What else changed

Municipal siting. Sec. 4 amends 24 V.S.A. § 4412(1)(B) to insert “any district that allows year-round residential development in” before “the municipality”. A Vermont town can no longer satisfy the anti-exclusion rule by permitting mobile and modular housing in one corner of town; it must be allowed in every district that allows year-round residential development.

A sublease ban inside co-op parks. The act prohibits subleasing a unit in a park registered as a limited equity cooperative unless the member shows hardship and sublets to a low- or moderate-income individual at no more than cost.

Permanently sited homes. Sec. 1 rewrites 9 V.S.A. ch. 72, adding “(c) A mobile home that was financed as residential real estate shall be defined as residential real estate” and a new definition of “permanently sited” keyed to whether the home “has become affixed to the land”.

A registration repair. Sec. 7 lets the Secretary of State, on request from a limited equity cooperative, update its registration to reflect its actual corporate structure.

A terminology sweep. Sec. 8 directs Legislative Counsel to replace “mobile home” with “manufactured home” throughout the statutes “provided the revisions have no other effect on the meaning of the affected statutes.” Vermont statutory text will read differently from older secondary sources from mid-2026 onward.

Secs. 5 and 6 raise the sales and use tax exemption for new manufactured and modular housing, effective January 1, 2028.

Why this matters to the condominium side of the house

Vermont has 238 manufactured home parks. 67 of them, holding 3,440 lots, are owned by cooperatives or nonprofits — more than 28 percent of parks and 49 percent of all lots. Sixteen parks have converted to resident ownership since 2011.²

That makes Vermont's resident-owned park sector the closest analogue in the state to a community association — and it is the only one the Legislature legislates for regularly. A park cooperative gets its own act in 2026. Condominiums got a study.

The protections a park resident already has

Under 10 V.S.A. ch. 153, administered by the Department of Housing and Community Development:

• § 6251: a lot rent increase requires written notice on a department form to the Commissioner and every affected leaseholder “no later than 60 days before the effective date”, stating the percentage increase from current base lot rent. If the owner fails to notify either the leaseholders or the Commissioner, “the proposed lot rent increase shall be ineffective and unenforceable.”
• § 6252: where the increase exceeds the published threshold and a majority of affected leaseholders petition within 15 business days, mediation follows — and “The Department shall pay the reasonable fees for professional mediation services.” The park owner “shall have the burden of providing information to show that the proposed lot rent increase is reasonable.”
• § 6253: if mediation fails, a majority of leaseholders may sue for abatement of a “clearly excessive” increase within 30 days of the effective date, with the disputed portion paid into court.
• § 6254: annual registration, a fee of no more than $12 per occupied leased lot, and a special fund that pays for the mediators and for leaseholders' legal representation.

The mediation threshold was 5.4 percent for 2025 and 5.00 percent for 2026.

What to watch next

Two dates. The DHCD report on November 15, 2026, and the repeal of the nonprofit-treatment subsection on July 1, 2027. If the 2027 session does not act, the barrier returns.