Overview

California mobile home park homeowners have a law written specifically for them. The Mobilehome Residency Law, found in Civil Code 798 through 799.13, sets out the rights and obligations of homeowners and management in California mobile home parks. Civil Code 798.15 makes the Mobilehome Residency Law part of every park rental agreement, and Civil Code 798.19 and 798.77 void any provision in which a homeowner gives up its protections. [You’ll notice that the Legislature spells “mobilehome” as one word throughout the statutes. Most people spell it “mobile home,” and that’s how I spell it in this Fact Sheet, except when I use the law’s name or its defined terms.]

What makes most mobile home park homeowners different from other homeowners in California is the fact that mobile home park homeowners own their homes, but they rent the land under those homes from someone else (i.e., the park owner). That arrangement gives the park owner control over the ground beneath each homeowner’s home. Moving a mobile home to get away from a bad park is expensive, risks significant damage to the home, and requires new installation and lot preparation. The Legislature recognized those problems in Civil Code 798.55, and it responded with protections that renters in more traditional properties don’t enjoy.

Not every mobile home park works that way. In subdivisions, condominiums, and cooperatives for mobile homes, and in other resident-owned parks, the residents own an interest in the land itself. The Mobilehome Residency Law gives those residents a much shorter list of protections. Civil Code 799.1 decides which set of rules applies by looking at each resident, not at the park as a whole, so renters inside a resident-owned park keep the full set of rental-park protections. A smaller group of these communities also records CC&Rs and the other documents Civil Code 4200 requires, which makes them common interest developments governed by the Davis-Stirling Act. Each of those communities, therefore, has an HOA led by a board of directors that the owners elect. In those communities, both sets of laws apply. The Mobilehome Residency Law protections stay in place, and the Davis-Stirling Act’s statutes on HOA elections, meetings, records, and assessments govern how the HOA operates.

This Fact Sheet gives homeowners a broad picture of California’s Mobilehome Residency Law. It covers who the law protects, what every rental agreement must contain, how parks adopt and enforce rules, and the rules on rent increases, fees, and utility charges. It also covers management’s maintenance duties, the limits on management’s right to enter a homeowner’s space or home, and homeowners’ rights to meet and organize. From there it covers evictions and park closures, selling a home in a park, and the rules for resident-owned parks. It ends with the difference between the Mobilehome Residency Law and the Title 25 health and safety regulations, and with the remedies homeowners have when management violates the Mobilehome Residency Law.

Key Points

The Mobilehome Residency Law reaches almost every part of life in a California mobile home park, from the day homeowners sign their rental agreements to the day they sell their homes. It sets minimum protections that no rental agreement, park rule, or management policy can take away. It also tells park owners what they must do, what they can’t do, and how much notice they owe homeowners before they act. Most of the Key Points below apply to homeowners who own their homes and rent their spaces. The others cover resident-owned parks, where a shorter list of protections applies and the Davis-Stirling Act sometimes applies as well.

• The Mobilehome Residency Law protects homeowners who own their homes and rent spaces in California mobile home parks. The Mobilehome Residency Law begins at Civil Code 798 and defines its key players precisely. A “homeowner” is anyone who has a tenancy in a mobile home park under a rental agreement (Civil Code 798.9). A “tenancy” is the right to use a space in the park to place, maintain, and live in a mobile home, along with the right to use the park’s services and facilities (Civil Code 798.12). “Management” means the park owner or anyone the park owner authorizes to act on its behalf, such as an on-site manager or a management company (Civil Code 798.2). The law also recognizes “residents,” a broader group that includes homeowners and anyone else who lawfully lives in a mobile home in the park, such as a spouse, an adult child, or a roommate (Civil Code 798.11).
  • The Legislature gave some protections only to homeowners and extended others to all residents. For example, the limits on management entering a home protect residents (Civil Code 798.26), while the right to 90 days’ notice of a rent increase belongs to homeowners (Civil Code 798.30). The law covers manufactured homes as well as mobile homes. It excludes most recreational vehicles, but travel trailers and certain other RVs count as mobile homes once they’ve occupied a mobile home space in the park for nine or more continuous months (Civil Code 798.3). [A “manufactured home” is a factory-built home built on a permanent chassis so it can be moved in one or more sections. To count as a manufactured home, it must have been built on or after June 15, 1976, and designed as a single-family home, whether or not it sits on a foundation. It must also be at least 8 feet wide or 40 feet long when moved, or at least 320 square feet once it’s set up. The home’s plumbing, heating, air conditioning, and electrical systems are part of it (Health and Safety Code 18007). June 15, 1976 is the date federal construction standards for these homes took effect. Homes built before that date are generally called “mobile homes,” and homes built after it are called “manufactured homes.” The Mobilehome Residency Law covers both (Civil Code 798.3).]
• Renting a space and owning an interest in the park’s land trigger different parts of the Mobilehome Residency Law. The Mobilehome Residency Law has two parts. Civil Code 798 through 798.88 govern rental parks, where homeowners own their homes and rent their spaces from a park owner. Civil Code 799 through 799.13 govern mobile home subdivisions, condominiums, cooperatives, and other resident-owned parks, where some or all of the residents own an interest in the land. Under Civil Code 799.1, residents who own an interest in one of those communities get only the 799-series protections, while renters living in the same community keep the 798-series protections. If you aren’t sure which group you’re in, start with your paperwork. A rental agreement for your space points to the 798 series. A deed to your lot, ownership of a condominium unit, or shares or a membership in the entity that owns the park points to the 799 series. [There’s one exception for certain parks owned by nonprofit corporations, which I cover later in this Fact Sheet.]
  • Owners and renters can live side by side in the same park. This happens most often when a park owner converts a rental park into a subdivision or condominium and offers the spaces for sale to the homeowners who already live there. Some homeowners buy their spaces. Others can’t afford to buy or choose not to, and they keep renting. After the conversion, one homeowner may own the ground under their home while their next-door neighbor still rents the land (but owns their home). Even though the people in that example share the same streets and common facilities, according to Civil Code 799.1, the owner of both the home and the land falls under the 799 series and the renter who owns the home, but not the land, falls under the 798 series.
• The Mobilehome Residency Law is part of every park rental agreement. Civil Code 798.15 requires every rental agreement to be in writing and to include a copy of the Mobilehome Residency Law as an exhibit. This makes the law part of the agreement itself. Homeowners can’t sign the protections granted to them in the Mobilehome Residency Law away. Civil Code 798.19 voids any rental agreement provision in which homeowners give up their rights under the 798 series, and Civil Code 798.77 voids any such waiver in a rental agreement or a sale agreement.
  • Management must remind homeowners of their rights every year. Civil Code 798.15 also requires management to give every homeowner, before February 1 of each year, a notice that summarizes selected rights and responsibilities under the Mobilehome Residency Law. That notice covers, among other things, the 90-day notice of rent increases, the ban on waivers, the limits on terminating tenancies, the right to meet and organize, and the requirement to get management’s written approval for improvements when the park’s rules or the rental agreement require it. When the Legislature makes a significant change to the Mobilehome Residency Law, that same statute requires management, before February 1 of the following year, to either give every homeowner a copy of the updated law or tell them in writing that they can get a free copy. Management must then provide that copy within seven days of a request. As for delivering these notices by email, Civil Code 798.14 allows it only if homeowners sign a separate written consent that isn’t part of the rental agreement or a condition of the tenancy (which homeowners can revoke in writing at any time).
• All rental agreements must spell out the basic terms of homeowners’ tenancies. Civil Code 798.15 requires all rental agreements to state how long tenancies last and how much rent homeowners pay, include the park’s rules, describe the physical improvements the park will provide, list the services the park will provide and any fees for them, and state management’s duty to keep the common facilities in good working order. Civil Code 798.16 requires management to return signed copies of rental agreements to homeowners within 15 business days after receiving the homeowners’ signed copies. Civil Code 798.18 requires management to offer homeowners 12-month rental agreements, or shorter ones if homeowners ask for them, and allows longer terms only if both sides want them. That statute also bars the charges for rent, utilities, and services during the first 12 months of longer agreements from differing from what management offers on a month-to-month basis. And finally, Civil Code 798.18 bars rental agreements of 12 months or less from renewing automatically for a longer term at the sole choice of either side.
• Park rules are part of homeowners’ rental agreements, and management can change them only by following Civil Code 798.25. Management must give all homeowners written notice of a proposed rule change at least 10 days before a meeting, and the notice must include the proposed rule and the meeting’s date, time, and location. Management must then meet and consult with the homeowners, their representatives, or both. After that meeting, the new rule applies right away to homeowners who consent to it, and it applies to everyone else only after at least six months’ written notice. Changes to rules governing recreational facilities need only 60 days’ written notice. So do rule changes that a new statute, ordinance, or regulation requires, as long as management cites the specific law behind the change. Under Civil Code 798.25, a rule change that creates a new fee is void unless homeowners expressly agreed to that fee in their written rental agreements. [To learn more about how park rules work, when parks can deny homeowners’ improvement requests, why new buyers can end up bound by rules that don’t yet apply to homeowners already living in the park, and why it matters whether a park is ordering homeowners to change their homes or refusing homeowners’ requests to change them, read my Fact Sheet, “California Mobile Home Park Rules: Can Your Park Change the Rules or Deny Your Home Improvements?”]
  • Only reasonable park rules can support evictions. Civil Code 798.56 allows management to terminate tenancies for rule violations only when the rule is reasonable and is part of the rental agreement or an amendment to it. Management must first give homeowners written notice of the violation, and homeowners then have seven days to comply. Management can skip that written notice for a later violation of the same rule only if homeowners already received written notices for violating that rule on three or more occasions within 12 months. Even then, Civil Code 798.56 still requires management to prove the violation happened. Civil Code 798.23 also requires management to follow the park’s rules to the same extent as residents and their guests, except for rules governing residents’ ages and work management does to maintain and operate the park. [Interestingly, while Civil Code 4350 (a part of the Davis-Stirling Act) requires every HOA rule to be reasonable, the Mobilehome Residency Law has no matching requirement for all park rules. Instead, it ties reasonableness to specific enforcement tools and specific subjects. For example, Civil Code 798.56 allows management to terminate tenancies only for violations of reasonable rules, and Civil Code 798.88 allows courts to stop only violations of reasonable rules. Likewise, Civil Code 798.33, 798.37, 798.44.1, and 798.70 limit parks to reasonable rules as they relate to pets, landscaping and maintenance, solar energy systems, and open houses, but not as to other issues.]
  • Homeowners often need management’s written approval before improving their homes or spaces. Civil Code 798.15 requires parks to give homeowners an annual notice warning that they can’t make improvements or alterations to their homes or spaces without following the park’s rules and state and local law. The notice also warns that homeowners need management’s prior written approval when the park’s rules or the rental agreement require it. Civil Code 798.37.5 separately bars homeowners from planting trees without management’s written permission. State regulations add a second layer. 25 CCR 1018 requires a construction permit from the enforcement agency before anyone builds, installs, or alters most structures or equipment on a lot. The enforcement agency is the Department of Housing and Community Development or the city or county that has taken over that role. 25 CCR 1032 then requires the park operator’s approval on permit applications for accessory buildings and structures, whatever the park’s own rules say. 25 CCR 1018 exempts some projects from the permit requirement, such as storage cabinets, fences no taller than 7 feet, window and door awnings, and minor repairs, but park rules can still require management’s approval for them.
  • Parks can’t use their rules to take away certain rights. Civil Code 798.33 bars rental agreements entered into, modified, or renewed on or after January 1, 2001, from prohibiting homeowners from keeping at least one pet, although reasonable park rules still apply to those pets. Civil Code 798.29.6 bars management from prohibiting homeowners and residents from installing disability accommodations, such as ramps and handrails, as long as the installation meets code and has any required permit. Civil Code 798.44.1 voids rental agreement terms and other restrictions that effectively prohibit or restrict solar energy systems on homes or spaces. It also bars management from charging fees for those systems, requiring specific contractors or products, or taking rebates. Parks can still impose reasonable restrictions that don’t significantly increase a system’s cost or decrease its efficiency, and the statute doesn’t apply in master-meter parks. Civil Code 798.44.2 voids restrictions on installing, upgrading, replacing, or using air conditioners, swamp coolers, heat pumps, and other cooling systems. It bars management from charging fees for them or terminating tenancies over them, with narrow exceptions for installations that would violate the law, lack a required permit, or exceed the lot’s electrical capacity as a government agency confirms in writing. Civil Code 798.25.5 also voids any rule that management adopts on its own, without homeowners’ consent, that takes away homeowners’ right to a jury trial or forces them into binding arbitration.
• Parks must give homeowners 90 days’ written notice before raising rent. Civil Code 798.30 sets that 90-day minimum for every rent increase. Under Civil Code 798.14, management must deliver the notice personally or by mail unless homeowners have agreed in writing to a different method. The Mobilehome Residency Law doesn’t limit how much most parks can raise rent, but some cities and counties limit rent increases through local rent control ordinances. Civil Code 798.21 exempts spaces from local rent control when the home isn’t the homeowner’s principal residence and the homeowner hasn’t rented it out. Civil Code 798.45 exempts spaces first offered for rent after January 1, 1990, for 15 years. [Civil Code 798.30.5 does cap rent increases, but only in parks located within and governed by two or more incorporated cities. In those parks, management can’t raise rent in any 12-month period by more than 3% plus the change in the cost of living or 5%, whichever is lower, and can’t raise it more than twice in that period. The cap doesn’t limit the starting rent for new tenancies or apply to spaces in resident-owned parks, and it expires January 1, 2030. To learn more about rent increases, park fees, and utility billing, read my Fact Sheet, “How Much Can a California Mobile Home Park Raise Your Rent, Fees, and Utility Charges?”]
  • The Mobilehome Residency Law strictly limits the fees parks can charge. Civil Code 798.31 bars management from charging homeowners anything other than rent, utilities, and reasonable charges for services the park actually provides, and bars fees for rental agreements of 12 months or less. Civil Code 798.32 requires 60 days’ written notice before management starts charging for a service not listed in the rental agreement. Civil Code 798.33 bars pet fees unless the park provides special facilities or services for pets, while Civil Code 798.34 bars fees for guests who stay no more than 20 consecutive days or 30 days in a calendar year, for a single companion of a homeowner who lives alone, and for a live-in caregiver. Civil Code 798.35 bars fees based on the number of immediate family members living in the home, and Civil Code 798.36 bars fees for enforcing park rules, except reasonable charges for maintaining homeowners’ spaces after homeowners ignore a written notice to fix the problem within 14 days. Then there’s Civil Code 798.37, which bars entry, installation, hookup, and landscaping fees as a condition of tenancy, and bars parks from requiring homeowners to buy landscaping, remodeling, or maintenance services from specific vendors. When it comes to security deposits, Civil Code 798.39 limits their amount to a maximum of two months’ rent, collected only at the start of a tenancy, while also requiring management to refund the deposit on written request once homeowners have paid everything on time for 12 consecutive months. And finally, Civil Code 798.39.5 bars management from passing its own fines, penalties, damages, and related attorneys’ fees for violating the Mobilehome Residency Law on to homeowners through fees or rent increases.
  • Parks must follow specific rules when they bill homeowners for utilities. Civil Code 798.40 requires parks that supply sub-metered utilities, including water, to (i) state the charges and the opening and closing meter readings on each bill, and (ii) post the utility’s current residential rate schedule. For sub-metered water, that same law also limits homeowners’ water bills to their own usage, a share of the fixed charges, and a capped billing fee. As for utilities that used to be included in rent, Civil Code 798.41 allows parks, unless the rental agreement says otherwise, to start billing homeowners for them separately. If the park is located in a city or county with rent control and the park cuts the rent at the same time by the average amount it paid for that utility for the space over the previous 12 months, those new charges will not count as rent or a rent increase. For example, if a park in a rent-controlled city includes water in a homeowner’s $800 rent and paid an average of $50 a month for that space’s water over the past year, the park must lower the rent to $750 when it starts billing for water separately. Otherwise, the city’s rent control ordinance treats the new water bill as a rent increase. When it comes to planned shutoffs, Civil Code 798.42 requires 72 hours’ written notice before any planned utility shutoff lasting more than two hours. If a meter on a homeowner’s space also picks up common-area use, Civil Code 798.43 requires management to disclose it and then either compensate the homeowner or stop using the meter for that purpose. For low-income homeowners in master-meter parks, Civil Code 798.43.1 requires management to pass the full CARE discount through to those who qualify. And finally, Civil Code 798.44 caps propane prices at 110% of management’s cost when homeowners can’t buy propane from anyone else.
• Management must keep the park’s common facilities in good working order. Civil Code 798.15 requires every rental agreement to state that management must provide and maintain the physical improvements in the common facilities (e.g., the clubhouse, pool, streets, and utility systems) in good working order and condition, and within a reasonable time. [Under that statute, a reasonable time means as soon as possible when the breakdown affects health or safety, and no more than 30 days in any other case unless exigent circumstances justify a delay.] Trees and driveways get their own rules under Civil Code 798.37.5. Management must pay to trim, prune, or remove trees in common areas. For trees on homeowners’ spaces, management must do that work and pay for it once homeowners give written notice, or management determines, that a tree poses a specific hazard or health and safety violation. If management and homeowners disagree about whether a tree poses a hazard, either side can ask the Department of Housing and Community Development or the local enforcement agency to inspect it. When it comes to driveways, management must maintain, repair, and replace the ones it installed, while homeowners must maintain the driveways that they installed themselves.
• Management can’t enter homeowners’ homes without written consent. Civil Code 798.26 bars management from entering a mobile home or an enclosed accessory structure, such as a shed or garage, without the resident’s prior written consent. Residents can revoke that consent in writing at any time. The only exceptions are emergencies and homes or structures that residents have abandoned. The land under and around the home, however, is different. Civil Code 798.26 also states that whenever management needs to maintain utilities, trees, or driveways, or to protect the park, it may enter homeowners’ spaces without advance notice, provided that it does so at a reasonable time and doesn’t interfere with residents’ quiet enjoyment of their homes. When it comes to spaces that homeowners are required to maintain but have failed to do so, management can also enter to do the work itself, subject to the same limits.
• Homeowners have the right to meet, organize, and speak out in their parks. Civil Code 798.51 voids any rental agreement term, rule, or regulation that denies homeowners and residents the right to peacefully meet in the park, at reasonable hours and in a reasonable manner, for any lawful purpose. Those meetings can take place in the clubhouse or recreation hall when it’s not otherwise in use, or in any home whose owner agrees. That same statute protects homeowners’ right to invite public officials, candidates, and representatives of mobile home owner organizations to speak. It also protects their right to canvass and petition their neighbors, for non-commercial purposes, about mobile home living, elections, and ballot measures, including handing out information. When it comes to using the clubhouse, management can’t charge a cleaning deposit for resident organization meetings that a homeowner or resident hosts and every resident can attend, even if outside guests come, and it can’t require liability insurance unless alcohol is served. As for political campaign signs, Civil Code 798.51 allows homeowners and residents to display them in their windows, on the sides of their homes, or on their spaces. The signs can be no larger than 6 square feet and can stay up from 90 days before the election until 15 days after it, unless a local ordinance sets a shorter period. And finally, when management blocks any of these rights, Civil Code 798.52 allows homeowners and residents to sue to stop enforcement of any rule or policy that unreasonably takes those rights away. [The Davis-Stirling Act gives HOA members and residents similar rights under Civil Code 4515, and in some ways it goes further than the Mobilehome Residency Law. Civil Code 4515 bars HOAs from charging any fee or deposit, or requiring liability insurance, for these meetings. It also protects homeowners’ right to discuss HOA issues on social media, bars HOAs from retaliating against homeowners who exercise these rights, and allows courts to impose a civil penalty of up to $500 for each violation. To learn more, read my Fact Sheet, “Can My California HOA Stop Homeowners From Meeting Together in the Common Area?”]
• Management can terminate homeowners’ tenancies only for the reasons listed in Civil Code 798.56. Those reasons are (i) failing to comply with a local ordinance or state law or regulation relating to mobile homes within a reasonable time after homeowners receive a notice of noncompliance from the government agency that enforces it; (ii) conduct in the park that substantially annoys other homeowners or residents; (iii) a conviction for certain serious crimes committed in the park, such as prostitution, assault with a deadly weapon, arson, or a felony drug offense, unless the convicted person permanently moves out; (iv) failing to follow a reasonable park rule that’s part of the rental agreement; (v) failing to pay rent, utility charges, or reasonable incidental service charges; (vi) condemnation of the park; and (vii) a change of use of the park. Civil Code 798.58 also bars management from terminating tenancies to free up spaces for people buying or renting homes from the park owner. When management does terminate a tenancy, Civil Code 798.55 requires at least 60 days’ written notice to sell or remove the home. It also requires management to send copies of that notice, within 10 days, to anyone who holds a loan or lien on the home and to the registered owner if that’s someone other than the homeowner. Civil Code 798.57 requires the notice to state specific facts about the reason, including the date, place, witnesses, and circumstances. Citing the statute or repeating its language doesn’t satisfy that requirement. When it comes to unpaid rent, Civil Code 798.56 requires management to wait until the amount has gone unpaid for at least five days after the due date and then give homeowners a 3-day notice to pay or leave. Paying within those three days cures the default. Civil Code 798.56 adds a pre-condition for two of those reasons. Management can’t issue a termination notice for non-payment or a change of use at all unless the park holds a valid permit to operate from the enforcement agency, so parks operating without a valid permit can’t use either reason to end homeowners’ tenancies. [To learn more about how park evictions work and how homeowners can fight them, read my Fact Sheet, “Can a California Mobile Home Park Evict You or Close the Park?”]
  • Converting a park to another use requires long notice periods. Civil Code 798.56 allows management to terminate tenancies for a “change of use” of all or part of a park, such as closing it or converting the land to another use. Before management appears before a local government body to request the permits it needs, that statute requires it to give homeowners at least 60 days’ written notice. Once those permits are approved, management must give homeowners at least six months’ written notice that their tenancies will end. When that period runs out, homeowners lose the right to keep their homes in the park. They must move their homes out, either by hiring a company to transport them to another park or site, which is expensive and risks damaging the homes, or by selling them to a buyer who will move them. If the change of use needs no local permits, management must instead give at least 12 months’ notice and describe the change in detail. That same statute requires management to deliver the report that Government Code 65863.7 requires at the same time as the notice, and to tell anyone who moves into the park while a change of use is pending about it before their tenancy begins.
• Homeowners have the right to sell their homes in place in the park. Civil Code 798.71 and 798.81 bar management from prohibiting homeowners, or the heirs and others who inherit their homes, from listing or selling those homes in the park, and they bar management from requiring sellers to use management or any particular agent or dealer. Management also can’t list or show a home for sale without the owner’s written authorization. In addition, Civil Code 798.70 allows sellers to post a “For Sale” sign, and Civil Code 798.72 bars management from charging sellers a transfer or selling fee unless management performs a service the seller requested in writing. And finally, Civil Code 798.78 gives heirs and others who inherit homes the right to sell them in the park, as long as they keep paying the rent, utilities, and reasonable maintenance that come due after the homeowner’s death. [To learn more about selling a home in a mobile home park, including buyer approval, required repairs, and disclosures, read my Fact Sheet, “Selling Your Home in a California Mobile Home Park: Approval, Repairs, and Disclosures.”]
  • Management can reject a buyer only for the reasons the law allows. Civil Code 798.74 allows management to require approval of buyers who will keep the home in the park, but it can reject a buyer only if: (i) the buyer’s prior tenancies show the buyer won’t follow the park’s rules; (ii) the buyer can’t afford the rent, estimated utilities, and other park charges; or (iii) the buyer committed fraud, deceit, or concealment during the application process. Management must accept or reject the application in writing within 15 business days of receiving everything it requested, and if it misses that deadline, the law treats the buyer as approved. That same statute makes management liable to the seller for all damages caused by its failure to follow these rules. [Civil Code 798.74 requires management to disclose any minimum credit score it uses, but a low credit score isn’t one of the three reasons the statute allows for rejecting a buyer. The statute doesn’t resolve that tension directly. The most defensible reading is that management can treat a credit score as evidence of whether a buyer can pay the park’s ongoing charges, but it can’t reject a buyer for bad credit alone, especially when the buyer shows the assets to cover those charges.]
  • Management can make only limited demands of homeowners who sell their homes. Civil Code 798.73 allows management to require sellers to remove their homes from the park only in narrow situations, such as when a home is significantly rundown, which management must prove. When it comes to repairs and improvements, Civil Code 798.73.5 limits management to exterior work that a law or regulation relating to mobile homes requires, and Civil Code 798.83 bars management from requiring sellers to repair park property they didn’t damage.
  • Sellers and management both owe buyers written disclosures. Civil Code 1102.6d requires sellers to give buyers a transfer disclosure statement describing known problems with the home, except for homes in common interest developments, which follow the Davis-Stirling Act’s disclosure rules. Management owes buyers its own disclosures. Civil Code 798.74.5 requires it to disclose the starting rent and estimated fees for the space, and Civil Code 798.75.5 requires it to provide a form describing the condition of the park and its common facilities. Civil Code 798.75 also requires every escrow or sale agreement to include a signed rental agreement, or a signed statement of its agreed terms, and buyers who never sign one have no right to live in the park. [I cover when these disclosures are due, buyers’ cancellation rights, and the forms themselves in my Fact Sheet, “Selling Your Home in a California Mobile Home Park: Approval, Repairs, and Disclosures.” You’ll find a link to that Fact Sheet above.]
• Homeowners can require management to meet with them about park problems. Civil Code 798.53 requires management to meet and consult with homeowners within 30 days of a written request. Homeowners can meet with management individually, as a group, or through a representative that a group of homeowners designates in a signed request. The problems the statute covers are: (i) how management interprets or enforces existing park rules, or fails to enforce them; (ii) standards for maintaining trees, driveways, and the park’s physical improvements; (iii) adding, changing, or eliminating services, equipment, or physical improvements; (iv) rental agreements management offers to existing homeowners; (v) utility billing and charges; and (vi) the hours and availability of common area facilities. When it comes to how the meeting happens, management must offer in-person and telephone options, and it must hold the meeting by whichever of the offered methods the homeowners choose. For group meetings, management must give all requesting homeowners at least 10 days’ notice, and at any meeting, management must allow language interpreters to attend.
• Homeowners can enforce the Mobilehome Residency Law in court. Before homeowners sue management for failing to maintain the common facilities or for reducing services, Civil Code 798.84 requires them to give management at least 30 days’ written notice describing the problem and the remedy they want. Once in court, Civil Code 798.85 awards reasonable attorneys’ fees and costs to whichever side prevails in any lawsuit under the Mobilehome Residency Law. When management’s violation is willful, Civil Code 798.86 allows the court to award homeowners up to $2,000 for each willful violation, or punitive damages instead, on top of their other damages, and that remedy is available in small claims court as well. And finally, Civil Code 798.87 declares management’s substantial failure to maintain the common facilities a public nuisance, which park residents can sue to stop, and which the district attorney, the city attorney, or the Attorney General can also pursue.
• Residents who own an interest in their park’s land fall under the 799 series of statutes. Civil Code 799 through 799.13 apply to residents who own an interest in a mobile home subdivision, condominium, cooperative, or other resident-owned park, and Civil Code 799 places the duties in those statutes on whoever owns or manages that community. Civil Code 799.1 carves out one exception. In a park that a non-profit mutual benefit corporation owns and operates, whose members are park residents, and where no one has recorded a subdivision declaration or condominium plan, members who rent their spaces from the corporation get the full 798-series protections even though they’re members of the corporation that owns the park.
  • The 799 series offers owner-residents a much shorter list of protections. Civil Code 799.1.5 through 799.13 protect residents’ rights to: (i) advertise their homes for sale with a “For Sale” sign (799.1.5); (ii) keep ownership or management from listing or showing their homes without written authorization (799.2); (iii) keep ownership or management out of their homes without written consent, except in emergencies or when a home is abandoned (799.2.5); (iv) sell their homes without being forced to remove them from the community (799.3); (v) sell to any buyer who can afford the community’s fees and charges, unless the buyer’s prior residences show the buyer won’t follow the rules (799.4); (vi) be subject to age restrictions only if they comply with the federal Fair Housing Act (799.5); (vii) keep their rights under the 799 series, which no agreement can waive (799.6); (viii) receive 72 hours’ written notice before planned utility shutoffs lasting more than two hours (799.7); (ix) receive notice when a new home may be subject to a school facilities fee (799.8); (x) share their homes with live-in caregivers without paying fees (799.9); (xi) display political campaign signs (799.10); (xii) install disability accommodations (799.11); (xiii) install solar energy systems (799.12); and (xiv) install and use cooling systems (799.13). Unlike the 798 series, the 799 series has no general attorneys’ fees provision. Only Civil Code 799.12 and 799.13, which cover solar and cooling systems, give residents attorneys’ fees and penalties of up to $2,000 for willful violations. In communities that are also HOAs governed by the Davis-Stirling Act, residents can rely on that law’s own fee shifting provisions, such as Civil Code 5975, which awards attorneys’ fees to whichever side prevails in a lawsuit to enforce the HOA’s governing documents. [To learn more about resident-owned parks, mobile home subdivisions, condominiums, and cooperatives, and when the Davis-Stirling Act also applies to them, read my Fact Sheet, “California Mobile Home Park HOAs: Which Laws Apply When Residents Own the Park?”]
  • Some resident-owned communities are also HOAs governed by the Davis-Stirling Act. When a mobile home subdivision, condominium, or cooperative records CC&Rs and the other documents Civil Code 4200 requires, it becomes a common interest development governed by the Davis-Stirling Act. Civil Code 4250 requires those CC&Rs to name the HOA, and Civil Code 5100 requires the owners to elect the HOA board by secret ballot. In those communities, both laws apply. The 799-series protections stay in place, and the Davis-Stirling Act adds its own rules on HOA elections, meetings, records, and assessments. The Legislature addressed only one conflict between the two laws directly. Civil Code 799.10 says its rules on political campaign signs prevail over the Davis-Stirling Act’s sign rules. [In the absence of additional specific treatment, resolving a conflict would need to be handled the way courts always resolve conflicts between statutes. Courts will first try to apply both statutes. If they can’t, Code of Civil Procedure 1859 favors the more specific statute. I explain how that works in the Fact Sheet I referenced in the prior point.]
• Title 25 sets the health and safety standards for mobile home parks. Title 25 of the California Code of Regulations contains the state’s detailed standards for mobile home parks, covering subjects such as construction permits, lot lines, propane tanks, and accessory structures like awnings, carports, sheds, and fences. Under 25 CCR 1002, the enforcement agency for those standards is the Department of Housing and Community Development, or a city or county that has taken over that role, and it enforces them through permits, inspections, and notices, including the park’s permit to operate. The Mobilehome Residency Law works differently. It governs the legal relationship between homeowners and management, and homeowners enforce it themselves, through meetings with management and, when necessary, in court. The two laws still connect in important ways. When homeowners see health and safety problems in the park, such as failing utilities or unsafe common areas, they can report them to the enforcement agency. And Civil Code 798.56 allows management to terminate the tenancies of homeowners who fail to fix a violation of a state or local law relating to mobile homes within a reasonable time after the enforcement agency’s notice.
• When a problem with management comes up, protect yourself from the start. Stay calm and professional in every conversation with management because angry exchanges rarely help and can end up quoted back to you later. Put every request, complaint, and response in writing, and keep copies of everything management gives you, including your rental agreement, the park’s rules, the annual notices, and any warning, violation, or termination notice. When management tells you that you’ve broken a rule or must do something, ask it to identify the specific park rule, rental agreement term, or Civil Code section it’s relying on. The Mobilehome Residency Law often requires management to do exactly that. For example, Civil Code 798.57 requires termination notices to state specific facts, and Civil Code 798.73.5 requires management to cite the rules and laws behind any repairs it demands when you sell. If the problem affects other homeowners too, use your right under Civil Code 798.53 to require a meeting with management, individually or as a group. And don’t sit on any notice with a deadline. A 3-day notice to pay, a 7-day notice to fix a rule violation, and a 60-day termination notice all start running when you receive them.
• If you have questions about your rights in a mobile home park or need help with a dispute, call the mobile home park attorneys at MBK Chapman. Whether you rent your space in a traditional park or own an interest in a subdivision, condominium, cooperative, or other resident-owned community, the Mobilehome Residency Law gives you rights that management has to respect. MBK Chapman represents homeowners, not park owners or management, and our mobile home park attorneys can review your rental agreement, the park’s rules, and any notice you’ve received, then explain where you stand and what you can do about it. When your park is also an HOA, we bring the same homeowner-side experience with the Davis-Stirling Act.

The Mobilehome Residency Law exists because homeowners who rent their spaces can’t easily walk away from a bad park, so it limits what management can charge, change, demand, and end. Homeowners in resident-owned communities get a narrower set of protections under the 799 series, and those in communities that are also HOAs get the Davis-Stirling Act’s rules as well. Title 25 adds a separate layer of health and safety standards that a government agency, not homeowners, enforces. Knowing which of these laws applies, and holding management to the specific statute behind every demand, is how homeowners keep the protections the Legislature gave them.

FAQs

About Michael Kushner

Michael Kushner is a California attorney with over 30 years of experience representing homeowners in disputes with their HOAs. He is widely regarded as California’s leading homeowner-side HOA attorney, and has built one of the state’s most prominent law practices dedicated to holding HOAs accountable under the Davis-Stirling Act and California law.

In addition to his law firm’s work, Michael is a recognized lecturer, author, and the host of the hit HOA HELL podcast, where he provides homeowners living in HOA-governed communities with clear, practical strategies for dealing with bad HOAs. He’s also the author of the best-selling book, HOA HELL | California Homeowners’ Definitive Guide to Beating Bad HOAs, which has become a go-to resource for both homeowners seeking real-world solutions to their HOA disputes, as well as those good HOA board members who are interested in doing a good job.

About MBK Chapman Fact Sheets

Homeowners searching for answers online will often come across articles that appear authoritative, but are actually written as search-engine marketing content rather than by an experienced HOA lawyer. These pieces tend to prioritize keyword density over clarity, accuracy, or legal context, which often leaves homeowners more confused than informed.

At MBK Chapman, our Fact Sheets are part of our HOA Law Library and are written by Michael Kushner, an HOA lawyer with decades of hands-on experience representing California homeowners. In fact, Michael Kushner is the HOA lawyer who pioneered the systems and strategies used by some of California’s most successful homeowner-side HOA law firms.

Each Fact Sheet is deliberately concise, statute-based, and designed as a quick-reference guide to help homeowners understand key HOA laws and enforcement rules at a glance.

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