Search for a mobile home park lease and Google hands you a Scribd upload, a PDF of some community's actual prospectus that somebody scanned, and a legal aid page written for residents. That is the published state of the art on a document that, in Florida, must be filed with and approved by a state agency before you can raise anybody's rent.

The gap between how seriously the law treats this document and how seriously most operators treat it is the widest in the asset class. A lot rental agreement is not a lease with the word "lot" swapped in. Six states we examined dictate its contents by statute. Several void specific clauses on sight. Florida requires state approval and makes undisclosed fees permanently uncollectible. Oregon exposes a landlord who knowingly uses a prohibited clause to actual damages plus up to three months' rent.

And the penalties do not require anybody to have been harmed. They attach to the document.

This guide covers what the agreement and the disclosure document must contain, what they must not, which fees are banned outright, and what happens when the paperwork is wrong. It does not cover eviction, rule enforcement, or who maintains what — those are separate articles, linked where relevant.

General information for operators, not legal advice. These requirements are state-specific and several have been amended recently. Have your documents reviewed by counsel in each state you operate in.

Key takeaways

• Florida requires a state-approved prospectus in communities with 26 or more lots, and no lot rent increase is permitted until it has been delivered.
• Undisclosed fees are uncollectible in Florida — and refusing to pay one cannot be used as a ground for eviction.
• Six states dictate the written agreement's contents by statute. Washington requires fifteen specific items including a five-year rent history.
• Oregon requires a separate statement of policy, with the rental agreement and rules attached as exhibits.
• Minimum terms are mandatory in some states — Washington defaults to one year with automatic renewal; New York requires an annual written offer of a one-year lease.
• Entrance and exit fees are prohibited outright in Washington, and exit fees in Florida.
• Prohibited clauses are void, not merely unenforceable, and Oregon attaches damages of up to three months' rent for knowingly using one.

Why the MH lease is not a lease

An ordinary residential lease is a private contract. The parties largely decide what is in it, and statute intervenes only at the edges.

A lot rental agreement is closer to a regulated disclosure instrument. The reason is structural: the resident is being asked to place an asset worth tens of thousands of dollars onto ground they will never own, in a location they cannot practically move it from. Legislatures responded by requiring the operator to disclose, in advance and in writing, everything that will determine what that decision costs over time — the rent mechanism, the fees, the services, the rules, the zoning, and what happens if the community closes.

Which is why these statutes read like securities disclosure rather than landlord-tenant law. The obligation is to tell the resident what they are buying into before they cannot leave.

Florida's prospectus — the strictest regime

Florida is the benchmark, and worth understanding even if you never operate there, because it shows what full disclosure looks like.

Filing and approval. §723.011 provides that "in a mobile home park containing 26 or more lots, the park owner shall file a prospectus with the division," and that "prior to entering into an enforceable rental agreement for a mobile home lot, the park owner shall deliver to the homeowner a prospectus approved by the division." The division has 45 days to find it adequate or cite deficiencies; if it does not act, the prospectus "shall be deemed to have been found adequate."

Delivery and the cooling-off right. Delivery "shall be made prior to execution of the lot rental agreement or at the time of occupancy, whichever occurs first." And on delivery, "the lot rental agreement is voidable by the lessee for a period of 15 days."

Contents. §723.012 enumerates what must be in it. Condensed:

The consequence that bites. §723.031(7) provides that "no park owner may increase the lot rental amount until an approved prospectus has been delivered if one is required."

Read that as an operator. If the prospectus was never delivered — because a previous owner's file was incomplete, or a manager skipped it at move-in — you cannot raise that resident's rent. Not until you fix it. Across a portfolio acquired from a seller with sloppy records, that is a direct and ongoing revenue problem, and it is one of the first things a careful buyer checks.

What the written agreement must contain elsewhere

Florida is the strictest but not the only prescriptive state.

California — Civil Code §798.15 requires that "the rental agreement shall be in writing" and contain: term and rent; the park rules; a copy of the Mobilehome Residency Law as an exhibit; management's duty to maintain common facility improvements, with repairs within 30 days absent exigency; a description of the physical improvements provided; the services offered and their fees; a reasonable maintenance fee provision operable after 14 days' notice; all other provisions governing the tenancy; and the statutory "Important Notice to All Manufactured Home/Mobilehome Owners."

Washington — RCW 59.20.060 provides that "any mobile home space tenancy regardless of the term, shall be based upon a written rental agreement, signed by the parties," and lists fifteen required contents. Several are unusual and easy to miss:

• A boldfaced park-closure notice above the signature line, plus a copy of any active closure notice
• The current zoning of the property
• Land-use permit expiration dates
• A written statement of "accurate historical information regarding the past five years' rental amount charged for the lot or space"

That five-year rent history is a genuine outlier. Washington requires you to hand a prospective resident the rent trajectory of the homesite they are considering — which is a disclosure most operators would not volunteer.

Arizona — §33-1413 requires a signed written agreement executed at the start of tenancy stating the rent and any security deposit, with a signed acknowledgment of receipt of the statutory disclosures, the statute itself and the rules attached. Executed copies "shall be furnished to all parties within ten days of execution."

Colorado — C.R.S. §38-12-213 requires the term and rent, the rent due date and a default date at least ten days after it, the rules, a name and address for appealing a manager's decision, and "all charges to the home owner other than rent, including late fees."

New York — RPL §233 requires the operator to "offer every manufactured home tenant prior to occupancy, the opportunity to sign a lease for a minimum of one year, which offer shall be made in writing."

Oregon's statement of policy

Oregon is the one to know about if you are expanding into the state, because it requires a document most operators have never heard of.

ORS 90.510 provides that "every landlord who rents a space for a manufactured dwelling or floating home shall provide a written statement of policy to prospective and existing tenants" — separate from, and in addition to, the written rental agreement.

It must cover the space location and approximate size; the federal fair-housing age classification and zoning; the rent adjustment policy plus a five-year rent history; personal property, services and facilities provided; installation charges and government fees; termination policies including facility closure; facility sale policies; mandatory mediation and dispute resolution procedures; the utilities available, who provides them and who pays; the utility and service billing method; and a summary of any tenant association.

And: "the rental agreement and the facility rules and regulations must be attached as an exhibit to the statement of policy."

Delivery timing is the trap. Prospective residents get it before signing. Existing month-to-month residents who never received one get it "at the time a 90-day notice of a rent increase is issued." Everyone else gets it on expiry of their agreement, before signing a new one.

So in Oregon, a rent increase to a resident who never received a statement of policy triggers the obligation to deliver it — and an operator who does not know the document exists will fail that test every time they raise rent.

Minimum term and what happens at expiry

Three states force the shape of the term.

Washington — RCW 59.20.090: "unless otherwise agreed rental agreements shall be for a term of one year," and "any rental agreement of whatever duration shall be automatically renewed for the term of the original rental agreement, unless a different specified term is agreed upon." The resident must give one month's written notice of intent not to renew.

Arizona — where the parties do not agree a duration, the agreement is for twelve months.

New York — the one-year lease must be offered before occupancy and re-offered annually, by 1 October or 90 days before expiry, with 30 days for the resident to accept. If the operator fails to offer, the resident retains all the rights of a leaseholder anyway and can only be evicted on statutory grounds.

Oregon — ORS 90.545: on expiry, a fixed-term space tenancy becomes month-to-month on identical terms other than duration and rent increases. To renew on different terms, the landlord must deliver a proposed agreement at least 60 days before expiry with a written summary of what is new or revised; the resident accepts or rejects at least 30 days before expiry. Miss the 60-day window and you are on month-to-month at the old terms.

The pattern across all four: you cannot let a term simply lapse and renegotiate. Expiry does not restore your freedom of contract.

What cannot be in the agreement

Every state we examined voids certain clauses, and the lists overlap heavily.

California — Civil Code §798.19: "no rental agreement for a mobilehome shall contain a provision by which the homeowner waives his or her rights... Any such waiver shall be deemed contrary to public policy and void." §798.19.5 separately bars any clause granting management a right of first refusal on a resident's in-park sale.

Washington — RCW 59.20.060(2) prohibits: waiver of rights or remedies under the chapter; entrance or exit fees; guest fees (except beyond 15 days in any 60); mid-term or more-than-annual rent increases; towing without notice; homestead waiver; pre-selected arbitrators; electronic-payment-only mandates; and late fees within five days of the due date. Subsection (3): "any provision prohibited under this section that is included in a rental agreement is unenforceable."

Oregon — ORS 90.245 bars provisions by which the resident waives rights or remedies, authorises confession of judgment, indemnifies the other party for willful misconduct or negligence, or "agrees to pay liquidated damages." Knowing use plus attempted enforcement exposes the landlord to actual damages plus up to three months' rent.

Colorado — §38-12-213(5) bars waiver of statutory rights, any requirement of a possessory lien, waiver of the opportunity-to-purchase right, binding the resident "to arbitration in lieu of a civil trial," and confession of judgment. Subsection (6): such provisions are "against public policy, unenforceable, and void."

Florida — §723.033 allows a court to find a lot rental amount, an increase, or "provision of a rental agreement" unreasonable and refuse to enforce it, limit its application, or order a refund. And: "a lot rental amount that is in excess of market rent shall be considered unreasonable."

Two observations. Mandatory arbitration is expressly void in Colorado, and vulnerable in the waiver states — a standard clause in most commercial lease templates. And liquidated damages provisions are void in Oregon, which catches template language about early termination.

We found no MH-specific statutory prohibition on attorney-fee-shifting clauses or express jury-trial waivers in the states checked, though the general waiver bans reach a long way.

Entrance fees, exit fees and transfer fees

This is where operators inherit problems from previous owners.

Washington bans both outright. An entrance fee may only be charged as part of a continuing care contract as statutorily defined. An exit fee is simply prohibited.

Florida permits entrance fees but conditions them heavily. Under §723.041, an entrance fee must be "specifically set forth" in the prospectus and identified at signing. Undisclosed fees may not be collected, and non-payment is not a ground for eviction — and violation is a second-degree misdemeanor. If the home leaves within two years you must refund one twenty-fourth of the fee for each month short of two years, "within 15 days after the mobile home has been physically moved."

Florida also bans two things outright: "no person shall be required by a mobile home park owner to pay an exit fee upon termination of his or her residency," and "no entrance fee may be charged by the park owner to the purchaser of a mobile home situated in the park that is offered for sale by a resident of the park."

That second one matters operationally. When a resident sells their home in place, you may screen the buyer — but you may not charge them an entrance fee for the privilege.

California restricts transfer and selling fees. §798.72 provides that management "shall not charge a homeowner... a transfer or selling fee as a condition of a sale of his mobilehome within a park unless the management performs a service in the sale," and shall not charge a prospective resident "a fee as a condition of approval for residency in a park unless the management performs a specific service in the sale." §798.71 separately bars requiring management or a named broker as exclusive sales agent.

New York is the bluntest: "no tenant shall be charged a fee for other than rent, utilities and charges for facilities and services available to the tenant."

The screening you may still do — and the line between screening and charging for it — sits in the resident screening guide.

Disclose it or you cannot charge it

The single most expensive principle in this article.

Florida — §723.031(6): failure "to disclose fully all fees, charges, or assessments prior to tenancy... shall prevent the park owner or operator from collecting said fees, charges, or assessments; and refusal by the mobile home owner to pay any such fee... shall not be used... as a cause for eviction in any court of law."

Undisclosed means uncollectible, permanently, with no eviction remedy.

California — §798.32: "a homeowner shall not be charged a fee for services actually rendered which are not listed in the rental agreement unless he or she has been given written notice thereof by the management, at least 60 days before imposition of the charge," and such fees must be separately itemised on billing, with any expiry date stated.

Washington — the agreement must list the utilities, services and facilities and the nature of the fees. And if utilities move to independent billing mid-term, "the landlord agrees to decrease the amount of the rent charged proportionately."

Oregon and Colorado both require fee disclosure in the required documents.

The practical rule across all of them: a charge that is not in the document, or not properly noticed, is not a charge. This interacts directly with how you structure lot rent and pass-throughs — covered in the lot rent guide — and it is the reason a fee introduced by a well-meaning manager mid-year can be uncollectible from every resident in the community.

What happens when you get it wrong

Note the asymmetry running through all of it. Getting the document wrong costs the operator; it never costs the resident. There is no state in which a defective agreement gives you a remedy.

The document audit worth running

Most operators have never audited these documents, and the ones who have usually found something. A workable pass:

1. Which document set does each state require — written agreement, prospectus, statement of policy, or a combination?
2. Was it actually delivered to each resident, and when? In Florida this determines whether you may raise rent at all. Check the file, not the process.
3. Is every fee you currently charge disclosed in the document that resident received — not the current template, the one they signed?
4. Does the template contain a void clause? Mandatory arbitration, liquidated damages, jury waiver, confession of judgment, right of first refusal, homestead waiver, entrance or exit fees.
5. Are the required statutory attachments present? California's copy of the MRL, Oregon's rules and agreement as exhibits to the statement of policy, Arizona's acknowledgment.
6. Are the odd ones there? Washington's five-year rent history, boldfaced closure notice, current zoning and permit expiry dates.
7. What is the renewal position for every resident — fixed term, month-to-month, or auto-renewed — and does anything need serving 60 or 90 days out?

Point 2 is the one that produces findings. Documents inherited through an acquisition are frequently incomplete, and the gap is invisible until you try to raise rent or start a proceeding. Which is also why the delinquency and eviction process and rule enforcement both depend on this file being right — you cannot enforce terms you cannot prove were delivered.

How RIOO fits

RIOO is a property management platform built natively on Oracle NetSuite, and the homesite is the record — which is what makes the document position provable rather than assumed.

Each homesite carries its agreement type, term, renewal date and the dated record of what was delivered and when, so a Florida prospectus delivery or an Oregon statement of policy is an evidenced event rather than an assumption about a previous manager's habits. Because the fee schedule that applies to a resident is tied to the version of the document they received, a charge that was never disclosed to them is visible before it is billed rather than after it is challenged.

Renewal and notice dates sit as tasks on the homesite, which is what stops an Oregon 60-day window or a New York annual offer passing unnoticed across a portfolio.

See how RIOO handles manufactured housing communities.

Conclusion

The lot rental agreement is treated by legislatures as a disclosure instrument and by most operators as boilerplate. That mismatch is where the money leaks.

The consequences are unusually concrete for a paperwork problem. In Florida a missing prospectus freezes your rent. Anywhere a fee was not disclosed, it is not collectible. Clauses your commercial lease template treats as standard — arbitration, liquidated damages, confession of judgment — are void in several states and expensive in one.

None of this is hard to fix going forward. What is hard is proving what a previous owner delivered to a resident in 2014. Which is the argument for auditing the file now, while the only cost is the time.

Frequently asked questions

Q1. Do I need a written lot rental agreement?
In most states, yes, by statute. Washington requires every tenancy "regardless of the term" to be based on a signed written agreement. California, Oregon, Arizona and Colorado all mandate written agreements with specified contents.

Q2. What is a prospectus and do I need one?
It is a disclosure document required in Florida for communities with 26 or more lots. It must be filed with the state division, approved, and delivered before an enforceable rental agreement. No lot rent increase is permitted until an approved prospectus has been delivered.

Q3. What happens if a resident never received the prospectus?
In Florida you cannot increase that resident's lot rent until you deliver one. The agreement is also voidable by the resident for 15 days after delivery.

Q4. Can I charge an entrance fee or a transfer fee?
It depends. Washington prohibits entrance and exit fees outright, except entrance fees under a continuing care contract. Florida permits entrance fees only if set out in the prospectus, bans exit fees, and bans charging an entrance fee to someone buying a home already in the community. California bars transfer and residency-approval fees unless management performs a service in the sale.

Q5. What clauses are void in a mobile home park lease?
Commonly: waiver of statutory rights, confession of judgment, liquidated damages, indemnity for the other party's negligence, and mandatory arbitration in lieu of a civil trial. Colorado voids arbitration clauses expressly. Oregon exposes a landlord who knowingly uses and enforces a prohibited clause to actual damages plus up to three months' rent.

Q6. Can I charge a fee I forgot to disclose?
Generally no. Florida makes undisclosed fees uncollectible and bars using non-payment as an eviction ground. California requires 60 days' written notice before imposing a charge for a service not listed in the agreement.

Q7. What is Oregon's statement of policy?
A document separate from the rental agreement, required to be given to prospective and existing residents, covering rent adjustment policy and five-year rent history, utilities and billing method, closure and sale policies, dispute resolution and more — with the rental agreement and rules attached as exhibits.