This story appears as part of a collaboration to strengthen investigative journalism in Maine between the BDN and The Maine Monitor. Read more about the partnership.
The trade group representing Maine’s mobile home industry told officials in one southern Maine town it is preparing to sue them and other municipalities if they pass ordinances restricting how much mobile home park owners can raise lot rents.
The Eliot select board was considering such a rent stabilization ordinance at its meeting last week, part of a growing effort by towns across the state to protect residents of local mobile home parks who say they are dealing with poor conditions and sharp rent hikes. At least seven municipalities, including Brunswick, Old Orchard Beach and Waterville, have adopted these ordinances since 2024, and others, such as Saco and Farmington, are considering similar measures.
The proposed ordinance in Eliot would prohibit park owners from raising lot rents more than once a year and cap the increase at 3 percent of the current rent or the annual change in the Consumer Price Index, whichever is less.
Maine Manufactured Housing Association Executive Director Julie Ann Smith told the Eliot select board her organization would sue them if it passed.
“If the town proceeds, taxpayers will bear the cost of defending the ordinance as well as the risk of paying legal fees incurred to overturn it,” she said during public testimony at the Thursday meeting.
The select board ultimately voted to approve the measure with a 3-2 vote, but some officials said they were conflicted after Smith’s testimony, the only public comment on the ordinance that night. It now goes to voters in November.
The threat of a lawsuit could jeopardize the movement to restrict lot rent increases, a tactic that is being explored by municipalities as Maine tries to preserve access to mobile homes amid a growing shortage of affordable housing. The manufactured housing group appears to be in the beginning stages of potential legal action against these shifts. Smith said her organization started doing legal research on the issue a month ago and that the timing of a potential suit is still being determined. An advocate for lot rent ordinances was skeptical a lawsuit would succeed, pointing out that towns’ measures are largely based on a model template developed by the state.
Lot rent ordinances have been debated across the country in recent years as private equity firms have purchased mobile home parks and raised lot rents aggressively. Residents of mobile home park communities typically own their homes but rent land from the parks, and it is a difficult and costly process to move the units, leaving them vulnerable to rent hikes.
Maine last year passed a law requiring that park owners provide 90 days of notice ahead of any rent increase and allowing residents to request mediation if the increase is above a certain threshold. The law was updated this year to prohibit park owners from increasing the rent more than once in a calendar year. Some towns are now pushing for a strict cap on how large these increases can be, with many of them following a model ordinance developed by the state that recommended a rent increase formula tied to changes in the Consumer Price Index or a percentage of the current base rent.
The manufactured housing group has been lobbying against these efforts. Smith told the Auburn City Council its proposal to limit lot rent increases would hurt the city’s housing goals by “delaying repairs, discouraging investment and ultimately leaving the city with fewer homes,” Spectrum News reported.
At the Eliot meeting, Smith said the town’s proposed ordinance “conflicts with the statewide framework enacted by the Maine Legislature” and “interferes with existing legal rights.”
In an email, Smith argued the ordinance is unconstitutional under the 14th Amendment’s due process clause and the Fifth Amendment’s takings clause, which states the government can only take private property with just compensation. There is an ongoing legal debate around how the amendment pertains to rent control that centers on whether rent control counts as seizing of property without just compensation because it limits landowners’ ability to make money on their property. She said the ordinance goes against park owners’ right to a reasonable return on their investment and pointed to a New Jersey case where an appeals court struck down a lot rent control ordinance because it was not consistent with state law.
“My purpose in being so direct with the Select Board was to make sure its members understood the potential consequences before they vote,” Smith wrote to The Maine Monitor in an email. “We have raised concerns about municipal rent-control proposals in other communities, but each ordinance and each community presents different facts and legal issues.”
She also said the group is concerned that these measures could force mobile home park owners to close the communities if they cannot afford to keep up with costs.
Town managers from Searsport and Brunswick, where voters approved lot rent stabilization ordinances, and Jay, where residents will vote on a measure in November, said they had not heard from the group about any future litigation.
Joe Hupperich, a field organizer with the Maine Labor Climate Council who has worked with some park residents to develop lot rent control proposals, dismissed any threats as a “scare tactic,” saying all the residents they have worked with have built their ordinances based on a model published by the Governor’s Office of Policy Innovation and the Future in a report issued earlier this year.
Hupperich said most resident groups the Labor Climate Council has worked with have followed the model ordinance pretty closely, with some variations depending on the municipality’s existing rules.
“I don’t think we’re doing anything outside of the law by protecting residents from being exploited by out-of-state corporations,” Hupperich said.