Here is the thing that trips up most sellers in a New Jersey manufactured housing community: there are two approvals, not one.
The first is yours. You own the home, it is your property, and you decide who you sell it to and for how much.
The second belongs to the community. If the buyer intends to leave the home where it stands, that buyer needs a lot to put it on, and the community can reserve the right to approve them as a tenant. A buyer with cash in hand who does not pass the community's tenancy screening cannot complete the purchase in place.
New Jersey does not leave this vague. The Mobile Home Park Private Residential Leasehold Communities Act, N.J.S.A. 46:8C-2 through 46:8C-21, spells out what the community may and may not do, and it sets out a specific sequence. Most sellers have never read it. It is worth twenty minutes.
What the community cannot do
Section 46:8C-3(a) is the operative language, and it is unusually direct:
"No mobile home park shall deny any resident of such mobile home park the right to sell said resident's mobile home within the park or require the resident to remove the mobile home from the park solely on the basis of the sale thereof."
So the community cannot tell you that you may not sell in place, and it cannot tell you the home has to come out just because it is changing hands. Those are the two things sellers most commonly fear and neither is permitted.
Two more limits worth knowing.
The community cannot take a cut of your sale price. The same section says the park "shall not exact a commission or fee with respect to the price realized by the seller unless the park owner or operator has acted as agent for the mobile home owner in the sale pursuant to a written contract." No written agency agreement, no commission.
Fees have to be real and disclosed. Section 46:8C-2(c) requires the community to fully disclose in writing all fees, charges, assessments, rules and regulations before a resident takes occupancy, and says that entrance, membership and association fees "must be specifically related to and identifiable with actual costs incurred" by the community. It also caps what the community can charge for pulling a prospective tenant's credit at the actual cost of obtaining it, and requires that a complete and accurate copy of any credit report be promptly forwarded to the prospective tenant.
And under 46:8C-5, any lease provision that waives a protection in this act is void as against public policy. A clause in your lease does not override the statute.
What the community can do
It can reserve the right to approve your buyer as a tenant. The statute says so plainly, and then immediately qualifies it: "such permission may not be unreasonably withheld."
That is the whole balance. The community gets a say over who becomes its tenant. It does not get an arbitrary veto over your sale.
The sequence, in the order the statute sets it out
This is the part that is genuinely useful and almost never written down anywhere a seller can find it.
1. You give the community written notice that you plan to sell. Not a phone call to the office. Written notice.
2. Before the home may be sold, you give the buyer an application for park tenancy. You, the seller, hand the buyer the application. This is your obligation, not the community's and not the buyer's to go hunting for.
3. The buyer returns that application to the community in person. The statute is explicit that the application "shall be returned to the mobile home park owner or operator by the prospective buyer in person." Not mailed by you. Not emailed. The buyer walks it in.
4. Only then do you enter a sales agreement. The statute says that on a private sale, failure to follow the application procedure "before any sales agreement is entered into" absolves the community of certain of its own obligations under the act. Signing first and applying second gives away protections you would otherwise have.
5. Your contract must tell the buyer, in writing, about the community's approval right. Section 46:8C-3(b): no contract for the sale of a mobile home where both sides intend the home to remain in the park "shall be valid unless the seller has advised the purchaser, in writing, of the park owner or operator's right to approve the purchaser." A contract that skips this is exposed.
One exception runs through all of it: none of the application procedure applies if the buyer plans to immediately remove the home from the community.
If approval is unreasonably withheld
Section 46:8C-3(c) gives both sides a remedy. If the community unreasonably withholds approval of a purchaser as a tenant, either the selling homeowner or the intended purchaser may bring an action in Superior Court. A plaintiff who wins is awarded damages proximately caused by the unreasonable refusal, plus costs and reasonable attorneys' fees, and the court is empowered to order the buyer admitted to the community.
That is a real remedy, and it is worth knowing it exists. It is also slow and expensive, which is why the practical answer is almost always to find out the community's screening standard before you find a buyer, not after.
What to gather before you list
Four things, and they take an afternoon.
The current rules and regulations. Section 46:8C-4 requires the community to deliver a copy of all rules to a homeowner before they sign a lease, and to post a copy in the recreation hall or another conspicuous place. Buyers ask for these. Not having them stalls deals.
Your lease. The community must offer a written lease or rental agreement of not less than twelve months within thirty days of a homeowner lawfully taking occupancy. Find yours.
The application and the written screening criteria. Ask the office, in writing, what they screen for, how long a decision takes, and what the application fee is. Get the answer in writing too.
Your account status. Outstanding lot rent generally has to be squared up at or before closing. Know the exact number early rather than discovering it at the worst moment.
Do not forget the title
The home itself is titled in New Jersey. The Motor Vehicle Commission states that a mobile home must be titled within ten days of purchase or a penalty fee applies, and that mobile homes are exempt from registration and inspection. If there is an old lien recorded on the title from a loan you paid off years ago and the lender never released, that will surface at closing. Pull your title and read the lien section now, while you are under no time pressure. We cover this in our guide to New Jersey title and tax.
Which way to sell
None of this makes a park-sited sale impossible. It makes it a process with a third party in it, and that third party has no deadline of its own.
Some owners work through it and do well, especially when the home shows well and the community is organized. That is when listing the home usually beats anything else, because a buyer competing for a desirable home in a tight market will pay more than an investor will.
Other owners would rather not run the process at all, or have a home whose condition means it will not survive a retail buyer's inspection. That is when a straight cash offer makes more sense, and we handle the community coordination as part of it.
We will tell you honestly which one your situation calls for, including when the answer is that you should list rather than sell to us.
This article summarizes provisions of the New Jersey Mobile Home Park Private Residential Leasehold Communities Act and is general information only. It is not legal advice. The act contains provisions not summarized here and how it applies depends on your lease and circumstances. Consult a New Jersey attorney or the NJ Department of Community Affairs about your situation.
Sources: NJ Department of Community Affairs, Landlord-Tenant Information Service bulletin on N.J.S.A. 46:8C-2 through 46:8C-21; N.J.S.A. 46:8C-3, sale of mobile home within park; New Jersey Motor Vehicle Commission, mobile homes
