Selling a Florida Mobile Home Park: What Chapter 723 Requires Before You Sell

Most Florida park owners know Chapter 723 as the law about lot rent increases. Fewer know it also has rules about selling the park. They are not complicated, but missing them can cause real trouble in the middle of a sale, so here is the plain version. I am a broker, not a lawyer. Have your attorney confirm how this applies to your park before you act on it.

Does Chapter 723 even apply to my park?

Chapter 723 covers parks with 10 or more lots where residents own their mobile homes and rent the lot underneath. If you own the homes and rent them out as a package, those residents are generally covered by Florida's regular landlord-tenant law instead. Most parks I sell are a mix, which is one more reason the ownership split matters.

The rule that matters: the homeowners' association notice

The sale rules only kick in if your residents have formed a homeowners' association under the statute. That is a specific thing: an incorporated association that at least two-thirds of the home owners in the park signed on to. A social club or an informal residents' group is not the same. If a qualifying association exists, the rules in section 723.071 apply.

If you offer the park for sale

When you offer the park for sale to the general public, you must notify the association's officers of the offer, including the price and the terms and conditions of sale. "Notify" in the statute means putting the notice in the U.S. mail addressed to the officers. From the date of mailing, the home owners, through the association, have 45 days to sign a contract with you at that price and on those terms. If they do not, you are free to sell to anyone. If you later decide to offer the park at a lower price than the one in your notice, the association gets another 10 days to meet the new price and terms.

If a buyer approaches you first

If you did not advertise the park but you receive a real offer you plan to consider or counter, your obligation is lighter. You notify the association that you received an offer, tell them the price and material terms you would sell on, and consider any offer they make. You do not have to stop negotiating with your buyer, and you do not have to sell to the residents. This comes up constantly, because park owners get a steady stream of unsolicited offers.

Sales the rule does not cover

The statute carves out several kinds of transfers, including transfers to people who would inherit from you, certain transfers between partners, and a purchase by a government under eminent domain. If your plan is an estate or family transfer, ask your attorney whether an exemption fits before anyone mails anything.

Closing the park is a different set of rules

Selling the park to someone who keeps running it is one thing. Changing the land to another use is another. A change of use comes with its own notice requirements to residents, at least six months under the eviction statute, plus its own purchase rights for a qualifying association and payments into Florida's mobile home relocation program. If a buyer's plan is redevelopment, that changes what the sale means for your residents, and it changes your timeline.

How I build this into a sale

On any listing, the first question I ask is whether there is a qualifying association. If there is, we plan the notice before marketing starts, set the price and terms we are prepared to mail, and build the 45 days into the schedule. Handled up front, it is a formality. Discovered at the closing table, it is a problem nobody needs. If you want to talk it through, I am a Florida park broker and I answer my own phone.

Questions owners ask

What if my residents only have an informal residents' group?

Then the sale notice rules generally do not kick in. They apply only when residents have formed a homeowners' association under the statute, meaning an incorporated association that at least two-thirds of the home owners in the park signed on to. A social club or an informal residents' group is not the same thing. Have your attorney confirm what kind of group your park has before you market it.

How do I have to send the Chapter 723 sale notice?

By U.S. mail. In the statute, notify means putting the notice in the mail addressed to the association's officers, and it has to include your price and the terms and conditions of sale. The 45-day window for the home owners to sign a contract on those terms runs from the date of mailing, so the mailing date matters. Have your attorney prepare and confirm the notice.

What happens if I lower my asking price after sending the notice?

The association gets another 10 days. If you decide to offer the park at a lower price than the one in your notice, the home owners, through the association, have 10 more days to meet the new price and terms. Build that possibility into your timeline before marketing starts, so a price change late in the process does not catch you or your buyer off guard.

Do I have to tell the association about an offer I did not ask for?

Yes, if a qualifying association exists and you plan to consider or counter a real offer. You notify the association that you received an offer, tell them the price and material terms you would sell on, and consider any offer they make. You do not have to stop negotiating with your buyer, and you do not have to sell to the residents.

Does Chapter 723 apply if I own all the homes in my park?

Generally not to those residents. Chapter 723 covers parks with 10 or more lots where residents own their mobile homes and rent the lot underneath. Residents who rent a park-owned home and lot as a package are generally covered by Florida's regular landlord-tenant law instead. Many parks are a mix, so ask your attorney how the rules apply to your ownership split.

A Florida mobile home park broker is not your attorney, and I am not yours. I will make sure your lawyer and I are working from the same real numbers.