident the park must give the lienholder written notice by certified mail at the same time it serves the notice to quit, and a lienholder that takes possession and assumes the tenancy is liable for arrears of no more than three months' rent and recurring fees. | 10 M.R.S. § 9097 (1-B), (2-B); 10 M.R.S. § 9093 (4) |
| Mediation or dispute-resolution requirement | Mediation is built into every park eviction, and a lot rent or fee increase above the disclosed benchmark can be forced into mediation at the owner's expense. Two separate duties run. On eviction, the chapter requires the forcible entry and detainer process of Title 14, chapter 709 to be used in mobile home evictions, and states that the process includes the mediation that chapter provides. On rent, residents of fifty-one percent or more of the households may require mediation of an above-benchmark increase by written request sent by certified mail within ninety days of the notice; the parties choose an independent third-party mediator within fifteen days and must meet within thirty days, and the community owner pays all costs of the mediator and the mediation. | 10 M.R.S. § 9097-B; 10 M.R.S. § 9093-B (3), (4); 14 M.R.S. ch. 709 subch. 1 |
E. Closure and change of use
| Rule | Maine law | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Notice before closure or change of use | 12 months Changing the use of the park takes a year's written notice to the resident. The rule sits inside the list of grounds for ending a tenancy rather than in a separate closure section, which is why it is easy to miss. Two limits matter: the year applies to a change of use and not to condemnation, which is a ground in its own right with no stated period, and the year does not apply at all where the resident was given notice of the scheduled change of use at the beginning of the tenancy. | 10 M.R.S. § 9097 (1)(F) |
| Variants (by trigger or park size) |
| 10 M.R.S. § 9097 (1)(F), (1)(G)(1)–(2) |
| Relocation payment required | Yes The park pays a resident's removal and relocation costs, but only where the eviction is for renovation or reconstruction. It is owed on a temporary renovation eviction, and on the shortened six-month permanent route. No payment attaches to closure, to a change of use or to condemnation, and Maine operates no state fund that pays relocation money to displaced residents. | 10 M.R.S. § 9097 (1)(F), (1)(G); 30-A M.R.S. § 4754-B (1) |
| Relocation amounts |
| 10 M.R.S. § 9097 (1)(G)(1)(b), (1)(G)(2)(b) |
| Who pays relocation | The park owner The park owner pays. The duty falls on the park owner or operator, and no public money is available: the state fund created for manufactured housing communities and mobile home parks is directed at maintaining affordability and at supporting ownership by residents, residents' associations, resident-owned cooperatives and nonprofits, not at relocation assistance. | 10 M.R.S. § 9097 (1)(G); 30-A M.R.S. § 4754-B (1); P.L. 2025, c. 688, § 15 (30-A M.R.S. § 4754-B) § 4754-B(1) |
| Notice to a government body on closure | No state rule No government body has to be told the park is closing. The closure and change-of-use ground requires notice to the resident and to no one else, and the service rules address the resident alone. The chapter's one notice to a public body runs on a sale rather than a closure: the Maine State Housing Authority must be sent the notice of intent to sell by certified mail. What governs a closure is therefore the year's notice to residents together with whatever municipal land-use approvals the new use requires. | 10 M.R.S. § 9097 (1)(F), (2); 10 M.R.S. § 9094-A (1) |
F. Sale of the park
| Rule | Maine law | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Residents must be told the park is for sale | Yes Residents must be told the park is for sale. The owner must give written notice of the intent to sell to each home owner in the park and to the Maine State Housing Authority, mailed by certified mail with return receipt requested. | 10 M.R.S. § 9094-A (1) |
| What triggers the notice | The owner's intent to sell, with a hard floor of 60 days between the notice and any final unconditional acceptance of an offer. The notice comes before acceptance, and a fixed period separates the two. The owner may not make a final unconditional acceptance of an offer earlier than the sixtieth day after the notice is mailed and received by the Maine State Housing Authority. The notice must state either the price, terms and conditions on which the owner intends to sell, or the price, terms and conditions of any acceptable offer. The duty runs afresh for each substantially different offer. Since July 29, 2026 the trigger reaches deals at the entity level as well: a sale of a mobile home park is defined to include any transfer of the direct or indirect controlling interest in the owner, with a controlling interest set at more than fifty percent and the actions of persons acting in concert added together. | 10 M.R.S. § 9094-A (1), (1)(B), (3-A)(J), (3-B); P.L. 2025, c. 688, §§ 9–12 (10 M.R.S. § 9091) § 9091(2-A), (3-A), (3-B), (3-C) |
| Residents' purchase right | Right of first refusal (match the offer) Residents may match the offer on the table and take the park. Where a group of home owners or a home owners' association proposes a purchase and sale agreement that matches the price and otherwise has substantially equivalent terms and conditions to the offer the owner has conditionally accepted or plans to accept, the group must have the first option to purchase at the price, terms and conditions stated in its own agreement. The owner must negotiate in good faith, may not unreasonably refuse to enter into or unreasonably delay execution of or closing on the agreement, and may not reject a proposal solely because it includes a financing contingency. The group may not be required to pay a nonrefundable deposit as a condition of acceptance. Once the owner accepts, the group has until the ninetieth day after the agreement is signed, plus a commercially reasonable time to close, to obtain financing; if that lapses, the owner's duties end. An owner may record an affidavit of compliance or exemption on which title companies, attorneys and buyers may rely. | 10 M.R.S. § 9094-A (1)(A), (3-A)(B)–(J), (3-C) |
| Time for residents to respond | 60 days Residents have 60 days from the notice to make an offer. The same period is the floor on the owner's side, since no final unconditional acceptance may be made earlier than the sixtieth day after the notice is mailed and received by the Maine State Housing Authority, and the owner must consider any offer received by that sixtieth day. A further ninety days runs after a purchase and sale agreement is signed, for the residents to obtain financing and close. | 10 M.R.S. § 9094-A (1), (1)(A), (3-A)(A), (3-A)(H) |
| Resident-association threshold | 51% At least 51 percent of the qualifying homes must back the offer. The measure is the home owners of at least fifty-one percent of the homes in the park that are occupied by the home owner or a family member, who must sign a petition or otherwise indicate in writing that they support making the offer. The denominator is occupied homes rather than all lots, so vacant and investor-held lots do not count against the residents. The same fifty-one percent figure sets the rent-mediation trigger, measured there by households. | 10 M.R.S. § 9094-A (3-A)(A); 10 M.R.S. § 9093-B (3)(A) |
| Transfers exempt from the sale rules |
| 10 M.R.S. § 9094-A (3-B)(A)–(G) |
| Residents may assign the right to a nonprofit or municipality | Yes Residents may hand their purchase right to another buyer by majority vote. A group of home owners or a home owners' association holding rights under the section may, upon a majority vote, assign those rights to the municipality in which the park is located, to the Maine State Housing Authority or a municipal housing authority, or to a nonprofit organization, as long as the assignee agrees to continue operating the property as a mobile home park. The assignment route was added by the 2025 amendment to the section. | 10 M.R.S. § 9094-A (6) |
| Penalty for violating the sale rules | A resident, a group of residents or a residents' association may sue in Superior Court for injunctive relief, damages and attorney's fees, and a violation is prima facie evidence of an unfair or deceptive trade practice. Any violation of the chapter is a violation of Maine's unfair trade practices laws, which opens the Attorney General's enforcement route alongside the private action. The transfer assessment carries a heavier penalty of its own: a purchaser that knowingly or intentionally fails to pay the fee, or gives false or misleading information in the sworn affirmation of exemption, is liable for three times the fee and forfeits its license to operate, recoverable by the Attorney General in the name of the State Controller, with reasonable attorney's fees. | 10 M.R.S. § 9094-A (4); 10 M.R.S. § 9100; P.L. 2025, c. 688, § 14 (10 M.R.S. § 9094-B) § 9094-B(6) |
G. The resident's home
| Rule | Maine law | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Right to sell the home in place | Yes A park owner may not unreasonably interfere with or discourage a resident's attempt to sell a home situated on a park lot. The park may not require a home to be removed except under a rule contained in the written copy of park rules given to the resident, and those rules must clearly describe the standards under which removal may be required. The park carries the burden of proving that a home does not meet those standards, and it may not restrict reasonable advertising of the home for sale. | 10 M.R.S. § 9094 (1)(C), (2), (2)(B), (4) |
| Park may not take a commission on the sale | Yes The park may not take a commission on the sale unless it actually acted as the seller's agent under a written contract. It also may not require, as a condition of tenancy or continued tenancy, that the home owner appoint the park or anyone else as agent for the sale. | 10 M.R.S. § 9094 (1)(A), (1)(B) |
| Park may screen the buyer | Yes The park may screen a proposed buyer as a new resident. The chapter assumes as much rather than granting it in terms: it gives the buyer a thirty-day right to rescind the purchase contract where the seller represented that the home could stay and the buyer is then not permitted to keep it there or is not accepted as a resident. The park may also require by rule that all rent and fees be paid in full before the home is sold or occupied by a new resident, and a separate section regulates what an applicant may be charged for screening. | 10 M.R.S. § 9094 (3); 10 M.R.S. § 9093 (4); 10 M.R.S. § 9093-A |
| Buyer-approval standard and deadline | No state rule Maine sets no standard the park must apply to a proposed buyer and no deadline for a decision. There is no reasonableness limit on refusing one, and the buyer has no right to take over the seller's rental agreement. What the chapter regulates instead is the cost of applying and the buyer's remedy. No fee may be charged simply to submit, review or approve an application; only the actual cost of a background check, a credit check or another screening process may be charged, no more than one such fee in any twelve-month period, and the applicant must be given a complete copy of the information obtained. A buyer who is refused may rescind the purchase within thirty days where the seller had represented that the home could stay. The general bar on unreasonably interfering with a sale is the only pressure on a refusal. | 10 M.R.S. § 9093-A (1), (2); 10 M.R.S. § 9094 (3), (4) |
| Home may not be rejected for age, size or style alone | Yes Neither the age of the home nor the federal construction standards may on their own justify requiring the home to be removed. No aesthetic standard may be applied to physical characteristics such as size, original construction materials or color that cannot be changed without undue financial hardship to the home owner. The one width exception is a home less than eleven feet six inches wide, which the park may address through its condition rules. | 10 M.R.S. § 9094 (2)(A)(9), (2)(C), (2)(D) |
| Park may require repairs before sale | Yes The park may hold a home to written condition standards, and may require proof of compliance from an older home at the time of sale. Its rules may set fair and reasonable standards for twelve listed features, among them exterior coating or siding, the roof, windows and doors, plumbing, heating and electrical systems, the anchoring system, skirting, steps and handrails, porches and decks, aesthetic appearance and hard-wired smoke detectors. At the time of sale or a change in the principal occupant, a home built before June 15, 1976 may be required to show that it meets the Manufactured Housing Board's standard for used manufactured housing, demonstrated by signed reports from a licensed electrician, a person licensed to repair the heating system and a certified professional engineer. Once a compliant report is delivered the park may not require removal on grounds of fire safety or the safety of the home, and in any dispute the park carries the burden of proving the home falls short. | 10 M.R.S. § 9094 (2)(A), (2)(B), (2)(B-2) |
| Right to post a For Sale sign | Yes The park may not restrict in any manner the reasonable advertising for sale of a home in the park. The one condition is procedural: the home owner must notify the park before placing a for-sale sign or other form of advertising within the park. | 10 M.R.S. § 9094 (1)(C) |
H. The eight federal lender protections — which ones Maine law already requires
Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac require eight tenant site lease protections in every manufactured housing community loan they buy. Where state law already requires a protection of every park, a resident has it whether or not the park has agency financing. Maine law requires 5 of 8. All 50 states are compared in our research study, including the 2018 federal survey baseline.
| Protection | Maine law | Basis |
|---|---|---|
| One-year renewable lease term unless there is good cause for non-renewal | Partly | The cause limb is met in full — a tenancy may be ended only for one of the nine listed reasons, and that limit covers non-renewal as well as termination. The term limb is missing: no section requires the park to offer a one-year term or makes one the default, and the length of the tenancy is left to the agreement. (10 M.R.S. § 9097) |
| 30-day written notice of rent increases | Required | Notice of a lot rent or fee increase must be given no less than ninety days before the increase takes effect, statewide, three times the thirty days this protection asks for. (10 M.R.S. § 9093-B) |
| 5-day grace period for rent payments and the right to cure defaults on rent payments | Required | Rent is not late until fifteen days after it falls due, and a late penalty may then be no more than four percent of one month's rent, which is a fee grace three times the five days this protection asks for. The cure limb is met too: no action for possession may be maintained if the resident pays all arrears plus five percent of the outstanding rent, or a maximum of $5, before the thirty-day nonpayment notice expires. (10 M.R.S. § 9097-C; 10 M.R.S. § 9097) |
| Right to sell the manufactured home without having to first relocate it out of the community | Required | A park may not require a home to be removed except under a condition rule contained in the written park rules, and may not unreasonably interfere with or discourage a resident’s attempt to sell a home on a park lot, so a sale by itself is never a ground for removal. The written rules may hold the home to fair and reasonable condition standards, and a home built before June 15, 1976 may be asked to show at the time of sale that it meets the state used-home standard, but neither ties removal to the sale itself. (10 M.R.S. § 9094) |
| Right to sell the manufactured home in place within 30 days after eviction by the community owner | Not required | There is no right to sell the home in place after an eviction. What the chapter gives after judgment is fourteen calendar days to respond to the park's notice and twenty-one calendar days to take possession of the home, which is a window to claim and remove it rather than to sell it. (10 M.R.S. § 9097) |
| Right to sublease or assign the pad site lease for the unexpired term to the new buyer of the home without unreasonable restraint | Partly | The buyer applies as a new resident on the park's own criteria. The missing limb is the standard: the chapter gives no right to take over or be assigned the lot tenancy and sets no rule that consent may not be unreasonably withheld. The buyer's rescission right presupposes that refusal is possible, and the bar on unreasonably interfering with a sale is the only check. (10 M.R.S. § 9094; 10 M.R.S. § 9093-A) |
| Right to post "For Sale" signs that comply with the community's rules | Required | The park may not restrict in any manner the reasonable advertising for sale of a home in the park, subject only to the home owner notifying the park before a sign goes up. (10 M.R.S. § 9094) |
| Right to receive at least 60 days' notice of a planned sale or closure of the community | Required | Both limbs are met. On a sale, the owner may not make a final unconditional acceptance of an offer earlier than the sixtieth day after the notice is mailed and received by the Maine State Housing Authority, which is a fixed sixty-day minimum before the sale can complete. On a closure, a change of use takes a year's written notice to the resident. (10 M.R.S. § 9094-A; 10 M.R.S. § 9097) |
Notes and caveats
- The 2026 changes are not yet on the state's statute pages — The Revisor of Statutes' pages for chapter 953 were generated on October 20, 2025 and carry the law as it stood after the 2025 session. Two acts signed on April 13, 2026 and in force since July 29, 2026 changed it: one added the once-a-calendar-year lot rent limit and recast the mediation trigger as a percentage test, and the other added definitions that bring a transfer of a controlling interest within the sale rules, exempted resident-owned communities from the rent-notice section, and rewrote the transfer assessment. Anyone reading the statute pages alone will see the older text.
- There is no rent cap, and the phrase in the statute is easy to misread — The increase notice must state what the statute calls the allowed lot rent increase and the allowed fee increase. Those are disclosure benchmarks, not limits: the statute nowhere makes a larger increase unlawful, and the only consequence it attaches to an increase above the benchmark is that residents may force mediation, with a six-month delay if the owner acts in bad faith.
- Closure lives inside the eviction section — Maine has no section headed closure or change of use. A change of use is one of the nine grounds for ending a tenancy and takes a year's written notice, unless the resident was told of the scheduled change at the start of the tenancy. Condemnation is a separate ground with no stated period, and renovation or reconstruction has its own schedule of thirty days, six months or a year.
- Relocation money is narrow — The park owner pays a resident's removal and relocation costs only for a renovation or reconstruction eviction, and the statute names no dollar figure. Nothing is payable when the park closes or changes use, and Maine has no state fund that pays relocation assistance to displaced residents.
- The purchase right is a true match right — Where a residents' group representing at least fifty-one percent of the homes occupied by their owners or a family member proposes an agreement matching the price and substantially equivalent terms of the offer the owner has accepted or plans to accept, the group must be given the first option to buy. The owner must negotiate in good faith, may not reject a proposal solely for including a financing contingency, and may not require a nonrefundable deposit. Seven categories of transfer are exempt, among them foreclosure sales, family transfers and eminent domain.
- A transfer assessment now applies to large purchasers — A purchaser of a mobile home park pays $10,000 for each licensed lot occupied or developed to be occupied, into a state fund that supports affordability and ownership by residents, residents' associations, cooperatives and nonprofits. The Maine State Housing Authority, municipal housing authorities, cooperatives limited to home owners, family purchasers and entities whose group net worth is below the statutory figure are exempt, and the Authority rules on a claimed exemption within forty-five days. Knowingly failing to pay, or filing a false sworn affirmation, costs three times the fee and the park operating license.
- Municipalities are neither blocked nor authorized — No Maine statute preempts or authorizes local regulation of park lot rents. Maine's home rule statute lets a municipality exercise any power the Legislature could confer that is not denied expressly or by clear implication, presumes an ordinance valid, and treats an implicit denial as arising only where an ordinance would frustrate the purpose of a state law. The one statute limiting municipalities on parks reaches only physical requirements such as lot size, and its lot-size figures were cut in 2026.
- Late rent has a fifteen-day grace and a four percent ceiling — Rent is not late until fifteen days after it falls due, the penalty may not exceed four percent of one month's rent, and the resident must have been told in writing at the start of the lease that such a penalty may be charged. Separately, a nonpayment eviction takes thirty days' notice and can be stopped by paying all arrears plus five percent of the outstanding rent, or a maximum of $5.
Common questions: Maine mobile home park law
Each answer is the verified value from the tables above, restated as a direct answer. Free to quote with a link to this page.
- How much notice must a Maine park give before raising lot rent?
- 90 days. Ninety days' written notice is required before a lot rent or fee increase takes effect.
- Is there a limit on how much lot rent can go up in Maine?
- Maine sets no state rule on this. Maine sets no ceiling on lot rent.
- Can a Maine park owner end a lot tenancy without cause?
- No — a Maine park may end a lot tenancy only for a listed cause. A tenancy may be terminated by a park owner or operator only for one or more of the nine reasons the chapter lists.
- How much notice must a Maine park give before closing or changing use?
- 12 months. Changing the use of the park takes a year's written notice to the resident.
- Does a Maine park have to pay residents' relocation costs when it closes?
- Yes — Maine law requires a relocation payment when a park closes or changes use. The park pays a resident's removal and relocation costs, but only where the eviction is for renovation or reconstruction.
- Do Maine residents get a chance to buy the park when it is sold?
- Yes — a right of first refusal (match the offer). Residents may match the offer on the table and take the park.
- Can a Maine resident sell the home in place without moving it out of the park?
- Yes — a Maine resident may sell the home in place. A park owner may not unreasonably interfere with or discourage a resident's attempt to sell a home situated on a park lot.
Cite this page: "Landlord Atlas, Maine Mobile Home Park Laws (verified August 18, 2026), landlordatlas.com/laws/mobile-home-parks/maine/" — free to cite and quote with a link (how these records are verified).
Citations
- 10 M.R.S. ch. 953 (verified 2026) Official source
- 10 M.R.S. § 9091 (verified 2026) Official source
- 10 M.R.S. § 9093-B (verified 2026) Official source
- 10 M.R.S. § 9094-A (verified 2026) Official source
- 10 M.R.S. § 9097 (verified 2026) Official source
- P.L. 2025, c. 691 (L.D. 2231) §§ 1, 3, 4 (verified 2026) Official source
- P.L. 2025, c. 688 (L.D. 2149) §§ 9–15 (verified 2026) Official source
- 30-A M.R.S. § 4754-B (verified 2026) Official source
Every row above links the section it rests on. This topic covers all 50 states; the topic hub compares them side by side.