Manufactured Homes - Owners' Rights

If you are renting a lot in a manufactured home park or community with four or more lots, the Texas Manufactured Home Tenancies Act has a long list of requirements that park managers must obey, including:

• providing an initial lease term of at least six months and a written lease;
• providing written rules for the community that you must follow as a condition of the lease,
• providing a minimum of 60 days’ notice of nonrenewal, regardless of your lease term.
• accepting cash and providing a written receipt for all cash rental payments,
• disclosing the names of the owners of the park, and
• not retaliating against park tenants for complaining about health and safety hazards to authorities.

A landlord must give you notice to vacate the premises or renew the lease at least 60 days before the current lease expires or the landlord intends to terminate the lease. If you do not wish to renew, you must notify the landlord 30 days before the lease expires unless the lease requires a more extended notice period. If the landlord asks you to move before 60 days ends, the landlord must pay you in advance for relocation expenses, including the cost of moving and installing the home in a new location. If the landlord intends to sell the park or change its use, you get 180 days’ notice. 

Yes, if you violate the terms of your lease (such as nonpayment of rent) or the community rules that are part of your lease. For nonpayment issues, you have ten days from the date you receive written notice of nonpayment from the landlord to pay what you owe. If you don’t pay what is due within ten days or vacate by the deadline in the notice, your landlord can file a lawsuit to evict you.

Whether you rent or own, the landlord has to file a lawsuit before you can be evicted. You are entitled to at least three days’ notice to vacate. The date in the notice to vacate is not the date you will be kicked out. You can’t be forced to move until a judge issues a writ of possession, which must be served on you by a sheriff’s deputy or constable.

Your landlord does not have to repair your mobile home because you are responsible for them. Your landlord must:

• comply with any code or rule applicable to the manufactured home community;
• maintain all common areas, if any, in a clean and useable condition;
• maintain all utility lines installed in the community unless a public utility or local government maintains them;
• maintain individual mailboxes unless located on your lot;
• maintain roads to the extent necessary to provide access to each lot;
• provide services for the common collection and removal of solid waste; and
• repair or remedy conditions on the premises that materially affect the physical health or safety of the tenants.

You must notify the landlord in writing of the need to repair unless the condition materially affects the health or safety of tenants. The landlord has a reasonable time to repair the condition unless they are waiting on insurance funds.

Your landlord must return your security deposit or an itemized list of deductions no later than 30 days after the date you move if you have given the landlord a forwarding address. The landlord may not deduct for normal “wear and tear.” A tenant may not withhold any part of the last month’s rent on the grounds that the security deposit will cover the balance or the tenant acts in bad faith and is liable for three times the rent withheld. If the landlord wrongfully withholds the security deposit, the landlord acts in bad faith and is subject to damages and attorneys fees.

A landlord may prohibit a tenant from subletting if the lease includes such prohibition.