Mobilehome Residency Law: Rent, Rules, and Ending Tenancy

If you own a mobilehome and rent the space it sits on in California, the California Mobilehome Residency Law is the statute that defines your rights. Codified at Civil Code sections 798 through 798.88, it caps what management can charge as a security deposit, requires 90 days’ notice before any rent increase, limits the reasons management can evict you to seven specific grounds, protects your right to sell your home in place, and lets you recover attorney’s fees if you have to sue to enforce any of it.¹ The law exists because moving a mobilehome costs between $4,000 and $30,000 or more and can damage the structure, which gives park owners leverage that statewide rules are meant to check.

Your Lease and What Must Be in It

Every tenancy must start with a written rental agreement that states the term, the rent, the services management will provide, and the fees for those services. A full copy of the Mobilehome Residency Law must be attached. When the Legislature makes significant changes to the law, management must either hand you an updated copy by February 1 of the following year or tell you in writing that a new copy is available free.²

You must be offered a 12-month lease. You can ask for a shorter term or negotiate longer, and the rent, utility charges, and incidental fees during the first 12 months cannot differ from what a month-to-month tenant would pay. Choosing a shorter lease shouldn’t cost you more.³

If the park operates under a zoning or use permit that renews or expires, management has to disclose that. Prospective homeowners are entitled to the notice before signing, and current homeowners must be notified in writing within 30 days of any change to the park’s permit status.⁴

Security Deposit Limits

Management can collect a security deposit only at the start of your tenancy. The deposit cannot exceed two months’ rent at the move-in rate, on top of first month’s rent. No additional deposit can be demanded later, no matter how much the rent goes up or how many times you renew.⁵ If management asks for more money years into your tenancy and calls it a security deposit, the request has no basis in the statute.

Rent Increases

Management must give at least 90 days’ written notice before a rent increase takes effect.⁶ A notice that arrives late is invalid, even by a day. The 90 days give you time to budget, check whether a local rent stabilization ordinance limits the increase, or talk to a lawyer. Management cannot route around the notice rule by relabeling a rent hike as a service fee or administrative charge.

Utility Billing in Sub-Metered Parks

When the park has a master meter and sub-meters, every utility bill must show the opening and closing meter readings for the billing period so you can verify your usage. Management must also post the current residential utility rate schedule from the serving utility in a visible location, or post the web address where you can find it. If only the web address is posted, management has to provide a paper copy free to anyone who asks.⁷

Here is the catch most residents miss. When management bills utilities separately from rent, those charges don’t count as rent or a rent increase for purposes of local rent control, but only if the base rent was reduced by the same amount when separate billing began.⁸ If management started sending you a separate water or electricity bill without reducing your base rent by an equal amount, the standalone charge may not be valid.

Changes to Park Rules

Management can change park rules, but the process has real requirements. Before implementing any amendment, management must hold a meeting with homeowners or their representatives, with at least 10 days’ written notice that describes the proposed change and the meeting details.⁹

After the meeting, how much notice you get depends on the rule. For most rule changes, management needs either your consent or at least six months’ written notice before the new rule takes effect. Rules limited to recreational facilities take 60 days. A change required by a new law or regulation can be implemented with 60 days’ notice and no homeowner consent.⁹ A park that imposes a new landscaping standard under the general rule-change track owes you six months, not 60 days.

Your Right to Meet and Organize

The law guarantees homeowners the right to peacefully assemble and communicate about mobilehome living and social or educational purposes. No rental agreement or park rule can take that away.¹⁰ In practical terms, you can:

Use the park’s community room or clubhouse for meetings at reasonable hours when the space is not otherwise in use. No cleaning deposit can be charged for a meeting of a resident organization if a park homeowner is hosting and all residents are invited.
Invite public officials, candidates for office, and representatives of mobilehome owner organizations to speak on matters of public interest.
Distribute information, circulate petitions, and canvass other homeowners at reasonable hours for noncommercial purposes related to mobilehome living or public elections.

Management cannot require residents to carry liability insurance to use common area facilities for these purposes. A liability insurance binder can be required only if alcohol will be served.¹¹ A park that locks the clubhouse to block a homeowners’ meeting is violating state law.

When Management Can End Your Tenancy

Your tenancy can be terminated only on grounds the statute specifically lists. There are seven, and management cannot add others.¹²

Failure to comply with a local or state law, after a notice of noncompliance from the government agency and a reasonable time to fix the problem.
Conduct on park premises that substantially annoys other residents. The statute does not require a prior written warning for this ground, though management must still use the 60-day termination process.
Conviction for certain violent crimes, arson, or felony drug offenses committed on park premises. The tenancy is protected if the convicted person permanently vacates the home.
Failure to follow a reasonable park rule that is part of the rental agreement or a properly adopted amendment.
Nonpayment of rent, utilities, or service charges. The amount must be at least five days overdue; after that, you get a three-day written notice to pay or vacate.
Condemnation of the park.
Change of use of the park.

For nonpayment, the three-day pay-or-quit notice and the 60-day termination notice can be served at the same time.¹² If you receive both at once, you have three days to pay in full, and the 60-day eviction clock is already running. Many residents assume the 60-day notice comes only later, after a separate chance to cure. It does not.

If the Park Is Closing or Changing Use

Change of use carries the longest notice requirements in the entire law. If the conversion needs local government permits, management must give homeowners at least 60 days’ written notice before appearing at the permit hearing. Once permits are approved, management must give at least six months’ written notice of termination. If the change requires no government permits at all, the notice jumps to 12 months, and management has to describe the planned change in detail.¹²

Prospective buyers must also be told before signing a lease if management has already applied for or received a change-of-use approval, so no one moves in unaware that the park may close.

Selling Your Home in Place

You have the right to sell your mobilehome where it stands. Management cannot force removal of a home just because it changes hands during the lease term or within 60 days after certain required notices.¹³ This is what preserves your equity, because a mobilehome sold in place is almost always worth more than one sold for relocation.

Management can require removal on sale only in narrow circumstances: the unit doesn’t meet the statutory definition of a mobilehome; it exceeds specified age thresholds and fails a health and safety inspection by the enforcement agency; or it is significantly rundown or in disrepair. Management bears the burden of proving the home’s condition warrants removal and must specify the condition in writing.¹³

Buyer Approval

Management can require approval of your prospective buyer, but only on narrow grounds: a reasonable determination that the buyer won’t comply with park rules based on prior tenancy history, that the buyer lacks the financial ability to pay rent and charges, or that the buyer committed fraud in the application.¹⁴

Within 15 days of being notified of the sale, management must give the seller and buyer its approval standards in writing, including the minimum credit score and a complete list of required documents. Once the buyer submits everything, management has 15 business days to accept or reject in writing. A rejection must state the reason, and if it rests on financial inability, the buyer can supply more income or asset documentation for reconsideration. If management fails to respond within 15 business days, the application is deemed approved.¹⁴

When the Park Itself Is Sold

California does not give residents a right of first refusal when the park is sold. Park owners must, however, give at least 30 days’ written notice of intent to sell before listing the property or making an offer to any party. That notice goes to the officers of a qualifying resident organization formed as a nonprofit or cooperative for the purpose of buying the park.¹⁵ The notice obligation applies only if the organization has previously given management the names and addresses of its officers and a written statement of interest in purchasing, renewed every year.

Abandoned Homes

If a mobilehome sits with no rent paid for at least 60 days and management reasonably believes it has been abandoned, the law provides a court-supervised process rather than a quick seizure. Management must post a notice on the home for at least 30 days and mail copies by registered mail to the homeowner and any known registered owner or lienholder, then file a petition in court for a judicial declaration of abandonment before any sale can occur.¹⁶ The process is deliberately slow because a mobilehome is often someone’s only significant asset.

Enforcing Your Rights

In any lawsuit arising under the Mobilehome Residency Law, the prevailing party is entitled to reasonable attorney’s fees and costs. A party is prevailing if the court rules in their favor or if the case is dismissed in their favor before or during trial.¹⁷ This fee-shifting rule is the practical engine behind the whole statute. Without it, most homeowners could not afford to sue a corporate park owner, and management would have little financial reason to comply.

The California Department of Housing and Community Development has oversight authority over mobilehome parks, including health and safety inspections and complaint investigations.¹⁸ Filing a complaint with the agency does not replace a lawsuit, but it can prompt an inspection or put official pressure on a park that is breaking the law. For disputes over rent, rules, or termination of tenancy, court is usually the only route to a binding resolution.

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California Legislative Information. California Code Civil Code 798 – Mobilehome Residency Law
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California Legislative Information. California Code Civil Code CIV 798.15 – Rental Agreement
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California Legislative Information. California Code Civil Code CIV 798.18 – Rental Agreements
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California Legislative Information. California Code Civil Code CIV 798.27 – Notice of Zoning and Use Permit
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California Legislative Information. California Code Civil Code CIV 798.39 – Security Deposits
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California State Senate. Appendix MRL FAQs
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California Legislative Information. California Code Civil Code CIV 798.40 – Utility Service Charges
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California Legislative Information. California Code Civil Code CIV 798.41 – Utility Service Fees
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California Legislative Information. California Code Civil Code CIV 798.25 – Amendment of Park Rules and Regulations
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California Legislative Information. California Code Civil Code CIV 798.50 – Legislative Intent
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California Legislative Information. California Code Civil Code 798.51
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California Legislative Information. California Code CIV 798.56 – Termination of Tenancy
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California Legislative Information. California Code Civil Code 798.73
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California Legislative Information. California Code Civil Code 798.74
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California Legislative Information. California Code Civil Code CIV 798.80 – Sale of Mobilehome Park
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California Department of Housing and Community Development. Mobilehome Abandonment Procedures
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California Legislative Information. California Code Civil Code CIV 798.85 – Attorney Fees and Costs
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California Department of Housing and Community Development. Mobilehome Residency Law – Rights and Obligations of Mobilehome Park Homeowners, Tenants and Management