On Tuesday, April 21, Minnesota Senate Democrats approved a partisan “Manufactured Home Residents Bill of Rights” that would make numerous changes to the operations of manufactured home parks. This legislation, Senate File 2691, contains a controversial provision requiring lot rent increases to “be reasonable” and capped at 3% of the rent per month in the prior year.

During the floor debate, Senator Gary Dahms (R – Redwood Falls) criticized the legislation for imposing strict rent control. “This legislation is another example of a Democrat policy that ultimately harms the people it is meant to help and makes housing less stable and less affordable,” said Senator Dahms. “The reality is, if we’re going to point fingers, we have to point them at us. It’s called rules, regulations, taxes, inflation, and raising energy and insurance costs. (Democrat) legislators are the ones who have driven those costs, nobody else. We’re the ones who have forced these costs up.”

This legislation restricts property rights and risks reducing the quality of services for residents. Manufactured home parks often have aging private infrastructure, such as roads, water systems, and storm shelters, that require significant investment to maintain. Limiting rent increases may make it harder for park owners to fund necessary improvements, and even when increases are allowed for health and safety reasons, the added costs and legal risk may still discourage needed upgrades.

Additionally, the legislation’s “opportunity-to-purchase” provision has also raised concerns. It would require park owners to provide advance notice of a potential sale and give residents a set period to submit an offer before the property can be sold to another buyer. Critics argue this limits a property owner’s ability to freely sell their property and creates unnecessary barriers in private transactions.

“Rent control has consistently failed to deliver on its promises, and we should expect the same outcome here. We should be advancing policies that actually make housing more affordable for Minnesota families,” Senator Dahms concluded.