Landlord Atlas

Michigan Mobile Home Park Laws

Verified August 18, 2026 All Michigan topics →

Michigan splits mobile home community law across four places, and the split is the point: the Mobile Home Commission Act, 1987 PA 96, licenses communities and bans entrance fees, exit fees and any charge on an in-park sale; the Revised Judicature Act lets a community end a lot tenancy only for one of eleven listed just causes; the Truth in Renting Act and the state security deposit act both reach a rented mobile home space by name; and the state's manufactured housing rules supply several protections the statutes never mention.

Cited to 1987 PA 96, the Mobile Home Commission Act, MCL 125.2301 to 125.2350 and 9 more sources · Verified August 18, 2026

There is no limit on lot rent, no notice period before a rent increase, no right of first refusal or notice when a community is sold, and no notice period before a community closes. The state says so in its own words: the complaint statement every licensed community must post ends by telling residents that complaints about community rent costs fall outside the act. What Michigan does protect is the home itself. A community may not stop an on-site sale at a price the resident sets, may not take a commission on it beyond a capped inspection fee, may not use the home's age or size as the sole reason to refuse the sale, and may not prohibit for-sale signs. A resident whose tenancy ends for just cause has ninety days from the judgment to sell the home in place, and may ask for an in-person conference with the owner within ten days of the demand for possession. A written lease must be offered for every home site, rule changes need thirty days' notice, a lot deposit is capped at one and a half months' rent, and the state publishes a buyer's and resident's handbook the community must hand to every applicant.

Governing actMobile Home Commission Act, with just cause for ending a lot tenancy set by chapter 57a of the Revised Judicature Act at MCL 600.5775 — 1987 PA 96, MCL 125.2301-125.2350; MCL 600.5771-600.5785
Federal lender protections already required by state law3 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 Michigan 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 Michigan law Source
State agency with a role in park tenancies Department of Licensing and Regulatory Affairs, Bureau of Construction Codes, with the Manufactured Housing Commission; the district court decides terminations of lot tenancies The state licenses communities and takes complaints about the act, but not about rent. The department may investigate, order a response from a licensee, and after a hearing may censure a licensee, limit, suspend, revoke or deny a license, order restitution or impose a civil fine of up to $50,000. Every licensee must post a statement telling residents how to complain, and that statement says in terms that complaints about community rent costs fall outside the act. A resident must put the problem to the community in writing and allow ten business days before filing with the department. Ending a tenancy is a court matter: the district court has jurisdiction over proceedings to terminate a tenancy in a mobile home park. MCL 125.2302 (c), (d); MCL 125.2336 (1)(a); MCL 125.2343 (1); MCL 600.5773 (1); Mich. Admin. Code R 125.1192 R 125.1192, R 125.1192a
Resident may sue under the act Yes A resident may sue the community for a violation of the act's unfair and deceptive practice section. A separate section lets a person who bought, sold or rented a home or a home site in violation of the act or the mobile home code sue to undo the transaction and recover damages. Two general acts that reach a rented mobile home space add their own actions: the Truth in Renting Act allows $250 per action or actual damages, whichever is greater, plus court costs and statutory attorney fees, and the security deposit act makes a landlord that fails to comply liable for double the deposit retained. MCL 125.2328 (2); MCL 125.2331; MCL 554.636 (1)(c), (4); MCL 554.613 (2)
Minimum park size for the act to apply (lots) 3 lots The act reaches land holding three or more mobile homes. A mobile home park is a parcel or tract of land under one person's control on which three or more mobile homes sit on a continual, nonrecreational basis and which is offered to the public for that purpose, whether or not a charge is made, together with the buildings, streets, equipment and facilities that go with occupying a home. The just cause chapter borrows the same definition but leaves out a seasonal mobile home park. MCL 125.2302 (j); MCL 600.5771 (b)
Other size thresholds that switch rules on No state rule No lot count switches a tenancy rule on or off in Michigan. The three-home floor in the definition decides whether the act applies at all, and after that every rule applies the same way to a community of four homes and one of four hundred. The act's two other counts are not tenancy rules: the license fee steps up by $3.00 for each home site above twenty-five, and two seats on the Manufactured Housing Commission are reserved for an operator and a resident of a community with one hundred or more sites. MCL 125.2302 (j); MCL 125.2316 (4); MCL 125.2303 (1)(c), (1)(g)
Park-owned rental homes Partly covered by this act Some of Michigan's rules reach a home the community itself rents out, and some do not. Renting or leasing a mobile home, as well as a site, without offering a written lease is an unfair practice under the act, and the just cause requirement is written to cover the tenancy of any tenant in a mobile home park rather than only a rented site. The on-site sale protections and the rules about the condition and appearance of homes assume the resident owns the home. The security deposit act and the Truth in Renting Act reach both arrangements, because each defines its subject to include a mobile home space. MCL 125.2328 (1)(g), (1)(h); MCL 600.5775 (1); MCL 554.601 (c)
RVs and park-model homes Excluded Recreational vehicles and recreational occupancy sit outside the act. A mobile home park is defined by homes placed on a continual, nonrecreational basis, a recreational vehicle is separately defined as a vehicle designed and used as temporary living quarters for recreation, camping or travel, and the act does not apply to campgrounds at all. A seasonal mobile home park is a separate licensed category where occupancy is limited to fifteen consecutive days in any thirty-day period from November 1 to March 31, and the just cause chapter expressly leaves seasonal parks out. MCL 125.2302 (j), (m), (n); MCL 125.2308; MCL 125.2316a; MCL 600.5771 (b)
Local rent regulation of park lots Preempted — local governments may not regulate lot rents Michigan bars local rent control, and that ban reaches a rented home site. A local governmental unit may not enact, maintain or enforce an ordinance or resolution that would have the effect of controlling the amount of rent charged for leasing private residential property. Two things are left open: a local unit may still manage and control property in which it has a property interest, and it may adopt a plan of voluntary incentives and agreements to increase the supply of moderate or low cost rental property. The Mobile Home Commission Act has no rent preemption clause of its own; what it does say about local power is that a local government proposing a standard about communities that is higher than the act or the mobile home code must file it with the commission for approval, and that a local ordinance may not be designed to exclude mobile homes. MCL 123.411 (2), (3), (4); MCL 125.2307 (1), (3)

B. Lot rent, fees and utilities

Rule Michigan law Source
Notice before a lot-rent increase No state rule Michigan sets no notice period for raising lot rent. The section that would carry one says the opposite: the just cause requirement does not prevent a change of the rental payments or of the terms or conditions of tenancy after a written lease for the home site ends. The thirty days often quoted comes from a different rule with a much narrower reach, the Truth in Renting Act's limit on clauses that let a landlord change an agreement without the resident's written consent; an agreement may allow a rent adjustment on at least thirty days' written notice only to cover increases in property taxes, in electricity, heating fuel, water or sewer charges consumed at the property, or in liability, fire or worker compensation insurance premiums. What a community must do is post, in a conspicuous place in its office, a detailed list of current rent ranges and of any other charges added to the base rent. MCL 600.5775 (3); MCL 554.633 (1)(l); Mich. Admin. Code R 125.2006 R 125.2006(4)
How often rent may be raised No state rule Nothing limits how often lot rent may be raised in Michigan. The just cause section is the provision that would carry such a limit, and it instead confirms that rental payments and the terms of tenancy may change once a written lease for the home site has ended or been terminated. The administrative rules for communities cover leases, rules, deposits, records and utilities, and set no frequency limit either. MCL 600.5775 (3); Mich. Admin. Code R 125.2005 R 125.2005, R 125.2006
Statewide limit on lot-rent increases No state rule Michigan places no ceiling on lot rent, and no local government may place one either. State law bars a local ordinance or resolution that would have the effect of controlling the amount of rent charged for leasing private residential property. The point is made in the state's own reader-facing words as well: the complaint statement every licensed community must post ends by saying that complaints about community rent costs do not fall under the authority of the act. A bill that would tie a community's license to keeping rent and fee increases at or below inflation, unless the Manufactured Housing Commission approves more, passed the Senate in May 2026 and is not law. MCL 123.411 (2); Mich. Admin. Code R 125.1192 R 125.1192
How a resident can challenge an increase No state rule There is no way to challenge the amount of a lot-rent increase in Michigan. The state complaint route is limited to violations of the Mobile Home Commission Act and the rules under it, and the notice a community must post says plainly that rent costs are outside it. A resident's remedies run to other things: the tenant action for an unfair or deceptive practice, the Truth in Renting action over a prohibited lease clause, and the rule that a court may not enter a judgment for possession where the landlord tried to increase the resident's obligations as a penalty for enforcing rights or complaining to a government authority. Mich. Admin. Code R 125.1192 R 125.1192, R 125.1192a(2); MCL 125.2328 (2); MCL 600.5720 (1)(e)
Entrance fee prohibited Yes A community may not charge an entrance fee, directly or indirectly. The rules define an entrance fee as a fee charged as a condition of the right to live in the community, and expressly include a requirement that the resident pay for or provide landscaping or an underground sprinkler system. Excluded from the definition are security deposits, government fees and taxes other than those tied to the community's capital improvements, utility deposits, utility charges billed directly to the resident, rent, the actual cost of a credit report, a nonrefundable cleaning fee allowed by law, and several disclosed payments for electrical service changes needed to meet the state electrical code and for parts of a foundation system. MCL 125.2328 (1)(a); Mich. Admin. Code R 125.2001 R 125.2001(2)(a)
Exit or removal fee prohibited Yes A community may not charge an exit fee, refundable or not. The rules define it as any fee charged as a condition of the right to end a tenancy, and make clear that the ban does not stop the community from keeping a security deposit where the deposit act allows. A charge connected to an on-site sale of a home counts as an entrance or exit fee unless it is the permitted inspection fee or the commission of a licensed dealer the seller engaged. MCL 125.2328 (1)(c); Mich. Admin. Code R 125.2001 R 125.2001(2)(b); MCL 125.2328a (1)(d)
Undisclosed fees uncollectible No state rule Michigan requires charges to be disclosed but does not make an undisclosed charge uncollectible. A community must post in its office a detailed list of current rent ranges and of any other charges added to the base rent that make up the monthly amount a resident pays, and several of the carve-outs from the entrance fee ban apply only if the payment was disclosed before the resident committed to the home site. Neither rule attaches any consequence of uncollectibility. What governs instead is the ban on entrance and exit fees, which turns an undisclosed sale-related charge into a prohibited fee rather than an unenforceable one. Mich. Admin. Code R 125.2006 R 125.2006(4), R 125.2001(2)(a); MCL 125.2328 (1)(a), (1)(c)
Utility billing rules A community may not charge separately for electricity, fuel or water unless the resident's use is first accurately and consistently measured. Charging for a utility without measuring what the resident used is an unfair practice unless the utility is included in the rent as an incident of tenancy. Around that sit three further duties: a utility company must tell the department ten days before shutting off sewer, water, gas or electric service for nonpayment where the service is supplied to the licensed community owner for the residents' benefit; a community must disclose the charge to all affected residents where a resident-provided utility service results in common community use; and the commission must report to the Michigan Public Service Commission any suspicion that a community owner is breaching water utility tariffs or has become regulable as a water utility. Requiring or coercing a resident to buy goods or services from a particular person as a condition of entering the community, renting space or selling a home is separately prohibited. MCL 125.2328 (1)(d), (1)(e), (3); MCL 125.2329; Mich. Admin. Code R 125.2006b R 125.2006b
Submetering required or regulated Yes A community that bills for electricity, fuel or water must measure each resident's use accurately and consistently, and the switch to individual meters is itself regulated. Where a community converts its water metering to individual site metering it must notify every current resident in writing at least thirty days before it sends the first invoice for metered water, and the notice must set out the water and sewer rate per thousand gallons or other unit measured, all additional charges, minimum fees, the shutoff, installation and payment procedures including the billing period and due dates, a requirement that bills show beginning and ending meter readings and total usage, the rate change procedure, and a statement that the community will supply a state-approved and properly functioning heat tape and maintain it for at least a year. MCL 125.2328 (1)(e); Mich. Admin. Code R 125.2006a R 125.2006a
Lot security deposit rules A deposit for a home site may not exceed one and a half months' rent, and the state security deposit act applies to a mobile home space by name. Michigan's deposit act defines a rental unit to include mobile home spaces, so a lot deposit is governed by the same rules as an apartment deposit. Within fourteen days after the resident takes possession the community must give written notice of its own name and address, the name and address of the financial institution or surety holding the deposit, and the resident's duty to give a forwarding address within four days of moving out, that last item in twelve-point boldface at least four points larger than the surrounding text. The deposit must sit in a regulated financial institution unless the landlord posts a bond with the secretary of state, and it stays the resident's property until the landlord establishes a right to it. It may be used only for actual damage beyond what normal habitation causes and for rent and utility arrears. Identical inventory checklists must be used at the start and end of the tenancy. An itemized list of damages must be mailed within thirty days after the tenancy ends, and missing that deadline means no damages are due and the whole deposit must be returned; failing to comply with the claims procedure waives all claimed damages and makes the landlord liable for double the amount retained. MCL 554.601 (c); MCL 554.602; MCL 554.603; MCL 554.609; MCL 554.613 (2); Mich. Admin. Code R 125.2005 R 125.2005(8), (9)

C. Lease, rules and disclosure

Rule Michigan law Source
Written lease Required A community must offer a written lease for every home site at the start of the tenancy. Renting or leasing a home or a site without offering a written lease is an unfair or deceptive practice under the act, and the rules require the offered lease to follow the security deposit act and the Truth in Renting Act. The duty is to offer: a resident who turns the lease down must sign a written statement of refusal, and that refusal waives none of the resident's rights. A community may not charge a premium for a lease. MCL 125.2328 (1)(g); Mich. Admin. Code R 125.2005 R 125.2005(1), (2), (3)
Minimum lease term that must be offered No state rule Michigan sets no minimum length for the lease a community must offer. The provisions that create the offer duty fix only that a written lease be offered for each home site at the start of the tenancy, and say nothing about its term. The just cause section assumes a written lease may simply expire. Term length is left to the agreement, and because ending the tenancy still takes just cause the term matters less here than it would elsewhere. MCL 125.2328 (1)(g); Mich. Admin. Code R 125.2005 R 125.2005(1); MCL 600.5775 (3)
Notice to end a tenancy without cause No state rule There is no notice period for ending a lot tenancy without cause, because Michigan gives a community no way to do it. The summary proceedings statute provides that a tenant of a mobile home park is not treated as holding over, either after a lease is terminated or after the term expires, unless the tenancy was ended for just cause under the mobile home chapter. Declining to renew at the end of a term is therefore subject to the same limit as ending the tenancy in the middle of one. MCL 600.5714 (1)(c), (3); MCL 600.5775 (1)
Notice before park rules change 30 days A community must give every resident the proposed change to its rules at least thirty days before the change takes effect. Community rules are a defined written document covering yard maintenance, automobiles, children, pets, guests, garbage and rubbish disposal, rental payments and the other conditions of tenancy, and each prospective and existing resident must be given a copy and sign a receipt for it. Two rules cannot be applied retroactively at all: a rule barring children who were approved under earlier rules cannot be enforced against people who were already residents until a year's notice has run, and a rule barring pets approved under earlier rules cannot be enforced against them, except as to dangerous animals. Separately, a lease may not let the community change a term without the resident's written consent, except on at least thirty days' notice for changes required by law, changes to rules needed to protect health, safety or peaceful enjoyment, and rent adjustments limited to specified cost increases. Mich. Admin. Code R 125.2006 R 125.2006(1), (2), R 125.2001(1)(a); MCL 125.2328b (a), (b); MCL 554.633 (1)(l)
Disclosure document A disclosure document with state-prescribed contents The state publishes a buyer's and resident's handbook that a community must hand to every applicant. The rule requires communities to give the handbook to prospective residents at the time an application for residency is signed, and provides that it is available from the department. Two further documents go with it: the community rules, given against a written receipt, and the rental agreement itself, which must carry a notice in wording the Truth in Renting Act prints, in type no smaller than twelve point, telling the resident that Michigan law establishes rights and obligations for parties to rental agreements and that the agreement must comply with that act. Every licensed community must also post the complaint statement the rules set out word for word. Mich. Admin. Code R 125.2005a R 125.2005a, R 125.2006(1), R 125.1192; MCL 554.634 (2)
Residents' right to meet and organize No state rule No Michigan statute or rule gives residents a right to meet, organize or use common areas for meetings. The unfair practice list in the act, which is where such a right would sit, does not contain one. What exists is a defense rather than a right: a court may not enter a judgment for possession where the termination was retribution for a lawful act arising out of the tenancy, and that is defined to include membership in a tenant organization and the lawful activity of a tenant organization arising out of the tenancy. Community rules also may not prohibit political yard signs, require them to be smaller than eighteen by twenty-four inches, restrict up to two per site, or limit their display from four weeks before to one week after an election. MCL 125.2328 (1); MCL 600.5720 (1)(c); Mich. Admin. Code R 125.2009 R 125.2009(h) to (k)
Owner entry onto the lot or into the home No state rule Michigan sets no rule about a community owner entering the home site or the home. The unfair practice section of the act is the place such a rule would sit, and the community business practice rules cover leases, community rules, records, deposits and utilities without touching entry. What governs is the lease, subject to the Truth in Renting Act's bar on any clause that waives or alters a right of notice or procedure required by law. MCL 125.2328 (1); MCL 554.633 (1)(f)
Retaliation prohibited Yes A Michigan court may not give a community possession where the termination was retaliatory. The grounds are set out in the summary proceedings chapter: a termination intended primarily as a penalty for the resident's attempt to secure or enforce rights under the lease or under state, local or federal law; one intended primarily as a penalty for complaining to a government authority about a health or safety code violation; one intended primarily as retribution for a lawful act arising out of the tenancy, including membership in a tenant organization and that organization's lawful activity; and a case where the community tried to increase the resident's obligations as a penalty for those acts and then terminated because the resident did not meet them. Where the resident took official action through a court or government agency within ninety days before the case began, and that action has not been dismissed or denied, the defense is presumed and the community must rebut it by a preponderance of the evidence. MCL 600.5720 (1)(a) to (e), (2)

D. Termination and eviction

Rule Michigan law Source
Just cause required to end a tenancy Yes A community may not end a lot tenancy in Michigan unless there is just cause. The rule sits in the Revised Judicature Act rather than in the Mobile Home Commission Act, and it is reinforced by the summary proceedings section, which provides that a mobile home park tenant is not treated as holding over unless the tenancy or lease was terminated for just cause under that chapter. The Mobile Home Commission Act points back to the same chapter when it deals with what happens after a termination. MCL 600.5775 (1); MCL 600.5714 (3); MCL 125.2328a (4)
Grounds for termination
  • Use of the home site by the resident for an unlawful purpose.
  • Failure to comply with the lease, or with a community rule adopted under it that is reasonably related to the health, safety or welfare of the community, its employees or residents, to the quiet enjoyment of other residents, or to maintaining the physical condition or appearance of the community or its homes so as to protect the community's value or aesthetic quality.
  • Violation of the public health rules made for mobile home parks under section 6 of the Mobile Home Commission Act.
  • Intentional physical injury by the resident to community staff or other residents, or intentional physical damage to community property or another resident's property.
  • Failure to comply with a local ordinance, state law or governmental rule relating to mobile homes.
  • Failure to pay rent or other charges on time on three or more occasions in any 12-month period, where each was followed by a written demand for possession that carried the warning the statute prescribes and the resident did not pay within the time stated.
  • Conduct on the community's premises that is a substantial annoyance to other residents or to the community, after notice and an opportunity to cure.
  • Failure to keep the home or the home site in a reasonable condition consistent with the aesthetics appropriate to the community.
  • Condemnation of the community.
  • Changes in the use or substantive nature of the community.
  • Public health and safety violations by the resident.
Michigan lists eleven grounds, and they are the only ones available. Two of them, condemnation and a change in the use or substantive nature of the community, are what a community relies on when it closes or converts, which is why closure reaches residents through the eviction rules rather than through a notice statute. The list carries no notice periods of its own except on the late-payment ground, where each of the three failures must have followed a written demand for possession containing the words the statute sets out, and the resident may still raise any meritorious defense to late payment. 		MCL 600.5775 (2)(a) to (k)
Notice for nonpayment of lot rent 7 days Seven days' written demand for possession for nonpayment of rent. The resident is treated as holding over only after failing or refusing to pay within seven days of service of the demand, so paying within that window ends the matter. The general notice-to-quit provision matches: a landlord may end a tenancy for nonpayment by a written seven-day notice to quit. The demand must state the amount due at the time it is made. Michigan sets no grace period before a late fee may be charged. MCL 600.5714 (1)(a); MCL 554.134 (2); MCL 600.5716
Notice for a rule or lease violation No state rule Michigan fixes no notice period for ending a tenancy over a rule or lease violation. The mobile home chapter, which is where such a period would sit, lists the grounds and stops there. Three things do apply. The demand for possession must be in writing, must describe the premises, and must clearly state the reasons and the time to take remedial action. The ground for conduct that substantially annoys others is available only after notice and an opportunity to cure. And ending a periodic lot tenancy takes the general notice to quit, which is one month, or a period equal to the interval between rent payments where rent falls due more often than every three months. A month is not recorded here as thirty days because the two are not the same. MCL 600.5716; MCL 600.5775 (2)(g); MCL 554.134 (1)
Repeat-violation rule Three or more late payments of rent or other charges in any 12-month period are themselves just cause, provided each was followed by the written demand the statute prescribes. The ground works as a three-strikes rule tied to a specific form of words. Each of the three failures must have followed a written demand for possession for nonpayment served under the seven-day provision, and the resident must have failed or refused to pay within the time the demand stated. Each demand must carry a notice in substantially this form: three or more late payments of rent during any 12-month period is just cause to evict you. The ground does not prevent the resident from raising, or the court from considering, any meritorious defense to the late payment. The other listed grounds reach repeated conduct directly, since a failure to comply with a community rule is a ground however often it occurs. MCL 600.5775 (2)(b), (2)(f); MCL 600.5714 (1)(a)
Time to sell or remove the home after termination 90 days A resident whose tenancy has been ended for just cause has ninety days from the judgment of possession to sell the home in place or move it. The period restarts for a further ninety days if the community denies tenancy to someone who made a genuine offer to buy the home within the window. Five conditions run with it: the resident keeps paying rent and other charges on time, and missing one lets the community seek an immediate writ; the community may disconnect the utility services it supplies ten days after the judgment; the resident must show within ten days that the home has been winterized by a licensed installer and repairer; the resident keeps maintaining the home and the site under the community rules; and the community must give the resident reasonable access to maintain and sell the home. Every judgment for possession must set out this right, its conditions and what happens if they are missed. If the resident then sells the home to the community owner, or to any entity the owner has an interest in, the resident may have the home appraised, and the sale price may not be below the appraised value. MCL 600.5781 (a) to (f); MCL 600.5783; MCL 125.2328a (4)
Abandoned-home procedure No state rule Michigan has no procedure for declaring a resident's home abandoned or for disposing of one that is left behind. The mobile home chapter of the Revised Judicature Act, which would be its place, ends with the ninety-day sale window, the recital in the judgment and liquidated damages. The only abandonment language in the Mobile Home Commission Act concerns the community rather than the resident: the commission must require the owner of a distressed community to post financial assurance covering repair and cleanup, including the removal and disposal of abandoned homes, scrap and other waste. A bill to add an abandonment procedure passed the Senate in May 2026 and is not law. MCL 600.5781; MCL 125.2316 (2)(b)
Mediation or dispute-resolution requirement A resident served with a demand for possession for just cause has 10 days to ask for an in-person conference with the community owner, which must then be held at the community within 20 days. The request must go to the owner or operator by certified or registered mail at the address in the demand. If it is made in time, the conference must be held at the community at a time and date the owner sets, no later than twenty days after the request, and the resident may bring a lawyer. Asking for the conference does not stop the owner from starting summary proceedings on the demand. A second, separate step applies before a resident may complain to the state: the resident must put the alleged violation to the community in writing and allow ten business days for a response. A lease may also require liquidated damages to be paid to whichever side wins a contested just cause case, capped at $500 in the district court and $300 for each level of appeal, and the court must award them where the lease provides for them. MCL 600.5777; Mich. Admin. Code R 125.1192a R 125.1192, R 125.1192a(1); MCL 125.2328c (1), (2); MCL 600.5785

E. Closure and change of use

Rule Michigan law Source
Notice before closure or change of use No state rule Michigan requires no notice before a community closes or changes its use. The section that would carry such a rule instead ties one year's notice to a narrow benefit for the community: the standard that park rules on the condition and appearance of homes may not be designed to defeat the section does not apply where the community is changing its method of doing business and gives all affected residents at least one year's notice of the proposed change, unless another notice period is provided by law. A change in the method of doing business is defined to include conversion to a mobile home park condominium, conversion to renting out both the sites and community-owned homes, and changes in the use of the land the community sits on. Closing still reaches residents through the eviction rules: condemnation and a change in the use or substantive nature of the community are two of the eleven grounds for ending a tenancy, and ending one takes a written demand for possession and the ordinary notice to quit. MCL 125.2328a (1)(f), (2); MCL 600.5775 (2)(i), (2)(j); MCL 554.134 (1)
Variants (by trigger or park size) No state rule Michigan has no closure tiers, whether by community size or by trigger. The three ways of changing a method of doing business that the act names all carry the same one-year figure, and that figure is a condition on relief from the rules standard rather than a notice requirement. The part of the administrative rules that dealt with mobile home park licensing, where a licensing-side closure rule would sit, has been rescinded in full. The widely repeated claim that Michigan requires a year's notice for communities of one hundred or more sites and six months for smaller ones has no basis in the act, the Revised Judicature Act or the rules. MCL 125.2328a (2); Mich. Admin. Code R 125.1801 to R 125.1818 Part 8, rescinded
Relocation payment required No state rule No community in Michigan has to pay a resident's moving costs when it closes or changes use, and the state runs no relocation fund. The one moving-expense rule in the act runs the other way and applies inside the community: a community may require a home to be moved to a comparable site within the community, and it must bear the expense of that move. Nothing extends that to a move out. MCL 125.2328a (3)
Relocation amounts No state rule Michigan sets no relocation amounts, because it requires no relocation payment. The provision that allocates the cost of an in-park move to the community states no figure, no index and no schedule, and there is no state fund from which a payment could be made. MCL 125.2328a (3)
Who pays relocation None required Nobody is made responsible for relocation money when a Michigan community closes. The only cost allocation the act makes is internal: where the community requires a home to be moved to a comparable site inside the community, the community pays for that move. MCL 125.2328a (3)
Notice to a government body on closure No state rule A Michigan community does not have to tell the state or a local government that it is closing. The change-of-use notice in the act runs to affected residents only. The one closure-adjacent notice duty in the act falls on someone else: a utility company must tell the department ten days before it shuts off sewer, water, gas or electric service for nonpayment where that service is supplied to the licensed community owner for the residents' benefit. Because a license to operate runs for three years, the department may learn of a closure only when the license is not renewed. MCL 125.2328a (2); MCL 125.2329; MCL 125.2316 (1)

F. Sale of the park

Rule Michigan law Source
Residents must be told the park is for sale No state rule Michigan does not require residents to be told that their community is for sale. The Mobile Home Commission Act has no sale-of-community provision at all; its list of unfair and deceptive practices, where such a duty would sit, deals with fees, written leases, on-site sales, utilities and television antennas. Two attempts to add a notice and purchase right, in 2019 and in 2023, never left committee, and a six-bill package that would create a resident ownership route passed the Senate in May 2026 without becoming law. MCL 125.2328 (1); 1987 PA 96, MCL 125.2301 to 125.2350
What triggers the notice No state rule There is no sale notice in Michigan, so nothing triggers one. Neither listing the community, nor marketing it, nor accepting an offer sets any duty running toward residents. The unfair and deceptive practice section of the act is the provision that would set a trigger and does not. MCL 125.2328 (1)
Residents' purchase right None required Residents of a Michigan community have no right to buy it, and no right to be told it is being sold. There is no right of first refusal, no opportunity to negotiate and no notice period. The nearest thing in current law concerns a different transaction: where a resident whose tenancy has ended for just cause sells the home to the community owner, or to an entity the owner has an interest in, the resident may have the home appraised and the price may not fall below the appraised value. 1987 PA 96, MCL 125.2301 to 125.2350; MCL 125.2328a (4)
Time for residents to respond No state rule Michigan gives residents no window to respond to a community sale, because it gives them no purchase right to exercise. The unfair and deceptive practice section of the act is where such a timetable would sit and contains none. MCL 125.2328 (1)
Resident-association threshold No state rule No threshold exists, because Michigan law does not recognize a residents' organization for any purpose connected with buying a community. The act neither defines such an organization nor gives one a role. The only place tenant organizing appears in Michigan law is the retaliation defense, which protects membership in a tenant organization and that organization's lawful activity without setting any size test. 1987 PA 96, MCL 125.2301 to 125.2350; MCL 600.5720 (1)(c)
Transfers exempt from the sale rules No state rule Michigan lists no exempt transfers, because it imposes no duties on the sale of a community in the first place. Where other states carve family transfers, transfers between affiliates and tax-deferred exchanges out of a notice or purchase requirement, Michigan has no requirement for them to be carved out of. MCL 125.2328 (1); 1987 PA 96, MCL 125.2301 to 125.2350
Residents may assign the right to a nonprofit or municipality No state rule There is nothing for Michigan residents to assign, since they hold no purchase right. A 2023 bill would have let a homeowners' association or cooperative pass such a right to the municipality or county, a local housing authority or a local affordable-housing nonprofit; it was referred to committee in October 2023 and never reported. 1987 PA 96, MCL 125.2301 to 125.2350; HB 5161 of 2023
Penalty for violating the sale rules No state rule No penalty attaches to the sale of a Michigan community, because no sale rules exist to break. The act's general penalties reach violations of the act itself: after notice and a hearing the commission may censure a licensee, place it on probation, limit, suspend, revoke or deny its license, order restitution, or impose a civil fine of up to $50,000, and it may ask for a receiver when suspending or revoking. A wilful violation of the act is also a misdemeanor. MCL 125.2343 (1); MCL 125.2342

G. The resident's home

Rule Michigan law Source
Right to sell the home in place Yes A Michigan community may not stop a resident selling the home where it stands, at a price the resident sets. The protection is conditional in two ways: the buyer must qualify for tenancy, and the home must meet the conditions of the written community rules. Around that sit several backstops. The home's age or size may not be the sole basis for refusing an on-site sale or for refusing to let the home stay on the site. Community rules may not require a home to meet a construction standard other than the one it was built to in order to be sold, and may not require tires to be present. A community may not stop a resident using a licensed retailer of the resident's own choice to sell the home. The right does not apply in a seasonal mobile home park, and it continues for ninety days after a just cause termination. MCL 125.2328 (1)(h); MCL 125.2328a (1)(a); Mich. Admin. Code R 125.2006 R 125.2006(3)(d), (e), R 125.2009(f); MCL 600.5781 (a)
Park may not take a commission on the sale Yes A Michigan community may not take a cut of a resident's on-site sale. Any charge connected to an on-site, in-park sale counts as an entrance or exit fee, and so is prohibited, unless it is one of exactly two things: the inspection fee the act permits, or the commission of a licensed mobile home dealer whom the seller engaged to handle the sale. The inspection fee is capped at $30.00, or at the amount the municipality charges for building permit inspections, whichever is higher. Coercing a resident into buying goods or services as a condition of selling a home through the community owner or its agent is separately prohibited. MCL 125.2328a (1)(d), (1)(e); MCL 125.2328 (1)(d)(ii)
Park may screen the buyer Yes A Michigan community may screen the buyer. The protection for an on-site sale is expressly conditioned on the purchaser qualifying for tenancy, so the community keeps its ordinary right to decide who becomes a resident. The Revised Judicature Act assumes the same power, since it extends a departing resident's selling window where the community denies tenancy to someone who made a genuine offer to buy the home. MCL 125.2328 (1)(h); MCL 600.5781 (a)
Buyer-approval standard and deadline The community must put its permission for the sale and its acceptance of the buyer as a resident in writing if asked, and the buyer must qualify for tenancy under the community's own criteria. Michigan requires the answer in writing on request but sets no test for it. The rule obliges a community to give its permission for a sale in the community and on the home site, and its acceptance of a prospective purchaser as a resident, in writing if requested. A retailer acting for the seller must disclose in the purchase agreement that the purchaser has obtained approval for tenancy in the community. There the regulation stops: no standard of reasonableness applies to a refusal, and no deadline runs against the community. The single consequence of a refusal is timing. A resident selling after a just cause termination gets a fresh ninety days from the date the community denies tenancy to a genuine purchaser. Mich. Admin. Code R 125.2005 R 125.2005(7), R 125.1415(b); MCL 600.5781 (a); MCL 125.2328 (1)(h)
Home may not be rejected for age, size or style alone Yes A home's age or size may not be the sole reason for refusing an on-site sale or refusing to let the home remain on its site. The same bar binds the community as a licensee, which may not use age or size, separately or together, as the sole basis for refusing to allow a sale in the community and on the home site. The act splits the burden of proof on this point in an unusual way: for the age and size rule the resident carries the burden of going forward in a suit against the community, while for every other part of the rules on home condition and appearance the community carries it. Style is not covered as such; the nearest rule is that community rules may not require a home to meet a construction standard other than the one it was built to in order to be sold. MCL 125.2328a (1)(a), (5); Mich. Admin. Code R 125.2009 R 125.2009(e), R 125.2006(3)(d)
Park may require repairs before sale Yes A Michigan community may require a home to meet its written standards before an on-site sale, within limits. The protection for the sale applies only where the home meets the conditions of the written community rules, and those rules may cover the physical condition of homes and their aesthetic characteristics in relation to the community. Three limits apply: the standards must apply equally to all residents, they may not be designed to defeat the purpose of the section, and the community carries the burden of showing it complied. A pre-sale inspection may be required where the community rules say so, the inspection standards must be stated in those rules and be met by a majority of the homes in the community, an inspection is valid for a year, and the fee may not exceed $30.00 or the municipal building permit inspection charge, whichever is higher. MCL 125.2328 (1)(h); MCL 125.2328a (1)(b), (1)(e), (1)(f), (5); Mich. Admin. Code R 125.2001a R 125.2001a
Right to post a For Sale sign Yes Community rules in Michigan may not prohibit for-sale signs. They also may not require a for-sale sign to be smaller than eighteen inches by twenty-four inches, and may not prohibit or restrict the placement of up to two for-sale signs in the windows of a home or on it. The protection comes from the state's manufactured housing rules rather than from the statute, which does not mention signs; the same rules separately stop a community prohibiting political yard signs on comparable terms. Mich. Admin. Code R 125.2006 R 125.2006(3)(a) to (c), R 125.2009(h) to (k)

H. The eight federal lender protections — which ones Michigan 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. Michigan law requires 3 of 8. All 50 states are compared in our research study, including the 2018 federal survey baseline.

ProtectionMichigan lawBasis
One-year renewable lease term unless there is good cause for non-renewal Partly The cause limb is met and the term limb is missing. Michigan requires just cause both to end a lot tenancy and to decline to renew one, but no statute or rule requires a term of a year or more to be offered; the duty is only to offer a written lease of unstated length. (MCL 600.5775; MCL 600.5714; MCL 125.2328)
30-day written notice of rent increases Not required Michigan sets no notice period for a lot-rent increase, and the just cause section expressly allows rental payments to change once a written lease has ended. The thirty-day rule in the Truth in Renting Act limits mid-term escalation clauses to specified cost increases and is not a rent-increase notice rule. (MCL 600.5775; MCL 554.633)
5-day grace period for rent payments and the right to cure defaults on rent payments Partly The cure limb is met and the grace limb is not. A nonpayment termination needs a written demand for possession and takes effect only if the rent is unpaid seven days after service, so the resident always has a cure window, but no Michigan statute or rule bars a late fee for any period after the due date. (MCL 600.5714; MCL 554.134)
Right to sell the manufactured home without having to first relocate it out of the community Required It is an unfair and deceptive practice for a community to stop a resident selling the home on site at a price the resident sets, and the home's age or size may not be the sole basis for refusing an in-park sale or for refusing to let the home remain on site. (MCL 125.2328; MCL 125.2328a)
Right to sell the manufactured home in place within 30 days after eviction by the community owner Required A resident whose tenancy ended for just cause has ninety days from the judgment of possession to sell the home in place, three times the thirty days the lease protections call for, with a further ninety days if the community denies tenancy to a genuine purchaser; the judgment itself must set the right out. (MCL 600.5781; MCL 600.5783)
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 must qualify for tenancy on the community’s own criteria as an ordinary new applicant, and the community must give its acceptance in writing if asked, but Michigan attaches no standard of reasonableness and no deadline to the decision and gives the buyer no right to take over the seller’s lot tenancy. (MCL 125.2328; Mich. Admin. Code R 125.2005)
Right to post "For Sale" signs that comply with the community's rules Required The state's manufactured housing rules provide that community rules may not prohibit for-sale signs, may not require them to be smaller than eighteen by twenty-four inches, and may not prohibit or restrict up to two of them in the windows of a home or on it. (Mich. Admin. Code R 125.2006)
Right to receive at least 60 days' notice of a planned sale or closure of the community Not required Neither limb. Michigan requires no notice to residents that the community is being sold, and no notice period before it closes; the one year in the act is a condition on relief from the standard governing rules about the condition and appearance of homes, not a closure notice. (MCL 125.2328; MCL 125.2328a)

Notes and caveats

Common questions: Michigan 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 Michigan park give before raising lot rent?
Michigan sets no state rule on this. Michigan sets no notice period for raising lot rent.
Is there a limit on how much lot rent can go up in Michigan?
Michigan sets no state rule on this. Michigan places no ceiling on lot rent, and no local government may place one either.
Can a Michigan park owner end a lot tenancy without cause?
No — a Michigan park may end a lot tenancy only for a listed cause. A community may not end a lot tenancy in Michigan unless there is just cause.
How much notice must a Michigan park give before closing or changing use?
Michigan sets no state rule on this. Michigan requires no notice before a community closes or changes its use.
Does a Michigan park have to pay residents' relocation costs when it closes?
Michigan sets no state rule on this. No community in Michigan has to pay a resident's moving costs when it closes or changes use, and the state runs no relocation fund.
Do Michigan residents get a chance to buy the park when it is sold?
No — Michigan law gives residents no right to buy the park. Residents of a Michigan community have no right to buy it, and no right to be told it is being sold.
Can a Michigan resident sell the home in place without moving it out of the park?
Yes — a Michigan resident may sell the home in place. A Michigan community may not stop a resident selling the home where it stands, at a price the resident sets.

Cite this page: "Landlord Atlas, Michigan Mobile Home Park Laws (verified August 18, 2026), landlordatlas.com/laws/mobile-home-parks/michigan/" — free to cite and quote with a link (how these records are verified).

Citations

Every row above links the section it rests on. This topic covers all 50 states; the topic hub compares them side by side.