The statutory scheme the order departed from

Under 10 V.S.A. ch. 153, a Vermont park owner must give 18 months' notice by certified mail to each affected resident and leaseholder and to the Commissioner before closing a park. The Commissioner may shorten that where the change in use is necessary for residents' health, safety or welfare — which is the exception invoked here.

The sale provisions are separate and they are the ones Vermont residents most often misunderstand. Section 6242 requires the owner to give certified-mail notice of an intent to sell to each home owner and the Commissioner, stating “the price, terms, and conditions under which the park owner offers the park for sale”.

Residents then have 45 days to notify the owner that they intend to consider purchase through a group representing a majority of the home owners or an approved nonprofit. During those 45 days the owner “shall not accept a final unconditional offer to purchase the park.” If residents do notify, the owner must not accept an outside offer “for 120 days following the 45-day period, a total of 165 days following the notice”, must “negotiate in good faith”, and must consider any resident offer.

It is not a right of first refusal. The statute says so: “The requirements of this section shall not be construed to restrict the price at which the park owner offers the park for sale.” It is notice plus a negotiating window.

The penalty, and the exceptions

Section 6242(d): an owner who sells without complying “shall be liable to the mobile home owners in the aggregate amount of $10,000.00 or 50 percent of the gain realized by the park owner from the sale, whichever is greater”, plus actual and punitive damages under § 6205.

Section 6242(e) exempts a foreclosure sale, a transfer to a family member or family trust, a transfer among partners who own the park, a transfer incidental to financing, a transfer between joint tenants or tenants in common, eminent domain, and a municipal tax sale. A park lost to municipal tax sale is outside the resident-purchase scheme entirely — which is the risk a park in arrears on its town taxes carries.

Section 6242(f) makes a notice of intent to sell valid for one year, and requires a new notice before offering or accepting a price more than five percent below the initial offering price, or less than five percent above the residents' group's final written offer.

The market context

In 2025, owners of 17 Vermont parks notified the state they intended to sell — the most since the state began keeping digital records in 2008 — and the pace continued into the first half of 2026.² Typical lot rents cited in that reporting run around $360 a month, with one co-op at $314.

Why this matters on the condominium side

Because it is the only place in Vermont law where a residential community's dissolution is supervised by anybody.

Vermont's condominium termination provision is 27A V.S.A. § 2-124, on termination following catastrophe, which reaches pre-1999 communities through § 1-204(a)(2). There is no notice to a Commissioner, no resident-purchase window, no agency that reviews the decision, and nobody to shorten or lengthen anything.

What to watch next

The Commissioner's March 13, 2026 written decision is an agency record and the primary document on what standard was applied. Act 155 of 2026's DHCD report on park infrastructure funding, due November 15, 2026, is aimed at exactly the failure mode this park represents.