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OLR Bill Analysis
HB 5111
AN ACT CONCERNING MOBILE MANUFACTURED HOMES AND
MOBILE MANUFACTURED HOME PARKS.
SUMMARY
This bill establishes a number of requirements relating to ancillary
fees charged to residents by mobile manufactured home park owners,
including requiring owners to post a list of these fees, requiring the
Department of Consumer Protection (DCP) to adopt regulations on
disclosure of these fees, and restricting provisions about these fees in
rental agreements.
It requires DCP, by January 1, 2026, to establish a process for residents
to submit complaints about a suspected violation of laws or regulations,
including local laws, governing mobile manufactured homes.
It also extends, from 30 to 90 days, the time before the start of a new
rental agreement that an owner must provide written notice of a rent
increase to a resident who owns a mobile manufactured home. By law,
any increase must also be consistent with rents for comparable lots in
the park and cannot be used as a way to avoid following the law’s
provisions on summary process for residents who own mobile
manufactured homes.
Finally, the bill makes technical and conforming changes.
EFFECTIVE DATE: October 1, 2025
ANCILLARY FEES
Under the bill, an “ancillary fee” is a payment to the owner under a
rental agreement other than rent, a security deposit, or a penalty for
overdue rent. It includes maintenance and services fees.
The bill requires a person who owns, operates, or maintains a mobile 2025HB-05111-R000584-BA.DOCX
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manufactured home park to prepare and periodically update a
comprehensive itemized list of ancillary fees that residents must pay.
The person must publish the list in a form or manner set by DCP and
post it in a prominent and publicly accessible location on the person’s
website and at the park.
Existing law requires DCP to adopt regulations on the disclosure
statement owners must give to prospective and certain renewing
residents. The bill adds that these regulations must also address
disclosure of the list of ancillary fees and enumeration of the goods and
services provided for the ancillary fees.
Provisions in Rental Agreements
The bill prohibits provisions in rental agreements that allow an
owner to:
1. charge unreasonable ancillary fees or ancillary fees that are (a) for
goods or services already covered by the rent or (b) duplicative
of other ancillary fees or
2. increase an ancillary fee without providing 90 days’ written
notice of the amount of the increase, its effective date, and an
explanation for it.
Existing law (1) prohibits rental agreements from containing certain
provisions, such as provisions allowing a rent increase during the term
of the agreement, and (2) places restrictions on certain types of
provisions, such as those on termination for unpaid rent and penalties
for overdue rent.
By law, rental charges (including other landlord-imposed fees) are
under a fair rent commission’s (FRC) purview, if one has been created
locally (see BACKGROUND).
BACKGROUND
Fair Rent Commissions
State law generally authorizes municipalities, regardless of their size,
to create an FRC. However, legislation enacted in 2022 required all 2025HB-05111-R000584-BA.DOCX
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municipalities with populations of at least 25,000, based on the most
recent decennial census, to have an FRC.
Among other things, an FRC’s purpose is to control and eliminate
excessive (i.e. harsh and unconscionable) rental charges. Rental charges
are defined to include any fee or charge a landlord imposes in addition
to rent. An FRC may order that a rental charge be reduced to a fair and
equitable amount, as determined by the FRC, after holding a hearing on
a complaint (CGS §§ 7-148b to 7-148g).
Related Bills
sSB 12, § 6 (File 251); HB 6892 (File 265); and sHB 6943, § 3 (File 233);
reported favorably by the Housing Committee, impact FRCs and among
other things contain provisions that (1) require every municipality to
establish or join an FRC, (2) require a landlord’s rent increase notice to
include a statement that the tenant has the right to file a complaint with
an FRC, and (3) modify the factors that FRCs use to evaluate rental
charges.
sHB 1357, favorably reported by the General Law Committee,
expands the responsibilities of mobile manufactured home park owners
to include maintaining septic systems, leaching fields, and septic lines
and connections in good working order.
HB 5428, favorably reported by the General Law Committee, sets a
maximum rent increase after termination of a rental agreement with a
resident who owns a mobile home to match the increase in the consumer
price index plus 1%, limits ancillary fees to $15 annually, increases
relocation expenses an owner must pay a resident to move when a
park’s land use changes, requires DCP to establish a complaint process
for park residents, requires DCP to disclose certain park-related
documents upon request, and creates a reporting process related to fire
hydrants in parks, among other things.
sHB 6889, favorably reported by the Housing Committee, extends
existing law’s eviction and rent increase protections for certain
protected tenants to certain other tenants, including residents in mobile 2025HB-05111-R000584-BA.DOCX
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manufactured home parks.
COMMITTEE ACTION
General Law Committee
Joint Favorable
Yea 21 Nay 0 (03/21/2025)