Massachusetts Mobile Home Park Laws
Massachusetts regulates manufactured housing communities under the Manufactured Housing Act, G.L. c. 140, §§ 32A-32S: a community may end a lot tenancy only on the five grounds the act lists and only after thirty days' certified notice with a chance to cure, closing a community or changing its use takes two years' written notice plus a payment to each resident of either their moving costs or the appraised value of the home, and a group representing at least fifty-one per cent of the home owners holds a right of first refusal when the community is sold.
Cited to G.L. c. 140, §§ 32A-32S (Manufactured Housing Act) and 7 more sources · Verified August 18, 2026
The act applies to any land holding three or more occupied manufactured homes. Every new and renewing resident must be offered a five-year rental agreement, and the written disclosure a community gives before a tenancy starts must carry a notice of rights printed word for word as the statute sets it out. Lot rent is not capped statewide, but the state law barring local rent control leaves mobile homes out of its definition, so a municipality's rent board may reach community lots, and after a closure notice the rent may rise only by the consumer price index plus documented tax and municipal charges, capped at ten per cent a year. The Attorney General writes and enforces the companion community regulations, and any failure to comply with the act is an unfair or deceptive practice a resident can sue on.
| Governing act | Manufactured Housing Act — G.L. c. 140, §§ 32A-32S |
|---|---|
| Federal lender protections already required by state law | 7 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 Massachusetts 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 | Massachusetts law | Source |
|---|---|---|
| State agency with a role in park tenancies | The Attorney General writes and enforces the manufactured housing community regulations, local boards of health license and inspect communities, and the Secretary of Housing and Livable Communities receives community rules and community sale notices. The Attorney General may make rules for the interpretation, implementation, administration and enforcement of the act, and receives copies of every sale notice and every change to community rules. Boards of health grant, suspend and revoke the annual community license. A five-member Manufactured Homes Commission takes complaints, recommends how they should be resolved, and reports each year to the Governor, the Legislature, the Secretary of Housing and Livable Communities and the Attorney General. | G.L. c. 140, § 32S; G.L. c. 140, § 32B; G.L. c. 140, § 32L (5); G.L. c. 6, § 108 |
| Resident may sue under the act | Yes Failure to comply with any part of the act is an unfair or deceptive practice under the state consumer protection law, and both enforcement and damages actions follow that law's own procedures. A resident who suffers a reprisal for reporting a violation may recover between one and five months' rent, or actual damages if greater, plus costs and reasonable attorney's fees. | G.L. c. 140, § 32L (7); G.L. c. 140, § 32N |
| Minimum park size for the act to apply (lots) | 3 lots Any lot or tract of land holding three or more manufactured homes occupied for dwelling purposes is a manufactured housing community. The count is of occupied homes rather than of lots. Land lent for ten days or less by a fair, agricultural or horticultural society, grange or 4-H club, and land a college or university provides for students who lack dormitory space, are not communities. | G.L. c. 140, § 32F |
| Other size thresholds that switch rules on | No state rule The definition section carries the three-home floor and two use exemptions and no other size threshold. The act's remaining thresholds are shares of residents rather than lot counts: at least fifty-one per cent of home owners to exercise the purchase right, and more than fifty per cent to demand the financial terms of an ordinary sale. | G.L. c. 140, § 32F |
| Park-owned rental homes | Partly covered by this act The termination rules reach any tenancy, estate at will or lease in a manufactured housing community, however created. The rules on community rules, fees, disclosure and the sale of a home are written around a resident who owns the home and rents the site, and the entrance-of-purchaser rule applies only to a home the community does not own. | G.L. c. 140, § 32J; G.L. c. 140, § 32M |
| RVs and park-model homes | Excluded A manufactured home must be built to the National Manufactured Home Construction and Safety Standards, be at least eight body feet wide or forty body feet long in the traveling mode or at least 320 square feet when erected, sit on a permanent chassis and be designed as a dwelling. Recreational camps, overnight camps and cabins are licensed under separate sections of the same chapter. | G.L. c. 140, § 32Q; G.L. c. 140, § 32A |
| Local rent regulation of park lots | Local ordinances regulate lot rents in parts of the state The state law that bars cities and towns from adopting rent control defines rent control in a way that expressly leaves out mobile homes, so the ban and its preemption clause do not reach the rent charged for community lots. The Manufactured Housing Act itself assumes a local ordinance may apply: an increase during a closure notice period is subject to any rent control ordinance in existence, and the five-year agreement the community must offer is at fair market rates subject to any applicable rent control restrictions. No general statute grants the power, and the municipalities that have rent boards for communities obtained special acts of the Legislature. Applies only in part of the state: Rent boards for manufactured housing communities exist only in the municipalities that have adopted them under special acts. | G.L. c. 40P, § 3 (c); G.L. c. 40P, § 4; G.L. c. 140, § 32L (7A); G.L. c. 140, § 32P |
B. Lot rent, fees and utilities
| Rule | Massachusetts law | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Notice before a lot-rent increase | 30 days A community raises the rent on a tenancy at will by ending it and offering a new tenancy at the higher rent, which the act lists as one of the five permitted reasons for termination. That route requires written notice equal to the interval between rent days or thirty days, whichever is longer, so a month-to-month lot tenancy gets at least thirty days. Rent under a fixed-term agreement changes on that agreement's own terms. | G.L. c. 140, § 32J (5); G.L. c. 186, § 12 |
| How often rent may be raised | No state rule The section carrying the act's rent restrictions sets no general limit on how often lot rent may be raised. A once-a-year limit applies only after the community has issued a notice that it will close or change use: from that point the resident's rent may not be increased unless a year has passed since the last increase. | G.L. c. 140, § 32L (7A) |
| Statewide limit on lot-rent increases | No state rule There is no statewide ceiling on ordinary lot-rent increases. The act's only ceiling applies after a notice of closure or change of use, when the annual rent may rise only by the Consumer Price Index for Urban Consumers plus a proportionate share of documented increases in real estate taxes or other municipal charges, and in no case by more than ten per cent of the previous year's annual rent. Where a local rent control ordinance is in existence, that ordinance governs the increase. | G.L. c. 140, § 32L (7A) |
| How a resident can challenge an increase | A change in rent that does not apply uniformly to all residents of a similar class is presumed unfair, and the resident may raise that presumption in court under the state consumer protection law. Any rule or change in rent that does not apply uniformly to residents of a similar class creates a rebuttable presumption of unfairness, and any rule or condition of occupancy that is unfair or deceptive, or that does not conform to the requirements of the section, is unenforceable. Failure to comply with the act is an unfair or deceptive practice, so a resident may sue under the consumer protection law. Where a municipality has a rent board for communities, the increase is subject to the local ordinance. | G.L. c. 140, § 32L (2), (6), (7); G.L. c. 140, § 32L (7A) |
| Entrance fee prohibited | Yes The Attorney General's community regulations make it an unfair practice to charge any entrance or exit fee for assuming or leaving occupancy, and separately bar any fee for processing a residency application, including credit-check costs. The act itself is silent; the prohibition sits in the regulation, which has the force of law under the consumer protection statute. | 940 CMR 10.00 10.03(2)(a), (2)(c); G.L. c. 140, § 32S |
| Exit or removal fee prohibited | Yes The same regulation that bars an entrance fee bars an exit fee for leaving occupancy of the community. The act separately bars any fee, charge or commission for the sale of a home in the community. | 940 CMR 10.00 10.03(2)(a); G.L. c. 140, § 32L (4) |
| Undisclosed fees uncollectible | Yes An operator may not seek to recover a fee or charge that is not separately listed in the occupancy agreement, and may charge for a service only where the fee is permitted by the act or the regulations and is either listed in the agreement or is for a service the resident asked for and actually received. A new fee for a service that had been supplied without a separate charge may not be added during the term. | 940 CMR 10.00 10.03(2)(b), (2)(k), (2)(o) |
| Utility billing rules | A community may not restrict a resident's choice of a seller of fuel, and where it runs a central fuel or gas meter system its charge for that fuel may not exceed the average prevailing price in the locality. The community may impose reasonable conditions relating to central fuel and gas meter systems, including reasonable insurance requirements, but the price it charges for the fuel is tied to the local average. The wider rule bars conditions of rental or occupancy that restrict the resident's choice of a seller of fuel, furnishings, goods, services or accessories connected with the lot. | G.L. c. 140, § 32L (3) |
| Submetering required or regulated | Yes Meters are not compulsory, but the regulation controls how basic utilities may be charged: the operator must supply and pay for water, sewage disposal and heating fuel or electricity, except fuel or electricity metered through a meter serving only the individual home where the occupancy agreement provides for payment by the occupant, and use charges for basic utilities may be imposed only as determined by metering at the home site by a utility. Central fuel and gas meter systems must be provided at no charge to the resident under the state sanitary code. | 940 CMR 10.00 10.05(2), (4)(b)3., (4)(e); G.L. c. 140, § 32L (2), (3) |
| Lot security deposit rules | The general residential security-deposit law applies to a lot deposit by regulation: it may not exceed one month's rent, must be held in a separate interest-bearing account, and must be returned with an itemized statement. The Attorney General's regulations make it an unfair practice to require or retain a security deposit or any other amount in violation of G.L. c. 186, § 15B, which carries the one-month ceiling, the separate account, the statement of condition and the itemized return with interest. The act itself does not mention a lot deposit. | 940 CMR 10.00 10.03(1)(g); G.L. c. 186, § 15B |
C. Lease, rules and disclosure
| Rule | Massachusetts law | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Written lease | Required All terms and conditions of occupancy must be fully disclosed in writing a reasonable time before the resident rents or occupies the lot, in a writing the community owner signs. The writing must state the rent, itemize every charge or fee, name and give the address of every owner of the community, and set out the community rules. | G.L. c. 140, § 32P |
| Minimum lease term that must be offered | 60 months The written disclosure must contain a good-faith offer of a five-year rental agreement to every new resident and to every resident renewing or extending an existing arrangement, as an alternative to any other term the community proposes, at fair market rates subject to any applicable rent control restrictions. Where a valid notice of closure or change of use is already in effect, the offer is for the balance of the period before that date. | G.L. c. 140, § 32P |
| Notice to end a tenancy without cause | No state rule Termination is allowed only for the statutory grounds, so there is no route to end a lot tenancy without cause and no notice period for one. | G.L. c. 140, § 32J |
| Notice before park rules change | 30 days A community that adopts, adds, deletes or amends any rule must send a full copy of its rules by certified mail to the Attorney General and the Secretary of Housing and Livable Communities at least sixty days before the change takes effect, and must give each resident a copy, together with the signed certified mail receipts, at least thirty days before that date. If neither official acts before the effective date the community may enforce the rules until one of them later disapproves them, and a disapproval works only going forward. | G.L. c. 140, § 32L (5) |
| Disclosure document | A disclosure document with state-prescribed contents The written disclosure must carry a notice headed "IMPORTANT NOTICE REQUIRED BY LAW", printed word for word in a clear and conspicuous manner, which states how rules may be changed, when a resident may be evicted, the protection against reprisals, and the residents' purchase right. It must also include a "REQUEST FOR INFORMATION" form the resident may sign and return to receive the financial terms of any proposed sale or lease of the community. | G.L. c. 140, § 32P |
| Residents' right to meet and organize | Yes An operator may not prohibit or unreasonably restrict free movement, speech, assembly and association within the community, may not stop residents meeting peacefully for any lawful purpose in a common area not otherwise in use or in a resident's home, may not charge fees or deposits for such meetings, and may not restrict peaceful canvassing, petitioning or soliciting membership in a resident association. The act adds that reprisals against a resident or group of residents for reporting a violation are prohibited. | 940 CMR 10.00 10.04(9); G.L. c. 140, § 32N |
| Owner entry onto the lot or into the home | The operator may not enter the home without the resident's prior written consent on a separate document, which may be revoked at any time, and may enter the lot only to inspect it, make repairs or show it, on reasonable prior notice except in an emergency. No occupancy agreement may contain a term letting the operator enter the home. Entry onto the site before the agreement ends is limited to inspection, repairs the regulation allows, and showing the site to a prospective tenant, purchaser or mortgagee, and it may not interfere unreasonably with the resident's use and enjoyment of the home or the site. | 940 CMR 10.00 10.03(8) |
| Retaliation prohibited | Yes A community or its agent that threatens or takes reprisals against a resident or group of residents for reporting a suspected violation of the act, or of a building or health code, to the local board of health, the Department of Public Health, the Attorney General or another appropriate agency is liable for between one and five months' rent, or actual damages if greater, plus costs and reasonable attorney's fees. A termination notice other than for nonpayment of rent within six months of such a report is presumed to be a reprisal, and the resident may plead that presumption in defense of an eviction brought within a year of the report. | G.L. c. 140, § 32N |
D. Termination and eviction
| Rule | Massachusetts law | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Just cause required to end a tenancy | Yes Any tenancy, estate at will or lease in a manufactured housing community, however created, and any existing contract for occupancy of a home site, may be ended only for one or more of the five reasons the act lists. | G.L. c. 140, § 32J |
| Grounds for termination |
| G.L. c. 140, § 32J (1)-(5) |
| Notice for nonpayment of lot rent | 30 days No eviction action may be maintained unless the community gave at least thirty days' written notice by certified or registered mail stating the reasons for termination and telling the resident that they have fifteen days from the mailing to pay the overdue rent or cure the violation, and the resident has not paid or cured within twenty days of receiving the notice. | G.L. c. 140, § 32J |
| Notice for a rule or lease violation | 30 days The same thirty-day certified notice and fifteen-day cure opportunity apply to a substantial violation of a community rule or of a health or safety law. For any ground other than nonpayment of rent, the community must also bring the action within thirty days of the date of the last alleged violation. | G.L. c. 140, § 32J |
| Repeat-violation rule | Only one notice of a substantial rule violation is required in any six-month period; if the same violation happens again within six months of that notice, the community may begin eviction immediately. The rule does not extend to nonpayment of rent, which always requires its own notice. The prescribed resident notice states the same rule in the words residents receive. | G.L. c. 140, § 32J; G.L. c. 140, § 32P |
| Time to sell or remove the home after termination | 120 days A resident who has been evicted has one hundred and twenty days after the eviction to sell the home. Rent keeps accruing during that period and the resident remains responsible for maintaining the home, and the community may take a lien for the unpaid rent and maintenance costs, perfected by filing a financing statement with the town clerk and the Secretary of the Commonwealth. | G.L. c. 140, § 32J |
| Abandoned-home procedure | No state rule The termination section, which is where such a procedure would sit, sets out only the post-eviction sale period and the lien that secures unpaid rent and maintenance. It does not create a procedure for a home left behind without an eviction. On a resident's death the tenancy continues in the estate for one year from the death or one year from the appointment of an executor or administrator, whichever comes first. | G.L. c. 140, § 32J |
| Mediation or dispute-resolution requirement | No state rule The act requires no mediation or administrative step before an eviction case or a rent dispute goes to court. Disputes reach the courts through the consumer protection law or the Attorney General's office. | G.L. c. 140, § 32L (7); G.L. c. 140, § 32J |
E. Closure and change of use
| Rule | Massachusetts law | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Notice before closure or change of use | 24 months Once a change of use or discontinuance is approved by a governmental board, commission or body, or where the change needs no local permit, the community must give each resident at least two years' written notice by certified or registered mail before the change takes effect, and must describe in that notice what the change is and why it is being made. | G.L. c. 140, § 32L (8) |
| Variants (by trigger or park size) |
| G.L. c. 140, § 32L (8), (9); G.L. c. 140, § 32R (f); G.L. c. 140, § 32J (4) |
| Relocation payment required | Yes A community that has given a closure or change-of-use notice must pay every resident entitled to that notice, at the resident's own election, either the actual relocation costs or the appraised value of the home. Payment is due no later than the resident's departure, with an adjustment for the total actual relocation costs once the move is finished. | G.L. c. 140, § 32L (7A) |
| Relocation amounts |
| G.L. c. 140, § 32L (7A) |
| Who pays relocation | The park owner The community owner pays. There is no state relocation fund in the act. The community must also survey every community within a hundred miles at least once a year during the two-year notice period to find open sites and post what it learns, with the second survey posted at least a hundred and twenty days before the notice period ends. | G.L. c. 140, § 32L (7A) |
| Notice to a government body on closure | Yes A change of use or discontinuance goes before a governmental board, commission or body for a permit, and cannot be approved or take effect unless the owner proves it is in good faith. Where the closure runs through a sale or lease, the notice to residents must go at the same time to the Attorney General, the Secretary of Housing and Livable Communities and the local board of health, and an affidavit of compliance must be filed with those officials and in the county records within seven days of the sale. | G.L. c. 140, § 32L (8); G.L. c. 140, § 32R (a), (b), (e) |
F. Sale of the park
| Rule | Massachusetts law | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Residents must be told the park is for sale | Yes The community owner must tell every resident of any intention to sell or lease all or part of the land, by certified mail, with a copy at the same time to the Attorney General, the Secretary of Housing and Livable Communities and the local board of health. The notice must also explain the residents' rights under the section. | G.L. c. 140, § 32R (a) |
| What triggers the notice | The first notice is due within fourteen days after the community is first advertised, listed or publicly offered for sale or lease, and in any event at least forty-five days before the sale or lease happens; a second notice, of a bona fide offer the owner intends to accept, follows. The second notice is automatic where the sale or lease would result in a change of use or discontinuance. For any other sale or lease, apart from leases of single lots to residents, it is owed only if more than fifty per cent of the residents, or an association or group representing more than fifty per cent, have asked the owner in writing for information about the proposed sale. That notice must state the price as a single lump sum reflecting the present value of any installment payments and promissory notes offered in place of cash, or for a lease the capitalized value of the annual rent, together with the terms and conditions of the offer. | G.L. c. 140, § 32R (a), (b) |
| Residents' purchase right | Right of first refusal (match the offer) A qualifying group or association of residents may buy the community, or lease it, on the price and substantially equivalent terms of a third-party offer the owner intends to accept, for the purpose of continuing its use as a community. The owner may not unreasonably refuse to enter into, or unreasonably delay executing or closing, an agreement with residents who have met the offer. | G.L. c. 140, § 32R (c), (d) |
| Time for residents to respond | 45 days The group has forty-five days from receiving notice of the offer to submit a purchase and sale or lease agreement on substantially equivalent terms, then a further ninety days to obtain a binding financing or guarantee commitment, then a further ninety days to close, so the full runway is about two hundred and twenty-five days. Missing any of the three deadlines ends the right, and the parties may agree to extend any of them. | G.L. c. 140, § 32R (c)(2)-(4) |
| Resident-association threshold | 51% The purchase right belongs to a group or association representing at least fifty-one per cent of the home owners entitled to notice, and the group must give the owner reasonable evidence that residents of at least fifty-one per cent of the occupied homes approved the purchase. A separate, lower threshold of more than fifty per cent governs who may demand the financial terms of an ordinary sale that would not close the community. | G.L. c. 140, § 32R (b), (c) |
| Transfers exempt from the sale rules |
| G.L. c. 140, § 32R (b), (d) |
| Residents may assign the right to a nonprofit or municipality | Yes The residents' group may assign its purchase right to the city, town, housing authority or an agency of the Commonwealth, for the purpose of continuing the use of the land as a manufactured housing community. Those four are the assignees the act names; a private nonprofit is not among them. | G.L. c. 140, § 32R (c) |
| Penalty for violating the sale rules | Breaking the sale rules is an unfair or deceptive practice under the state consumer protection law, and a sale made without the required offer notice stretches a later closure notice from two years to four. The consumer protection law supplies the damages and enforcement route. Operating a community that is not managed in compliance with the act carries a fine of one hundred dollars for each day the violation continues, and the local board of health may suspend or revoke the community's license. Where residents are not the successful buyer, the seller must file an affidavit of compliance with the Attorney General, the Secretary of Housing and Livable Communities, the local board of health and the county records within seven days of the sale. | G.L. c. 140, § 32L (7); G.L. c. 140, § 32R (c), (e), (f); G.L. c. 140, § 32E |
G. The resident's home
| Rule | Massachusetts law | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Right to sell the home in place | Yes On the sale or proposed sale of a home the community does not own, the community may not refuse entrance to the buyer and the members of the buyer's household if they meet its current rules. It also may not refuse to allow a home in the community to be transferred on the ground that it has not sold as many homes as it has sites. | G.L. c. 140, § 32M; G.L. c. 140, § 32L (3A) |
| Park may not take a commission on the sale | Yes A community may not impose, by any rule or condition of occupancy, a fee, charge or commission for the sale of a home located in the community. It may separately contract with the home owner to sell the home for a fee of no more than ten per cent of the sale price. | G.L. c. 140, § 32L (4) |
| Park may screen the buyer | Yes The community may apply its current rules to the buyer and the buyer's household, but may not refuse entrance to a buyer who meets them. | G.L. c. 140, § 32M |
| Buyer-approval standard and deadline | The buyer and the members of the buyer's household may not be refused entrance if they meet the community's current rules and show reasonable evidence of financial ability to pay the rent and charges; an application not rejected in writing, with reasons, within ten days is deemed approved. The act sets the rules-compliance test; the Attorney General's regulations add the financial-ability element and the ten-day deemed-approval deadline, bar rejection because the applicant already owns a home or leases a site in the community, and give an approved buyer the right to assume the seller's continuing occupancy agreement. Refusing a buyer who qualifies is an unfair or deceptive trade practice under the state consumer protection law. | G.L. c. 140, § 32M; 940 CMR 10.00 10.07(2) |
| Home may not be rejected for age, size or style alone | Yes An operator may not reject a buyer's residency application, or end a tenancy, because of the age of the home or because a home built before June 15, 1976 does not meet the federal construction standards that took effect that day. The bar reaches age and pre-code construction only; the regulation does not name size or style, and exterior-condition rules may still be enforced after written notice and a reasonable chance to comply. | 940 CMR 10.00 10.07(6)(a)-(b); 10.08(1)(a)1. |
| Park may require repairs before sale | Yes An operator may reject a buyer's residency application because the external condition of the home or site does not comply with community rules, but only if, before the home was offered for sale, the operator specified the areas of noncompliance in writing and gave the homeowner a reasonable opportunity to bring the home into compliance. Community rules may require residents to keep the exterior neat and in good repair and to conform it to disclosed aesthetic standards. | 940 CMR 10.00 10.07(6)(c); 10.04(5)(a)-(b) |
| Right to post a For Sale sign | Yes An operator may not prohibit a homeowner from placing commercially reasonable for-sale or for-lease signs on the home or the home site, and may not require the sign to carry the community logo or direct buyers to the community office unless the homeowner has signed an exclusive brokerage contract with the operator. The right continues through the 120-day post-eviction sale period. | 940 CMR 10.00 10.07(5); 10.08(5)(b) |
H. The eight federal lender protections — which ones Massachusetts 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. Massachusetts law requires 7 of 8. All 50 states are compared in our research study, including the 2018 federal survey baseline.
| Protection | Massachusetts law | Basis |
|---|---|---|
| One-year renewable lease term unless there is good cause for non-renewal | Required | Every new and renewing resident must receive a good-faith offer of a five-year rental agreement, and a tenancy may be ended only on the five grounds the act lists. (G.L. c. 140, § 32P; G.L. c. 140, § 32J) |
| 30-day written notice of rent increases | Required | A community raises the rent on a tenancy at will by ending it and offering a new tenancy at the higher rent, which requires written notice equal to the interval between rent days or thirty days, whichever is longer. (G.L. c. 140, § 32J; G.L. c. 186, § 12) |
| 5-day grace period for rent payments and the right to cure defaults on rent payments | Required | No eviction may be brought unless the resident had thirty days' certified notice with fifteen days from the mailing to pay and has still not paid twenty days after receiving it, and the Attorney General's regulations bar any interest or penalty for late rent until payment is thirty days overdue, so both the grace period and the cure right are in place. (G.L. c. 140, § 32J; 940 CMR 10.00) |
| Right to sell the manufactured home without having to first relocate it out of the community | Required | A community may not refuse entrance to the buyer of a home it does not own if the buyer meets its current rules, and may not block a transfer because it has unsold sites. (G.L. c. 140, § 32M; G.L. c. 140, § 32L) |
| Right to sell the manufactured home in place within 30 days after eviction by the community owner | Required | An evicted resident has one hundred and twenty days after the eviction to sell the home. (G.L. c. 140, § 32J) |
| Right to sublease or assign the pad site lease for the unexpired term to the new buyer of the home without unreasonable restraint | Required | An approved buyer has the right to assume the seller's continuing occupancy agreement, an application not rejected within ten days is deemed approved, and an operator may not unreasonably restrict subleasing or assignment of a tenant's interest in the home site. (940 CMR 10.00; G.L. c. 140, § 32M) |
| Right to post "For Sale" signs that comply with the community's rules | Required | An operator may not prohibit a homeowner from placing commercially reasonable for-sale or for-lease signs on the home or the home site, and the right continues through the 120-day post-eviction sale period. (940 CMR 10.00) |
| Right to receive at least 60 days' notice of a planned sale or closure of the community | Partly | Closing a community takes two years' notice, but notice of a sale is owed only within fourteen days of the listing and in any event at least forty-five days before the sale, which is short of sixty. (G.L. c. 140, § 32L; G.L. c. 140, § 32R) |
Notes and caveats
- Which communities are covered — Any lot or tract of land with three or more manufactured homes occupied as dwellings is a community. Land lent for ten days or less by a fair, agricultural or horticultural society, grange or 4-H club, and land a college or university provides for students without dormitory space, are not.
- Recreational vehicles are outside the act — A manufactured home must be built to the federal construction and safety standards, sit on a permanent chassis and meet the act's size floor. Recreational camps, overnight camps and cabins are licensed under separate sections of the same chapter. A pending bill would remove the federal-standard requirement.
- Local rent boards — The state law banning municipal rent control defines rent control in a way that leaves out mobile homes, and the Manufactured Housing Act itself refers to a rent control ordinance being in existence. Only the municipalities that adopted such boards under special acts of the Legislature have them, so whether one applies depends on the town.
- The purchase right has two different percentages — A group representing at least fifty-one per cent of home owners may exercise the right of first refusal. A lower threshold, more than fifty per cent, governs who may ask the owner for the financial terms of an ordinary sale that would not close the community. The residents' timetable is forty-five days to sign an agreement, ninety more to secure financing and ninety more to close.
- A sale made without notice lengthens a later closure notice — Where a community changes hands without the offer notice that triggers the purchase right, and the new owner or lessee gives a closure or change-of-use notice within a year, residents get four years' notice instead of two.
- Relocation money is the resident's choice — After a closure notice the community owner must pay either actual moving costs to a community within a hundred miles or the appraised value of the home, whichever the resident elects, no later than the resident's departure. The community must also survey communities within a hundred miles each year of the notice period and post the open sites it finds.
- The Attorney General's community regulations sit alongside the act — 940 CMR 10.00 defines further unfair or deceptive acts and practices for manufactured housing communities. Ten fields on this page that those regulations would most likely answer, including entrance fees, deposits, entry and for-sale signs, are not yet stated here.
- Where the numbers are published — Community licenses, the community's posted rules and the current license are held by the local board of health. Community rules and community sale notices are filed with the Attorney General and the Secretary of Housing and Livable Communities. The Manufactured Homes Commission reports each year to the Governor, the Legislature, that Secretary and the Attorney General.
- When a closure is presumed not to be in good faith — The Attorney General's regulations presume a change of use or discontinuance is not in good faith where the notice is issued within six months after residents report a violation to a public agency, seek or obtain rent control, or the owner fails to get a rent increase from a local rent board, and in several other listed situations. A resident who bought or moved a home in after actual notice of a discontinuance is not entitled to the relocation payment or buy-out.
Common questions: Massachusetts 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 Massachusetts park give before raising lot rent?
- 30 days. A community raises the rent on a tenancy at will by ending it and offering a new tenancy at the higher rent, which the act lists as one of the five permitted reasons for termination.
- Is there a limit on how much lot rent can go up in Massachusetts?
- Massachusetts sets no state rule on this. There is no statewide ceiling on ordinary lot-rent increases.
- Can a Massachusetts park owner end a lot tenancy without cause?
- No — a Massachusetts park may end a lot tenancy only for a listed cause. Any tenancy, estate at will or lease in a manufactured housing community, however created, and any existing contract for occupancy of a home site, may be ended only for one or more of the five reasons the act lists.
- How much notice must a Massachusetts park give before closing or changing use?
- 24 months. Once a change of use or discontinuance is approved by a governmental board, commission or body, or where the change needs no local permit, the community must give each resident at least two years' written notice by certified or registered mail before the change takes effect, and must describe in that notice what the change is and why it is being made.
- Does a Massachusetts park have to pay residents' relocation costs when it closes?
- Yes — Massachusetts law requires a relocation payment when a park closes or changes use. A community that has given a closure or change-of-use notice must pay every resident entitled to that notice, at the resident's own election, either the actual relocation costs or the appraised value of the home.
- Do Massachusetts residents get a chance to buy the park when it is sold?
- Yes — a right of first refusal (match the offer). A qualifying group or association of residents may buy the community, or lease it, on the price and substantially equivalent terms of a third-party offer the owner intends to accept, for the purpose of continuing its use as a community.
- Can a Massachusetts resident sell the home in place without moving it out of the park?
- Yes — a Massachusetts resident may sell the home in place. On the sale or proposed sale of a home the community does not own, the community may not refuse entrance to the buyer and the members of the buyer's household if they meet its current rules.
Cite this page: "Landlord Atlas, Massachusetts Mobile Home Park Laws (verified August 18, 2026), landlordatlas.com/laws/mobile-home-parks/massachusetts/" — free to cite and quote with a link (how these records are verified).
Citations
- G.L. c. 140, §§ 32A-32S (Manufactured Housing Act) (verified 2026) Official source
- G.L. c. 140, § 32J (verified 2026) Official source
- G.L. c. 140, § 32L (verified 2026) Official source
- G.L. c. 140, § 32P (verified 2026) Official source
- G.L. c. 140, § 32R (verified 2026) Official source
- G.L. c. 40P, § 3 (c) (verified 2026) Official source
- G.L. c. 186, § 12 (verified 2026) Official source
- G.L. c. 6, § 108 (verified 2026) Official source
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