Behind on Lot Rent in Pennsylvania?
Here’s What Happens Next

This page is general information about Pennsylvania law, not legal advice. Laws change and every situation is different. For free legal help, contact your regional legal aid office or PA 211.

If you’re behind on lot rent and you own your mobile home, you have more time and more rights than most people realize. Pennsylvania treats manufactured home communities differently from apartments, because you own the home and only rent the land underneath it.

This page walks through the actual process, the actual deadlines, and every option you have. Selling your home is one of those options. It is not the only one, and for some people it’s the wrong one. We’ll be straight with you about which situation you’re in.

The park can only evict you for four reasons

Under Pennsylvania’s Manufactured Home Community Rights Act, a park owner can only remove you for:

1. Nonpayment of rent
2. A second or later violation of the community rules within a six-month window
3. A change in how the community land is used
4. The community shutting down

That’s the complete list. If a manager is threatening you over something else, they’re outside the law. The park is also required to post a copy of the Act somewhere accessible in the community.

They cannot lock you out, tow your home, or cut your utilities

Self-help eviction is illegal in Pennsylvania. No park owner can remove you without written notice and a court hearing in front of a Magisterial District Judge. If someone has changed your locks, shut off your water, blocked your access, or told you that you have 48 hours to be gone, call the Attorney General’s Consumer Protection line at 1-800-441-2555 or your county District Attorney. Both have authority to enforce this law on your behalf.

The nonpayment timeline, step by step

Step 1. Written notice by certified or registered mail. Not a note on your door. Not a text from the manager. The law requires certified or registered mail, and it has to describe what you owe.

Step 2. Your window to pay. The notice must tell you that eviction proceedings can start if you don’t pay the overdue amount within:

• 20 days from service, if the notice was given between April 1 and August 31
• 30 days from service, if the notice was given between September 1 and March 31

Step 3. The second-notice trap. This is the part that catches people. The park only has to send you one overdue-rent notice in any six-month period. If you pay that one off but fall behind again inside those six months, they can go straight to court with no new notice and no new waiting period.

Step 4. Court. The park files at the Magisterial District Court. You get a hearing date. Show up. People who don’t show up lose by default, and a default judgment moves much faster than a contested one.

Step 5. After judgment. Even then, the home itself is yours. The park has to go through separate proceedings to take control of an abandoned home. That gap is time you can use.

Depending on where you are in the calendar and whether the park follows the rules correctly, the stretch from first notice to actually being out is usually somewhere between one and three months, and often longer. You are probably not as close to the edge as it feels right now.

The thing almost nobody knows: the park cannot stop you from selling

This is the single most important sentence on this page.

Under the same law, a park owner may not prevent the sale of your manufactured home, and may not take a fee on that sale, unless you signed a separate written fee agreement saying otherwise. What they can do is reserve the right to approve your buyer as a resident of the community.

We say this constantly and people don’t believe us, because managers tell residents the opposite all the time. Go read your lease. If there’s no separate written fee agreement, the park cannot block the sale or skim it.

Approval of the buyer is a real thing and it matters, but it’s a different thing from blocking the sale. We deal with park approval on every purchase we make, and we know how to work with managers to get it done.

Or just call us: (484) 809-9426

Your options, honestly ranked

Option 1: Get caught up

If the number is small enough to close with help, this is the best outcome and we’ll tell you so. Start here:

• Call 211 or text your ZIP to 898-211. County-level hardship and utility programs still exist even though the big pandemic-era statewide rental funds have wound down.
• Ask the manager directly for a written payment plan. Many will take one, because an empty lot with an abandoned home on it is a bigger problem for them than you are.
• If you’re behind because of a utility crisis, LIHEAP may free up the cash you need for rent.

Option 2: Fight the eviction

Worth doing if the park skipped a step. Missing certified mail, the wrong notice period, a fee they aren’t entitled to, or a lockout attempt are all real defenses. Call legal aid before your hearing date. It’s free if you qualify.

Option 3: Sell the home

This makes sense when the arrears keep growing, the home needs repairs you can’t fund, or you already know you need to be somewhere else. Selling while you still have equity and still control the timeline is very different from losing the home after a judgment.

Option 4: Move the home

Almost always the worst option financially. Transport, setup, permits, and a new lot deposit routinely run well past what an older home is worth, and many parks won’t accept a home over a certain age. Get a real quote before you commit to this.

How selling to us works when you’re behind

We buy mobile homes in Pennsylvania parks in as-is condition, including homes with lot rent arrears.

• We can pay the arrears at closing. The balance owed comes out of the purchase price. You don’t need cash up front.
• We handle park approval. We’ve been approved as a buyer in parks across Lehigh, Berks, Northampton, Lancaster, York, and surrounding counties.
• We buy as-is. Roof, floors, plumbing, hoarding situations, fire damage. You don’t clean, you don’t repair, you don’t stage.
• You pick the closing date. If you need three more weeks in the home, say so.
• You leave with money, not a judgment. Even a modest check beats a court record and an abandoned home in your name.

Resources

PA 211: dial 211 or text your ZIP to 898-211, for county-level rent, utility, and hardship programs
PA Attorney General Consumer Protection: 1-800-441-2555, enforces the Manufactured Home Community Rights Act

Regional legal aid, free if you qualify by income:

• Southeastern PA (Bucks, Chester, Delaware, Montgomery): Legal Aid of Southeastern PA, 877-429-5994
• Northeastern / Lehigh Valley: North Penn Legal Services
• Western PA: Neighborhood Legal Services

Your county Tax Claim Bureau, for anything involving back taxes.