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Most manufactured home residents living in a private residential leasehold community own their home but not the land beneath it. If a private residential leasehold community landowner pursues redevelopment, resident homeowners are at risk of losing their investment. The scarcity of vacancies in other communities, and the high costs of relocating a manufactured home, make relocation nearly impossible. When a community closes and the land is sold, resident homeowners can find themselves pushed into poverty.

(“MHPPA”) aims to remedy this unfortunate circumstance by providing the resident homeowners in a private residential leasehold community with advance notice and a right of first refusal if a private residential leasehold community landowner plans to offer the land for sale or accept, consider, or counter-offer a bona fide offer to purchase the land.

Key provisions:

The MHPPA grants the homeowners within the community a right to purchase the land from the landowner before it can be sold to a private party.  Specifically, under the MHPPA, a landowner must agree to sell the land to the homeowners provided that the homeowners if 51% of the homeowners, by and through a “resident homeowner group,” vote to purchase the land and can meet the price, terms, and conditions set by the landlord in the notice.  The homeowners shall have 120 days from the date of the landowner’s notification, subject to any mutually agreed-upon extensions of time, to execute a contract for purchase with the landowner.

• Landowners and homeowners should refer to the MHPPA for other requirements associated with the purchase of the private residential leasehold community land.

The bill also introduces strict confidentiality requirements for all parties involved in the potential sale to prevent misuse of sensitive information during negotiations.

A resident homeowner group can assign their purchase rights to the municipality, a housing authority, a state agency, or a nonprofit, for the purpose of continuing the property as a manufactured home community.

The MHPPA requires that a landowner of a private residential leasehold community, as defined in the statute, provide notice to certain parties when the landowner (A) offers the land for sale; and (B) receives a bona fide offer to purchase the land that the landowner intends to consider or counter.  Said notice shall include the price, terms, and conditions of the offer and a contract person for further information.  Notice shall be provided by certified mail, return receipt requested, to:

• The Department of Community Affairs;
• The Municipal Clerk in the municipality where the private residential leasehold community is located;
• The Mayor or other Chief Executive Officer of the municipality where the private residential leasehold community is located;

Each resident homeowner in the private leasehold community, to whom notice must be sent via first class mail with tracking and by delivery to each manufactured home on the property; and

Those persons or entities on the Department Community Affairs’ list of nonprofit organizations that are committed to preserving affordable housing.

Under the law, the Department of Community Affairs acts as a central hub, keeping an up-to-date registry of affordable housing nonprofits and serving as a required notice recipient so the right organizations know when a park is at risk of being sold.