SS 2 for SB 56 — the lot-lease transfer rewrite, and the 10% premium

85 Del. Laws c. 206 substantially rewrote 25 Del. C. § 7013 and touched §§ 7003, 7007, 7008, 7009 and 7016. It is the most operationally significant of the four.⁵

A definition of “Heir” was added at § 7003: “someone who obtains an interest in a manufactured home as the result of the death of another person,” including through a will, intestate succession, or a transfer-on-death designation.

Automatic lease transfer under § 7013(b)(1): to a buyer or transferee; to heirs where an heir occupied the home at death; to heirs for one year where no heir occupied it; and to the estate for one year.

Death is not a ground to terminate. A community owner “may not terminate a lease due to the death of a tenant” where the estate or heirs transfer to non-tenant occupants already living in the home — and only the criminal-background portion of the application may be required. An heir who does not intend to reside need not apply at all. A community owner “may not prohibit an heir with only a partial ownership interest… from residing in the community,” and partial occupancy is not a subletting violation.

A 90-day shield. A community owner “may not start a summary possession action under Chapter 57… for at least 90 days after the death of the tenant,” and estate-administration circumstances preventing rent payment for up to 90 days are a defence. Heirs or the personal representative must notify the community owner within 90 days with owner names, addresses, phone numbers and intended residents.

The right of first refusal, restructured — and repriced. Notice before listing (which triggers an optional § 7007(c) inspection), plus written notice no less than three weeks before sale with the buyer's name and address and the agreed price and terms. The community owner's purchase premium moved from 1% to 10% above the contract price. The response window is seven days and is not extendable; failure to respond means “the right to purchase the home expires”; exercising it requires a 5% nonrefundable deposit.

No right of first refusal applies where a mortgagee foreclosed; on transfers to family members within the modified Table of Consanguinity at § 7014 or to a trust for them; between joint tenants or tenants-in-common; or by gift, devise or operation of law.

The tenancy-application decision window shortened from 15 days to 10 (§ 7013(e)(4)), with a written statement of the specific eligibility requirement not met.

What the 10% premium actually does

The direction of this change is not obvious and deserves a plain reading. A community owner exercising a right of first refusal must now pay more than the buyer's contract price — 10% more, rather than 1% more.

That makes exercising the right substantially more expensive, which cuts against using it casually to block a sale. Delaware's Manufactured Housing Ombudsperson had reported community owners “using the right to purchase to block lease transfers” as a recurring complaint theme. The seven-day non-extendable window and the 5% nonrefundable deposit point the same way: the right is now a real purchase commitment rather than a delay mechanism.

Whether it works that way in practice is the open question, and we have found no 2026 data on how often it has been exercised.

HB 127 — the installation board, halved

Signed June 25, 2025 as 85 Del. Laws c. 39, amending 24 Del. C. § 4413 to reduce the Manufactured Home Installation Board from nine members to five — two licensed installers, one certified installation inspector, and the remainder per the amended composition. Note a small discrepancy in the record: the bill page's status line says signed 6/25/25 while its effective-date field says 6/24/25.

What is still missing

The itemised maintenance duties did not pass. HB 39 — standing water, utilities to the physical connection, tree roots and limbs in common areas, and an extension of the weekend-and-holiday exclusion to Chapter 70 deadlines of 12 days or less — cleared the House 39-0 in April 2025 and died in a Senate committee.

So a resident facing bad conditions argues from the general duty, the lease, and now § 7005(c)'s pattern-and-practice route. The evidence that route needs is beginning to exist: DNREC's statewide assessment has identified 98 communities with on-site wastewater systems, many predating any records.

What changed since

Two things, both material. SB 235 made the rent-increase calculations permanent in July 2026. And a right of redemption covering manufactured-home lots took effect September 1, 2026.

One thing to watch that is not obviously good news: HB 193, signed the same September day, redirected the entire monthly per-lot assessment to the legal-aid fund from January 1, 2026 — which means the relocation trust fund now receives nothing from it, in the same year its cap became discretionary.