Oregon's manufactured-home covenant rule only binds new documents
Oregon's manufactured-home covenant rule only binds new documents
2026-09-15 · Oregon · Legislation
House Bill 3144 is the Oregon covenant statute that is doing the least work, and the reason is a single date clause in its own text. Signed June 5, 2025 as chapter 274, Oregon Laws 2025, and effective January 1, 2026, it voids a planned-community provision restricting manufactured dwellings and prefabricated structures — prospectively only.1
The provision
New ORS 94.776(3), as compiled:
“A provision in a governing document that is adopted or amended on or after January 1, 2026, is void and unenforceable to the extent that the provision would prohibit or have the effect of unreasonably restricting the siting of a manufactured dwelling, as defined in ORS 446.003, or a prefabricated structure, as defined in ORS 197A.015, on a lot, including an accessory dwelling unit allowed under this section.”2
OLIS's own catchline puts the limitation up front: the bill “Prohibits new recorded instruments or governing documents” from carrying such a restriction.
What that means in practice
An Oregon declaration recorded in 1996 that bars manufactured homes, and that has not been amended since, is untouched by House Bill 3144. The provision was not adopted or amended on or after January 1, 2026, so subsection (3) does not reach it.
The trap is amendment. An association that amends its declaration — for any reason — needs to understand whether the amendment brings the manufactured-dwelling provision within the date clause. The statute speaks to a provision “adopted or amended” on or after the date, not to a document.
The recorded-instrument counterpart
The same bill amended ORS 93.277, which reaches recorded instruments generally rather than governing documents. As now compiled, subsection (2) sets out the date gates separately: the middle-housing and ADU limbs apply to instruments executed on or after January 1, 2021, and the manufactured-dwelling and prefabricated-structure limbs apply to instruments executed on or after January 1, 2026.2
The bill passed the House 49–7 on March 31, 2025 and the Senate 21–9 on May 27, and was carried by Representative Marsh, who also requested House Bill 3746.
The contrast that explains Oregon's drafting
Oregon has now passed three covenant-override statutes in two sessions, and each one answers the retroactivity question differently:
- SB 1551 (2026), fire hardening — fully retroactive. Section 8: applies to documents “executed before, on or after” June 5, 2026.
- HB 2138 (2025), middle housing and ADUs — retroactive in its applicability sections, with the text amendments operative January 1, 2027.
- HB 3144 (2025), manufactured dwellings and prefab — prospective only, and it stays prospective.
That last point deserves emphasis because it survives a collision. House Bill 2138 strips the date gate out of ORS 94.776(1) from January 2027 and its section 10 applicability note is directed at ORS 94.776 generally. But the version of ORS 94.776 printed in the ORS as operative on and after January 1, 2027 retains subsection (3) with its own January 1, 2026 trigger intact. The manufactured-dwelling limb keeps its prospective character; only the density limb goes retroactive.
Why the two bills did not cancel each other out
Both amended ORS 93.277 in the same session, which would normally produce a drafting collision. House Bill 2138 anticipated it with a conditional self-repeal at section 7a: “If House Bill 3144 becomes law, section 7 of this 2025 Act (amending ORS 93.277) is repealed and ORS 93.277, as amended by section 1, chapter 274, Oregon Laws 2025 (Enrolled House Bill 3144), is amended to read:” followed by the merged text.3
House Bill 3144 did become law, section 7 self-repealed, and the merged version is what becomes operative on January 1, 2027. Section 12 of House Bill 2138 applies the same operative date to section 7a.
What this means for a board
Two practical points.
First, if the declaration contains a manufactured-dwelling prohibition and the association is contemplating amendments for any other reason — a reserve provision, an enforcement policy, a rental cap — get advice on whether the amendment package touches that provision. An amendment that re-adopts or restates it may bring it inside subsection (3) and void it, which is a surprising outcome for a board that thought it was doing something else entirely.
Second, understand what “prefabricated structure” covers. ORS 197A.015 supplies the definition, and it is broader than the manufactured-home stereotype: modular and factory-built construction that arrives on site substantially complete falls inside it. A covenant requiring site-built construction is a restriction on prefabricated structures whether or not it uses the word.
One more thing in the bill
Section 3 of House Bill 3144 extended a sunset, repealing sections 9 and 10 of chapter 625, Oregon Laws 2019 on January 2, 2031 rather than 2027. That keeps alive state grants for low-income facility tenant dispute resolution services and the Manufactured and Marina Communities Dispute Resolution Advisory Committee — relevant to manufactured dwelling park and marina residents rather than to HOAs, but part of the same statutory neighbourhood.
What to watch next
Whether the 2027 session revisits the prospective limitation. Every argument the Legislature made for retroactivity in House Bill 2138 and Senate Bill 1551 applies with equal force here, and the 21–9 Senate vote in 2025 suggests a narrower coalition than the unanimous fire-hardening vote a year later. Our Oregon ADUs and modifications page tracks how the density overrides fit together.
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