What is a mobile home park? Land where spaces are rented to people who own the homes standing on them, which splits one address into two deals: a home you buy and title, and ground you rent every month.
A mobile home park is land divided into spaces that are rented out to the owners of the homes on them. Nevada defines it at NRS 118B.017 as an area or tract of land where two or more manufactured homes or manufactured home lots are rented or held out for rent, and it excludes land where more than half the lots go overnight or for less than three months to recreational vehicles, or where homes are used occasionally for recreation rather than as permanent residences. A lot is a portion of that land rented to hold a manufactured home, or a recreational vehicle for three months or more (NRS 118B.016). The tenant, NRS 118B.0185, is the owner of the home sitting on the lot. That definition is the whole structure of the arrangement: you own the house and you rent the dirt, so a purchase and a tenancy run side by side for as long as you live there.
The tenancy is the part people underestimate. Lot rent is normally month to month and covers the space plus whatever utilities and amenities the park includes. Chapter 118B governs it and is stricter than an ordinary Nevada lease in places: written notice of a rent increase has to reach the tenant 90 days before the first payment it applies to, and the increased rent has to match what comparable homes or lots in the park pay, with only a short statutory list of discounts a landlord may give selectively (NRS 118B.150). Termination takes written notice served in the manner set by NRS 40.280, on notice periods in NRS 118B.190 and grounds in NRS 118B.200. Selling the home in place brings the landlord in as well, under the rights and duties at NRS 118B.170, because the buyer becomes the next tenant.
Two risks sit under all of it. The home has no land beneath it that the owner holds, so it usually stays personal property on a chattel loan, and its value moves with the home and the park's condition rather than with the ground. And the park itself can go: NRS 118B.183 lets a landlord convert a park to another use with local zoning approval, on notices to the Division and to every tenant, payment of the amounts the statute requires, and at least 180 days for tenants to move their homes after final approval, with a resident impact statement under NRS 118B.184. Moving a home is expensive and older homes often do not survive it, which is why the length of the notice matters more than it sounds.
A worked example
A space rents at $650 a month and the home standing on it sold at $72,000. Ten years of ground rent at that figure is $78,000, more than the home cost, and the tenant owns none of the land at the end of it. A rise to $715 has to reach the tenant in writing 90 days before the first payment it applies to, and has to match what comparable lots in the park are paying.
Manufactured homes for sale in Las Vegas
Questions people ask
Do you own the land in a mobile home park?
No. You own the home and rent the space under it. Nevada defines the tenant of a park at NRS 118B.0185 as the owner of the manufactured home located on the lot, which is the split in one sentence. It is also why the home usually stays personal property titled through the Manufactured Housing Division and is financed with a chattel loan rather than a mortgage.
Can a mobile home park raise the rent whenever it wants?
In Nevada the notice is fixed and the amount is not. NRS 118B.150 requires written notice to reach the tenant 90 days before the first increased payment, and requires the new rent to be the same as for homes or lots of the same size or similar location in the park, with a short statutory list of discounts that may be given selectively. There is no state cap on how large an increase can be.