AN ACT to create and enact a new chapter to title 23 and a new section to chapter 47-32 of the North Dakota Century Code, relating to receivers for mobile home parks and a defense to an eviction from a mobile home; to amend and reenact sections 23-10-03, 23-10-04, 23-10-06, 23-10-06.2, 23-10-12, and 47-10-28 of the North Dakota Century Code, relating to licensure and regulation of mobile home parks; and to provide a penalty.
SB 2385 revises North Dakota’s mobile home park licensing and tenant-protection laws. It creates a new process allowing the Department of Health and Human Services to seek a court-appointed receivership for a mobile home park after revocation of a license when there are repeated or serious violations of chapter 23-10 rules or when health and safety are seriously threatened. In a receivership, the commissioner serves as receiver or may designate a qualified individual or nonprofit to operate the park, use park income and assets to keep it running, and correct violations, but not liquidate the park’s assets.
The bill also tightens and expands regulation of mobile home parks, recreational vehicle parks, and campgrounds. It updates licensing, inspection, fee, ownership-transfer, and reporting requirements; requires more detailed ownership and management contact information; and authorizes civil penalties for noncompliance. For existing mobile home parks, it adds or strengthens tenant notice rights, limits on rent increases after ownership changes, utility billing rules, late-fee caps, and disclosure obligations. It also requires clearer eviction notices and creates a new defense to eviction when a landlord violates the mobile home park protections in section 47-10-28.
SB 2385 amends multiple sections of the North Dakota Century Code, primarily in chapters 23-10, 47-10, and 47-32, and adds a new chapter in title 23 plus a new eviction-defense section in chapter 47-32. The bill expands the Department of Health and Human Services’ enforcement tools over mobile home parks, including inspections, licensing actions, civil penalties, and court-supervised receivership, while also giving tenants stronger statutory protections in ownership transfers, rent increases, utility charges, and eviction proceedings. It affects mobile home park owners, operators, tenants, the department, district courts, and any nonprofit or qualified individual designated to serve as receiver.
The overall sentiment appears strongly supportive. The bill passed the Senate twice unanimously and the House by a wide margin, with only four no votes on House second reading. The vote pattern suggests broad bipartisan agreement that mobile home park regulation and tenant protections should be strengthened, especially around health and safety enforcement and notice requirements.
The main areas of potential contention are the bill’s increased regulatory burden on park owners and the expanded enforcement authority given to the state and courts. Provisions that may be most sensitive include receivership after license revocation, civil penalties, limits on rent increases and late fees, restrictions on rule changes after ownership transfers, and the new eviction defense that can block eviction if the landlord violated section 47-10-28. The narrow House opposition suggests some concern about these landlord-facing restrictions, but the bill’s final votes indicate those objections were limited.