New Jersey Mobile Home Park Lease Law: What Operators Need to Include

What must a mobile home lot lease include in New Jersey?

Be honest with yourself up front: New Jersey has no single statute that dictates the contents of a mobile home lot lease. There is no state-issued required-clause checklist the way some states publish one. Instead, the rules that shape your lot lease are spread across three bodies of law: the Mobile Home Park provisions at N.J.S.A. 46:8C-2 through 46:8C-21, the Truth-in-Renting Act at N.J.S.A. 46:8-43 to 46:8-50, and the good-cause protections of the Anti-Eviction Act at N.J.S.A. 2A:18-61.1.

From those laws, a handful of hard obligations do apply directly to your lease. Under N.J.S.A. 46:8C-4 you must offer every resident a written lease or rental agreement of not less than 12 months. Under N.J.S.A. 46:8C-2c you must disclose in writing all fees, charges, assessments, rules and regulations before the resident takes occupancy. You must deliver the park rules to the homeowner before signing and post them. And under N.J.S.A. 46:8C-5 you cannot include any clause that waives a protection of the Mobile Home Park law.

One caution worth stating plainly, because it trips people up: 46:8C-10 does not list prohibited practices. It is the definitions section of a separate 1991 law (the Private Residential Leasehold Community opportunity-to-purchase act, 46:8C-10 through -21). The prohibited practices and the lease requirements that actually govern your day-to-day operation are in 46:8C-2, -3, -4 and -5.

Truth-in-Renting: distribute and post the DCA statement

The Truth-in-Renting Act (N.J.S.A. 46:8-43 to -50) requires a landlord to hand each tenant a copy of the NJ Department of Community Affairs Truth in Renting statement, to give the current version to each new tenant at or before occupancy, and to keep it posted where tenants can see it (N.J.S.A. 46:8-46). If a tenant waives or refuses the statement, that does not relieve you of the duty (46:8-49). The Act also bars you from offering or entering a written lease that contains a clause violating clearly established tenant rights (46:8-48), and violations carry a penalty of up to 100 dollars per offense (46:8-47).

There is an honest legal wrinkle for lot leases. The Act defines Landlord by reference to leasing dwelling units (N.J.S.A. 46:8-44), and it does not squarely address a mobile home lot lease where the resident owns the home and rents only the ground underneath it. Whether the Act strictly compels distribution in that land-only situation is not cleanly settled by the statute's text, and DCA publishes a separate dedicated Mobile Home Park guide for these communities.

The practical answer for an operator is simple: distribute and post the current Truth-in-Renting statement anyway. It is free from DCA, it costs you nothing, and it removes any argument that you withheld it.

Prohibited practices and the right to sell in place (46:8C-2 and 46:8C-3)

N.J.S.A. 46:8C-2 is the real list of things a park owner cannot do. You cannot require residents to buy underskirting, tie-down equipment, or other required equipment from you; you may only specify the style or quality, and the resident buys from a vendor of their choosing (subsection a). You cannot charge extra fees to install a code-compliant appliance beyond your actual cost, or block code-compliant interior improvements (subsection b(1)). You cannot force residents to buy fuel or gas from a supplier you designate, unless you own or hold a possessory interest in the lines and the fuel is competitively priced (subsection b(2)). And you cannot relocate a resident-owned home within the park except when reasonably necessary, with 30 days' written notice, with you bearing all costs and the resident holding a reimbursement right that cannot be waived (subsection b(3)).

Fees are tightly controlled. You must disclose every fee, charge, assessment and rule in writing before occupancy, and all fees, including but not limited to entrance, membership or association fees, however denominated, must be tied to your actual costs (subsection c). Any fee you failed to disclose is not collectible, and a resident's refusal to pay an undisclosed charge cannot be used as grounds for eviction (subsection d). Taking any donation, gratuity, bonus, or gift to procure or favor a lease makes you a disorderly person and exposes you to double damages plus attorney's fees (subsections e and f).

N.J.S.A. 46:8C-3 protects the resident's right to sell the home where it sits. You cannot deny a resident the right to sell within the park, or force removal solely because of a sale. You may reserve the right to approve the buyer as a tenant, but that approval cannot be unreasonably withheld, and you cannot take a commission on the sale price unless you actually acted as the seller's agent under a written contract. If you unreasonably withhold approval, a court can award damages, costs and fees and order the buyer admitted.

General lease framework and the Anti-Eviction backstop

Outside the specific 46:8C duties, your lot lease is governed by ordinary New Jersey contract law. You are free to set rent, term, and reasonable community rules, so long as nothing in the lease conflicts with the Mobile Home Park law or other tenant-protection statutes. Two guardrails matter most. First, N.J.S.A. 46:8C-4 requires that the agreement itself be a written lease of at least 12 months and that the rules and regulations be delivered before signing and posted in the park. Second, N.J.S.A. 46:8C-5 voids any lease clause that purports to waive a protection of the Mobile Home Park act.

The Anti-Eviction Act, N.J.S.A. 2A:18-61.1, sits behind every lot lease as a backstop. It requires good cause to remove a residential tenant, its coverage extends to mobile home park lot tenants, and it includes grounds written specifically for mobile home park situations. A lease cannot contract around it: a clause that tries to let you evict without statutory good cause, or to waive the tenant's right to court process, is unenforceable.

So the honest summary of the framework is: general contract freedom, narrowed by the 46:8C protections, a mandatory 12-month written lease, mandatory written fee and rule disclosure, a non-waiver rule, and good-cause eviction that the lease cannot override.

Lease requirements at a glance in New Jersey

• Offer a 12-month written lease
  N.J.S.A. 46:8C-4 requires you to offer every resident a written lease or rental agreement of not less than 12 months, within 30 days of the resident lawfully assuming occupancy.
• Disclose all fees and rules in writing first
  N.J.S.A. 46:8C-2c requires full written disclosure of every fee, charge, assessment, rule and regulation before occupancy; anything undisclosed is not collectible.
• Tie every fee to actual cost
  Entrance, membership or association fees however denominated must be specifically related to and identifiable with your actual costs, and a credit-check fee cannot exceed your actual cost.
• No forced purchases or tie-ins
  You cannot make residents buy underskirting, tie-down or other required equipment from you, and cannot force fuel purchases from a supplier you designate, subject only to the narrow possessory-interest exception.
• Preserve the right to sell in place
  N.J.S.A. 46:8C-3 bars denying the right to sell the home within the park; you may reasonably approve the buyer as a tenant but cannot take a commission unless you acted as agent under a written contract.
• Deliver and post the park rules
  Deliver the rules and regulations to the homeowner before signing and post them in the recreation hall or another conspicuous place (46:8C-4d, e).
• Distribute Truth in Renting
  Give each tenant the DCA Truth-in-Renting statement and keep it posted (N.J.S.A. 46:8-46); a tenant's waiver does not relieve you (46:8-49).
• No waiver clauses
  N.J.S.A. 46:8C-5 voids any clause waiving a Mobile Home Park protection, and Anti-Eviction good-cause rights under 2A:18-61.1 cannot be waived either.

Operator best practices in New Jersey

• Build a relationship with a New Jersey MHP attorney
  Mobile home park law here is spread across 46:8C, Truth in Renting, and the Anti-Eviction Act, with a common misconception about 46:8C-10; a local attorney who does this work should review your lease and rule set before you use them.
• Use a lease that itemizes every fee
  List each fee, charge and assessment in the lease or an attached disclosure and confirm each ties to an actual cost, so no charge is later ruled uncollectible under 46:8C-2.
• Keep signed disclosure and rule-delivery receipts
  Have residents acknowledge in writing that they received the fee disclosure and the park rules before signing, which is exactly what 46:8C-2c and 46:8C-4 require.
• Give at least 30 days' written notice before changing fees or rules
  N.J.S.A. 46:8C-2c bars increasing disclosed fees or changing rules without specifying an implementation date at least 30 days after written notice to all tenants.
• Handle home sales and buyer approval consistently
  Document a legitimate, tenancy-based reason for any purchaser you reject, so you can defend against an unreasonable-withholding claim under 46:8C-3.
• Distribute the current Truth-in-Renting statement every year
  Pull the latest DCA version, hand it to new tenants at or before occupancy, and keep it posted; it is free and closes off a 46:8-46 violation.
• Never rely on a waiver
  Do not put waiver-of-rights or waive-good-cause language in a lot lease; 46:8C-5 makes it void and the Anti-Eviction Act protections cannot be contracted away.