Kentucky Mobile Home Park Lease Law: What Operators Need to Include

What must a mobile home lot lease include in Kentucky?

Honest answer first: Kentucky has no dedicated mobile-home-park or manufactured-home-community tenancy act, and no statewide statute that lists mandatory lot-lease contents or disclosures. A mobile home lot lease is treated like any other Kentucky residential tenancy, and what the law requires depends entirely on where your park sits.

Kentucky runs a two-track system. Its version of the Uniform Residential Landlord and Tenant Act (URLTA) is a local opt-in law: under KRS 383.500 it applies only in cities, counties, and urban-county governments that have formally adopted it. In the majority of Kentucky localities that have not adopted URLTA, only general contract and common law plus the lease itself govern the lot rental.

Practical takeaway for operators: before you draft or rely on any lot lease, determine whether the park's city or county has adopted URLTA. That single fact decides whether the statutory rules on lease terms and prohibited clauses (below) apply, or whether you are operating under common law alone.

The URLTA opt-in framework (KRS 383.500)

KRS 383.500 authorizes local governments to enact URLTA (KRS 383.505 to 383.705) and requires that, if adopted, it be adopted in their entirety and without amendment. There is no partial adoption and no statewide default, so coverage is a locality-by-locality question.

Jurisdictions commonly reported as having adopted URLTA include Louisville-Jefferson County, Lexington-Fayette County, Covington, Newport, Florence, Georgetown, Shelbyville, Oldham County, and Pulaski County, plus about a dozen smaller (mostly northern Kentucky) cities such as Barbourville, Bellevue, Bromley, Dayton, Ludlow, Melbourne, Silver Grove, Southgate, Taylor Mill, and Woodlawn, roughly 19 jurisdictions in total. The large majority of Kentucky's 120 counties have not adopted it.

This list can change and is not a substitute for checking your own locality. Confirm the current ordinance status with the city or county attorney where the park is located, because it changes which rules in the next two sections you must follow.

If URLTA applies: permissible lease terms (KRS 383.565)

In an adopting locality, KRS 383.565 governs what the lot lease may contain. Subsection (1) lets the landlord and tenant agree to any terms and conditions not prohibited by KRS 383.505 to 383.715 or other rule of law, including rent, term of the agreement, and other provisions governing the rights and obligations of the parties. In short, you have freedom of contract up to the statutory guardrails.

Subsection (2) makes rent payable without demand or notice at the time and place agreed upon by the parties, and if the lease is silent, rent is payable at the dwelling unit at the beginning of each month. Subsection (3) sets the default term: if the lease does not fix a definite term, the tenancy is month-to-month (week-to-week only for a weekly roomer). Spell out rent, due date, and term expressly so you are not left on these defaults.

URLTA is a package (KRS 383.505 to 383.715). Beyond lease terms it also carries rules on deposits, landlord and tenant duties, and habitability. If your park is in a URLTA locality, review the full act, or have counsel review your lease against it, not just KRS 383.565.

Prohibited clauses (KRS 383.570) and what governs elsewhere

In URLTA localities, KRS 383.570 lists clauses your lot lease may not contain. A rental agreement may not require the tenant to: (a) waive or forego rights or remedies under KRS 383.505 to 383.715; (b) authorize anyone to confess judgment on a claim arising out of the lease; (c) pay the landlord's attorney's fees; or (d) exculpate the landlord from, or indemnify the landlord for, the landlord's own legal liability. Under subsection (2), any such prohibited clause is unenforceable, so boilerplate tenant-pays-all-attorney-fees or landlord-not-liable language will not hold up.

Outside URLTA localities there is no statutory list of prohibited clauses and no statute prescribing required lot-lease contents or disclosures. The lease is governed by general Kentucky contract and common law, and the written (or oral) agreement controls. There is no statutory security-deposit-account rule, no mandated move-in damage list, and no statutory cure period in these areas.

Even under common law, courts can decline to enforce terms that are illegal or unconscionable, so aggressive clauses are not risk-free. A note of caution to raise with counsel: whether URLTA even reaches a bare lot lease (where the tenant owns the mobile home) turns on the Act's definitions, which is not settled by any mobile-home-specific Kentucky statute; get a local read before assuming coverage either way.

Lease requirements at a glance in Kentucky

• No mobile home park act
  Kentucky has no dedicated mobile-home-park or manufactured-home-community tenancy statute; lot leases follow general residential landlord-tenant law.
• URLTA is local opt-in
  Under KRS 383.500, URLTA (KRS 383.505 to 383.715) applies only where the city, county, or urban-county government has adopted it in full.
• Know your locality
  Coverage is decided county-by-county and city-by-city; adopting jurisdictions include Louisville-Jefferson, Lexington-Fayette, Covington, Newport, Florence, and about a dozen others; most Kentucky counties have not adopted it.
• Permissible terms (URLTA areas)
  KRS 383.565 lets the parties set rent, term, and other lawful terms; a lease with no fixed term defaults to month-to-month.
• Prohibited clauses (URLTA areas)
  KRS 383.570 voids clauses that waive tenant rights, confess judgment, shift the landlord's attorney's fees to the tenant, or exculpate/indemnify the landlord for its own liability.
• Non-URLTA areas
  Only general contract/common law and the lease itself govern; no statutory required contents, disclosures, deposit rules, or cure periods.
• Put it in writing
  No statute requires a written lot lease, but a clear written lease is the only reliable way to fix rent, term, and rules in either track.

Operator best practices in Kentucky

• Confirm your URLTA status first
  Verify with the city or county attorney whether the park's locality has adopted URLTA before drafting or enforcing any lot lease; it dictates every rule below.
• Use a written lot lease
  Even where not required, put rent, due date, term, park rules, and notice procedures in a signed written agreement to avoid falling onto statutory or common-law defaults.
• Strip prohibited clauses everywhere
  Remove rights-waivers, confession-of-judgment, tenant-pays-landlord-attorney-fees, and landlord-exculpation language; they are unenforceable under KRS 383.570 in URLTA areas and invite unconscionability challenges elsewhere.
• State rent and term expressly
  Under KRS 383.565 an undated lease becomes month-to-month; define the term and renewal to keep control of the tenancy.
• Document move-in condition
  No statute mandates a damage checklist outside URLTA, but a dated, photo-backed condition record protects you in any deposit or damage dispute.
• Keep leases locality-specific
  Maintain separate lease templates for URLTA and non-URLTA parks rather than one statewide form, and re-check locality adoption periodically since ordinances can change.
• Build a relationship with a Kentucky MHP attorney
  Because coverage is patchwork and the mobile-home-lot applicability question is unsettled, retain Kentucky counsel experienced with manufactured-home communities to review leases and confirm local rules.