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

What must a mobile home lot lease include in Pennsylvania?

If you own or manage a manufactured home community in Pennsylvania, the lot lease is not a free-form document. It is governed by the Manufactured Home Community Rights Act, 68 P.S. Section 398.1 et seq. (Act 261 of 1976, substantially expanded by Act 80 of 2010 and Act 156 of 2012). The Act dictates that every space be rented under a written lease, spells out exactly what you must disclose before you take a dollar, and voids several fees and clauses that operators in other states take for granted.

The stakes are practical, not just theoretical. Charges you fail to disclose are 'void and unenforceable in the courts of the Commonwealth,' and lease clauses that violate the Act simply will not hold up. This overview walks through the written-lease mandate (Section 398.4a), the disclosure package (Section 398.6), the prohibited provisions and fees (Sections 398.7, 398.8, 398.10, 398.11), and the rules requirement (Section 398.4). It is general information for operators, not legal advice for a specific lease or dispute.

The written lease requirement under 68 P.S. Section 398.4a

Section 4.1 of the Act (68 P.S. Section 398.4a) leaves no room for handshake tenancies: 'Every lease for a manufactured home space shall be in writing and shall be for a duration term of one month, unless a longer period is mutually agreed upon by both the lessee and manufactured home community owner, and shall be renewable.' A month-to-month written lease is the statutory floor; a longer term is allowed only by mutual agreement, and every lease must be renewable.

The same section controls how often you can move the ground rent: 'Rents for a mobile home site, commonly known as ground rents, shall not change more than once in a 12-month period.' You cannot stack multiple rent adjustments inside a single year.

For any lease term longer than 60 days, Section 398.4a(c) requires you to offer a renewal 'for the same term and with the same provisions as the original agreement, unless the manufactured home community owner notifies the lessee in writing of any changes, at least 60 days prior to the expiration of the lease.' In short: renew on the same terms, or give written notice of the changes at least 60 days out.

Required disclosures under 68 P.S. Section 398.6

Section 6 front-loads disclosure. Before you accept any initial deposit, fee, or rent and before the lease is signed, you must disclose in writing 'all rent, fees, service charges and assessments payable to the community owner and utility charges for water, sewer, trash, Internet, cable, electricity and fuel charges payable to the owner.' The penalty for skipping this is severe: 'Failure to disclose such rent, fees, service charges and assessments shall render them void and unenforceable in the courts of the Commonwealth.' An undisclosed fee is not just a compliance risk; it is uncollectable.

For every new lease, extension, or renewal longer than 60 days, Section 398.6(e) mandates a specific nine-item disclosure package: how utilities and services are provided and by whom; the manner in which the rental amount will be increased, including at least 60 days advance notice; the factors that may affect the lot rental amount (water, sewer and waste rates, maintenance, management, taxes, major repairs, and other fees); how pass-through charges will be assessed; a report of the utility fees a prior lessee paid over the previous 12 months; all elective service charges; the community rules and regulations; the space's rent history for the three full calendar years before the rental date; and any government citations requiring corrective action.

The Act also builds in a cooling-off period. Section 6 requires a separate cover sheet, in 12-point sans-serif type with the words 'five days' in 16-point bold, telling the prospective lessee they have five calendar days from receipt of the documents to cancel the agreement in writing. Rent increases require 30 days posted-and-mailed notice, and rent 'shall not be increased during the term of the lease.'

Prohibited provisions and fees under 68 P.S. Sections 398.7, 398.8, 398.10 and 398.11

Several fees that operators elsewhere charge are flatly illegal in Pennsylvania. Section 8 (68 P.S. Section 398.8) is a single sentence: 'Entrance and exit fees may not be charged.' You cannot condition move-in or move-out on a fee. Section 10 (68 P.S. Section 398.10) bars guest fees: 'no fee may be charged for overnight visitors or guests occupying a lessee's manufactured home,' although you may adjust rent if guests effectively and permanently increase the household size.

Section 7 (68 P.S. Section 398.7) protects residents' improvements and appliances. You may not restrict compliant interior improvements or the installation, service, or maintenance of an electric or gas appliance, and you may not 'charge any fee for such installation unless the fee reflects the actual cost to the manufactured home community owner or operator of such installation or its use.' Installation fees, if any, are capped at your actual cost.

Section 11 (68 P.S. Section 398.11) is the resale protection. 'Any rule, regulation or condition of a lease purporting to prevent the sale of a manufactured home belonging to a lessee shall be void and unenforceable in the courts of the Commonwealth.' You may reserve the right to approve the buyer as a new lessee, 'but such approval may not be unreasonably withheld,' and you cannot claim a sales fee or commission unless you actually acted as a bona fide licensed manufactured home sales agent under a separate written fee agreement. Any lease clause blocking an in-place sale is unenforceable.

Lease requirements at a glance in Pennsylvania

• Written lease, one-month minimum, renewable
  68 P.S. Section 398.4a requires every space to be leased in writing for a term of at least one month (longer only by mutual agreement), and the lease must be renewable.
• Ground rent changes once per 12 months
  Ground rents 'shall not change more than once in a 12-month period,' and rent cannot be increased during the lease term (Sections 398.4a, 398.6).
• Full written fee disclosure before any money changes hands
  All rent, fees, service charges, assessments, and owner-billed utilities must be disclosed in writing before you accept a deposit, fee, or rent, or undisclosed charges become void and unenforceable (Section 398.6).
• Nine-item disclosure for leases over 60 days
  Section 398.6(e) requires utility/service providers, the rent-increase method with 60-day notice, cost factors, pass-through method, prior-year utility fees, elective service charges, the rules, a three-year rent history, and government citations.
• Five-day right to cancel and 60-day renewal notice
  A statutorily formatted cover sheet must disclose the lessee's five-calendar-day cancellation right, and renewals over 60-day terms require same-terms offers or 60-day written notice of changes (Sections 398.6, 398.4a).
• Rules must be reasonable and in the lease
  Community rules must be fair, reasonable, related to health/safety/upkeep, not arbitrary or capricious, uniformly applied, included in the written lease, delivered, and posted (Section 398.4).
• Banned fees: entrance, exit, and guest
  Entrance and exit fees may not be charged (Section 398.8), overnight guest fees are prohibited (Section 398.10), and appliance-installation fees are capped at actual cost (Section 398.7).
• No blocking a resident's in-place sale
  Lease clauses preventing a resident from selling the home are void; buyer approval cannot be unreasonably withheld and no commission is due unless you acted as a licensed agent under a separate written agreement (Section 398.11).

Operator best practices in Pennsylvania

• Use a compliant written lease template for every space
  Standardize on a written, renewable, one-month-minimum lease that embeds the Section 398.6(e) disclosures and the community rules, so no space is ever rented on an oral or noncompliant agreement.
• Deliver the full disclosure package before taking any money
  Give the written fee disclosure, the three-year rent history, and the formatted five-day cancellation cover sheet before accepting a deposit, fee, or rent; document delivery with a signed, dated receipt.
• Audit your fee schedule against the Act
  Remove any entrance, exit, transfer, or guest fees, and confirm appliance-installation charges never exceed actual cost, since noncompliant fees are unenforceable in court.
• Handle rent increases on the statutory clock
  Change ground rent no more than once per 12 months, never mid-term, and give the required advance notice by posting and mailing so the increase is enforceable.
• Keep rules fair, uniform, and documented
  Make sure every rule ties to health, safety, or upkeep, is applied uniformly to similar residents, is included in the lease, delivered in writing, and posted in the office or another accessible place.
• Do not obstruct in-place home sales
  Allow residents to sell their homes on site, apply only reasonable, non-arbitrary buyer-approval criteria, and never claim a sales commission unless you acted as a licensed agent under a separate written fee agreement.
• Build a relationship with a Pennsylvania MHP attorney
  The MHCRA is technical and periodically amended (Act 80 of 2010, Act 156 of 2012); have Pennsylvania counsel experienced in manufactured home communities review your lease, disclosure package, and fee schedule before rollout and after any statutory change.