Lot rent is the single most important number in a manufactured housing community. It is your revenue line, your valuation driver, your residents' largest recurring bill, and — increasingly — the number your state legislature is most interested in.

It is also the number most operators handle least rigorously. Lot rent gets raised by a percentage someone picked in a budget meeting, served on a notice someone drafted years ago, and collected through a process that leaks a few hundred dollars a month per community without anyone noticing.

This guide covers what lot rent actually is, what it costs across the US in 2026, which states cap increases and by how much, how much notice you have to give, what you can and cannot add on top, and how to bill and collect it without leakage.

Key takeaways

• Lot rent is the rent for the homesite, not the home. In a land-lease community the resident owns the home and rents the ground beneath it.
• "National average lot rent" is nearly meaningless without geography. The two public MH REITs report $586 and $956 per site per month — a 63% spread in the same asset class.
• Six states now cap manufactured housing lot rent specifically, with rules that differ from their general rent control. New Jersey's statewide 3.5% cap became operative 1 March 2026.
• California does not have a statewide MH rent cap, despite what almost every summary says. The much-cited statute reaches only parks that straddle two or more incorporated cities.
• Notice periods are longer for lot rent than for apartments — 90 days in most states with an MH statute, and two states prescribe a mandatory notice form.
• In Florida, "lot rental amount" means every mandatory charge, not just base rent. You cannot advertise a low lot rent and add compulsory fees on top.

What is lot rent?

Lot rent is the monthly payment a resident makes for the right to occupy a homesite in a manufactured housing community. The resident owns the manufactured home; the community owns the land, the roads, the utility infrastructure and the common areas. Lot rent buys the ground and the services attached to it — not the home.

This is what makes manufactured housing structurally different from every other form of residential rental. In an apartment, rent buys shelter. In a land-lease community, lot rent buys a place to put shelter the resident already owns. That single distinction drives the different notice periods, the separate rent-cap statutes, and the reason a resident facing a large increase cannot simply move — relocating a manufactured home costs thousands of dollars and often is not physically possible.

Where the community owns the home as well, the resident pays for both and the arrangement is different again. That comparison is covered in full in our guide to park-owned vs tenant-owned homes.

Lot rent, site rent, space rent, pad rent: which term is right?

There is no single national term, and the right one depends on which state you are operating in.

For general operator communication, "lot rent" is the safest term. For notices, use whatever term your state statute uses.

What does lot rent include?

Typically included:

• The right to occupy the homesite
• Road maintenance, snow removal, landscaping and common-area upkeep
• Trash collection, and often water and sewer
• Amenities — clubhouse, pool, recreational facilities
• Community management, staff and administration
• Property taxes on the land (recovered through rent, not billed separately)

Typically billed separately: electricity and gas, and increasingly water and sewer where the community has submetered.

But "included" is a market convention, not a rule, and in at least one state it is regulated. California Civil Code §798.41 permits a community to unbundle utilities and bill them separately — but only if rent is simultaneously reduced by the park's average cost for that utility on that space over the preceding twelve months. You cannot unbundle and keep the rent where it was.

The decision of what to bundle and what to meter is one of the largest margin levers you control. It is covered in our guide to RUBS versus submetering.

Florida's "lot rental amount": the definition every operator should know

Florida takes the broadest view in the country, and it is worth understanding even if you do not operate there because it shows where the law is heading.

Fla. Stat. §723.003(6): "'Lot rental amount' means all financial obligations, except user fees, which are required as a condition of the tenancy."

Every mandatory charge — base rent, tax pass-ons, assessments, utility pass-ons — is the lot rental amount. The only lawful exception is a genuine "user fee," defined as a charge for "nonessential, optional services… under a separate written agreement."

The practical effect: in Florida you cannot advertise an attractive lot rent and layer compulsory charges on top. Adding a mandatory fee is a lot rental amount increase, and it triggers the full 90-day notice, disclosure and meeting machinery under §723.037. New York takes the same all-in approach under RPL §233-b, where "rent" includes all costs, fees, charges, assessments and utilities.

What lot rent costs in 2026

Start with the range, not the average.

Sources: Northmarq, 31 March 2026; MHInsider; IPA/Marcus & Millichap 2H 2025 National Report; MHI US Fact Sheet, August 2025.

The three national estimates land between $746 and $782 because they survey different universes — the JLT community survey, a CoStar-derived sample, and a transaction dataset. Use a range and name the source; anyone quoting a single national figure to two decimal places is not being careful.

Why the national average tells you almost nothing

The two publicly traded manufactured housing REITs reported these figures for Q2 2026:

Sources: UMH Form 8-K Ex-99.2, 5 August 2026; ELS Q2 2026 results, July 2026.

ELS runs 63% above UMH. Same asset class, same public markets, same quarter. The difference is entirely geography and positioning — a coastal and Sun Belt destination portfolio against a Midwest and Mid-Atlantic value portfolio.

For historical context, the JLT national average was $535 in May 2019. On the MHInsider series that is roughly +44% in six years.

What to do with this: never underwrite or set rents off a national number. Use market comps. The industry standard is the JLT Market Report, published by Datacomp, which surveys investment-grade communities across major US markets and is the de facto comp source in underwriting and appraisal.

Which states cap lot rent increases

This is where most published guidance is wrong, so read this section carefully.

Six states have a manufactured-housing-specific rent limit. They are separate statutes from those states' general rent control, and in several cases the MH rule is materially stricter.

Local ordinances add another layer. California has roughly 95 cities and 11 counties with mobilehome Space Rent Stabilization Ordinances, and 30 Massachusetts municipalities have MH rent control — Massachusetts municipalities retain that power because the 1994 statewide rent-control prohibition does not reach manufactured housing communities.

States with a manufactured housing statute but no cap include Florida, Colorado, Connecticut, Texas, Arizona, Nevada, Minnesota, Iowa, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Michigan, Georgia, Tennessee and North Carolina. Maine, Rhode Island and Vermont cap nothing but impose a mediation or arbitration trigger if residents object.

The California correction

Almost every article on this subject states that California caps mobilehome space rent at 3% plus CPI, or 5%. That is not accurate as general guidance.

Civil Code §798.30.5 applies only to a "qualified mobilehome park," which the statute defines as a park "located within and governed by the jurisdictions of two or more incorporated cities." The Senate Judiciary Committee's own analysis of the enacting bill called this "a very narrow context" and conceded it was unclear how many parks even qualify, against roughly 5,244 parks statewide. The Legislature has since been adding individual cities to the statute one bill at a time — which is itself proof of how narrow it is.

And AB 1482, the Tenant Protection Act, does not fill the gap. Its cap applies to "a dwelling or a unit" — the home, not the bare site. A resident who owns their home and rents the land is outside it. A resident who rents the home itself from the community is inside it.

So the accurate statement is: California has no general statewide cap on mobilehome space rent. Space rent is governed by a local Space Rent Stabilization Ordinance where one exists, and by nothing where one does not. Our guide to AB 1482 covers the general residential regime; mobilehome spaces sit outside it.

The Washington contrast

Washington is the sharpest illustration of why MH gets its own rules.

A hard, un-indexed 5% that never expires, against an apartment cap that floats near 10% and dies in 2040. Enforcement is serious: the Attorney General can act without waiting for a cure, civil penalties reach $7,500 per violation, and a landlord may not report a resident to a screening service for non-payment of an unlawfully increased amount.

Oregon's own guide is covered here, though note that manufactured dwelling facilities are governed by ORS 90.600 rather than ORS 90.323, and since HB 3054 took effect in September 2025 they carry a separate, lower cap.

How much notice must you give?

Longer than for an apartment, in almost every state with an MH statute.

Two states prescribe the actual form: Washington's (RCW 59.20.390) must be substantially in the statutory format and include the resident's name and address, an explanation of the 5% limit, information on exemptions, the effective date, the percentage and the new amount, a checkbox stating whether the increase is below, at, or exempt from the maximum, and supporting documentation if an exemption is claimed. Vermont requires a Department-issued form served on the Commissioner as well as residents.

Several more prescribe the content: Florida requires the dollar amount of the portions being increased and the dollar amount of the increases, with pass-through charges itemised separately including the name of the mandating government entity and start and end dates. Oregon requires facts supporting any claimed exemption. Maine requires comparable-market lot rent data and a calculated "allowed lot rent increase."

A generic rent increase letter will not satisfy these. Our rent increase letter guide covers the general format; for manufactured housing, the state's own required content controls. The full state-by-state breakdown is in lot rent increase notice requirements by state, and the process for executing an increase is in how to raise lot rent. (Both publish Day 5 — convert these to links then.)

Florida adds a step most operators forget: Under §723.037 the community must hold a meeting within 60 days of the effective date with a homeowner committee, disclose and explain all material factors behind the decision, and may not limit the discussion to generalities like "increased operating costs." If you justify the increase by reference to comparable parks, you must supply their names, addresses and lot rental amounts in writing.

What you can add on top: pass-throughs, fees and charges

Florida again provides the clearest framework, distinguishing two things operators routinely conflate:

• Pass-through charge (§723.003(17)) — the resident's proportionate share of a governmentally mandated capital improvement. Temporary, with a defined start and end date, and full disclosure of the mandating entity.
• Pass-on charge (§723.031(5)(c)) — ongoing costs: ad valorem taxes, non-ad valorem assessments and utility charges, or increases in any of them. Must be passed on within one year of payment, and you may not pass on any fine, interest or increase caused by your own late payment.

California's parallel rule is narrower: §798.49 permits pass-through of government fees first imposed or increased after specified 1990s dates, but expressly bars passing through property taxes, rent-control administration fees and Mobilehome Parks Act fees.

Entrance and exit fees are banned outright in several states- Washington bans both (RCW 59.20.060(2)(e)). Delaware bans both (25 Del. C. §7020(k)). Michigan bans entrance fees (MCL 125.2328). Florida bans exit fees and heavily restricts entrance fees — including a flat prohibition on charging one to a buyer of a home a resident is selling.

Late fees are capped in several states too- Washington runs a tiered escalator for agreements entered or renewed from May 2025: 2% of monthly rent in month one, 3% in month two, 5% thereafter. Delaware caps late fees at the greater of $25 or 5%, and only after rent is more than five days late. Oregon bars any late fee before the fourth day.

Ancillary revenue — storage, pets, extra vehicles, guest parking — is legitimate and worth running properly, but in Florida and New York the all-in definitions mean a mandatory charge is simply part of the rent. Our guide to ancillary revenue streams covers the billing mechanics.

Collecting lot rent

A point worth stating plainly: there is no reliable published data on lot rent collection rates or delinquency in manufactured housing. We checked. Trepp's CMBS delinquency series does not break out manufactured housing as a property type. The CFPB's 2025 rental delinquency research does not segment by MH or lot rent. Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac publish community loan volumes, not resident-level collection performance. Anyone quoting an MH delinquency benchmark is quoting an estimate.

What that means operationally is that your own numbers are the only benchmark you have, which makes measuring them properly more important, not less.

The four that matter:

1. Collection rate — cash collected against billed lot rent, by community, by month.
2. Delinquency ageing — 0–30, 31–60, 61–90, 90+, with the balance and the resident count in each bucket.
3. Payment method mix — cash and money order versus ACH, card and portal. Cash-heavy communities have a labour cost and a fraud exposure that never appears in the P&L.
4. Recovery rate on the ageing — what proportion of each bucket eventually collects.

A delinquency ladder in a land-lease community has to be more deliberate than an apartment ladder, because the consequences are more severe: a resident who loses their tenancy may also effectively lose a home they own. Consistent, documented, early escalation serves both sides. Our guides to building a rent delinquency workflow and issuing a late rent notice cover the mechanics — and the partial payment that quietly waives your right to evict covers the trap that catches operators most often.

On payment adoption: the shift from money orders to online rent collection is the single largest reduction in office workload available to most communities, and automating collection end to end removes the reconciliation step that consumes the first week of every month.

Setting lot rent: a pricing method that survives scrutiny

Given that six states cap increases and several more require you to justify them in a meeting, the era of picking a percentage in a budget meeting is over. A defensible method:

1. Establish market- JLT/Datacomp comps for your submarket, adjusted for amenities, infrastructure condition and age restriction. 55+ communities average roughly $90 a month above all-ages nationally.
2. Measure the gap between in-place and market rent, homesite by homesite. Long-tenured residents are usually furthest below.
3. Check the ceiling- Is there a state cap? A local ordinance? A long-term lease that escapes a local ordinance? In California, agreements exceeding 12 months are exempt from local rent ordinances under Civ. Code §798.17 — but not from §798.30.5.
4. Decide the renewal spread — what existing residents get versus what a new resident pays. In a market with 2% annual turnover, in-place rent drifts below market far faster than in multifamily.
5. Document the justification before you serve, not after you are challenged. Operating cost increases, tax increases and capital improvements are the three grounds that hold up almost everywhere.
6. Serve correctly, on the required form, with the required content and the required notice period.
7. Apply it in billing on the effective date, with the escalation recorded against the lease rather than typed in manually.

Step 7 is where money leaks. An increase that is correctly noticed and then incorrectly billed is worse than no increase at all. Rent escalation clauses should be configured once and applied automatically.

How RIOO handles lot rent

RIOO is a property management platform built natively on Oracle NetSuite, which matters for lot rent in a specific way: the rent roll and the general ledger are the same system, so what you bill and what you report can never diverge.

• Lot leases carry the homesite, the resident, the rent, the escalation rule and the notice history in one record.
• Escalations are configured against the lease — flat percentage, CPI-linked, or capped to a state maximum — and apply on their effective date without manual re-keying.
• Notice generation works off state-specific templates, so a Washington notice carries the statutory form and a Florida notice itemises pass-throughs with their start and end dates.
• Utility recovery — submetered, allocated or passed through — bills on the same invoice as lot rent, to the same receivable.
• One receivable per resident, with real ageing, so delinquency is a report rather than a spreadsheet.
• Collections run through the resident portal with automated invoicing and reconciliation, which removes the month-start reconciliation crunch.
• NOI per occupied homesite and collection rate report by community and roll up across entities, because multi-entity consolidation is native rather than a month-end spreadsheet exercise.

The result is that "what did we bill, what did we collect, and what is the gap" is a dashboard, not an investigation. If you would like to see it against your own rent roll, book a demo.

Conclusion: lot rent is becoming a regulated number

For most of the industry's history, lot rent was a market price. That is changing, and quickly.

Six states now cap manufactured housing lot rent specifically. New Jersey's 3.5% ceiling became operative in March 2026 and is the strictest statewide cap in the country. Washington's 5% has no expiry date while its apartment cap does. Oregon has broken parity between facilities and apartments. Three more states have built mediation and arbitration triggers instead of caps. And every one of these regimes carries its own notice period, several carry a mandatory form, and several require you to justify the increase in a room full of residents.

None of that makes lot rent harder to raise. It makes it harder to raise carelessly. The operators who will be fine are the ones who can answer four questions on any homesite, on any day:

1. What is the in-place rent, and how far below market is it?
2. What is the legal ceiling in this jurisdiction, and when does it change?
3. What notice, in what form, with what content, does this state require?
4. Did the increase we noticed six months ago actually get billed?

The first three are research. The fourth is a systems question — and it is the one that quietly costs the most.

Frequently asked questions

Q1. What is lot rent?
Lot rent is the monthly payment a resident makes for the right to occupy a homesite in a manufactured housing community. The resident owns the manufactured home; the community owns the land, roads, utility infrastructure and common areas. Lot rent pays for the ground and the services attached to it, not for the home.

Q2. What does lot rent typically include?
Usually the right to occupy the homesite, road and common-area maintenance, snow removal, landscaping, trash collection, community amenities, management and administration, and property taxes on the land. Water and sewer are often included but increasingly submetered. Electricity and gas are almost always billed separately.

Q3. What is the average lot rent in the US?
National estimates for 2025 range from roughly $746 to $782 per month depending on the survey, with all-ages communities around $751 and 55+ communities around $841. Geography matters far more than the average: the two public MH REITs reported $586 and $956 per site in Q2 2026.

Q4. Does California cap mobile home lot rent?
Not generally. California Civil Code §798.30.5 caps increases at 3% plus CPI or 5%, whichever is lower, but only for a "qualified mobilehome park" — one located within and governed by two or more incorporated cities. AB 1482 does not apply to space rent paid by a homeowner. Elsewhere in California, space rent is governed by a local ordinance or not at all.

Q5. Which states cap manufactured housing lot rent?
Six have a manufactured-housing-specific limit: New Jersey (3.5%), Washington (5%), Oregon (6% for facilities over 30 spaces), Delaware (a CPI-based formula banded to 6.1%), New York (3% soft, 6% hard) and California (narrow scope only). Roughly 95 California cities and 30 Massachusetts municipalities add local ordinances.

Q6. How much notice is required to raise lot rent?
Most states with a manufactured housing statute require 90 days — including California, Florida, Oregon, Maine and Washington. Colorado, Rhode Island and Vermont require 60 days, and Connecticut 30. Washington and Vermont also prescribe a mandatory notice form.

Q7. How often can lot rent be increased?
Most states with an MH statute allow one increase per 12-month period. California permits two increments within 12 months provided the combined increase stays within the applicable cap. Check the specific statute — this varies more than operators expect.

Q8. What is a pass-through charge in a manufactured housing community?
In Florida, a pass-through charge is the resident's proportionate share of the costs of a governmentally mandated capital improvement, disclosed with the mandating entity's name and defined start and end dates. It differs from a "pass-on charge," which covers ongoing costs such as property taxes, assessments and utilities.

Q9. Can a manufactured housing community charge an entrance fee?
It depends on the state. Washington and Delaware ban both entrance and exit fees. Michigan bans entrance fees. Florida bans exit fees and restricts entrance fees, including a prohibition on charging one to the buyer of a home a resident is selling. Where permitted, disclosure requirements usually apply.

RIOO is a property management platform built natively on Oracle NetSuite, used by manufactured housing community operators to manage homesites, lot rent, park-owned homes, utility recovery and multi-entity accounting in one system.