Responsibilities of a residential park owner

Manufactured home owners have responsibilities when operating a residential park under the:

• Manufactured Homes (Residential Parks) Act 2003 (the Act)
• Manufactured Homes (Residential Parks) Regulation 2017 (the Regulation).

As a residential park owner, your basic responsibilities are to:

• take reasonable steps to ensure home owners and their tenants have access to their sites and all common areas
• maintain the common areas and communal facilities in a reasonable state of cleanliness and repair so they are fit for use by homeowners and their tenants
• be reasonably available to homeowners and their tenants to address park issues, such as the supply of utilities
• ensure you provide a continuous supply of utilities to the park and all sites, where possible
• comply with the park owner behavioural standards
• comply with the site agreement and park rules
• display on the park notice board either
  • the current park rules
  • information about how a homeowner can get a copy of the current park rules for no cost to the homeowner
• prepare, maintain and implement emergency plans (all residential park owners must have an emergency plan in place)
• prepare and publish a residential park comparison document on a website for the residential park
• prepare and keep a maintenance and capital replacement plan for the residential park unless exempt from these requirements
• comply with your responsibilities during manufactured homes sales transactions.

Fraudulent or misleading conduct

As a park owner, you must not:

• engage in fraudulent or misleading conduct while operating the park or when acting as a homeowner's agent to sell or negotiate the sale of a manufactured home
• engage in harassment or unconscionable conduct while operating the park or acting as a homeowner's agent to sell, or to negotiate the sale of a manufactured home.

Quiet enjoyment

As a park owner or manager, you must:

• take reasonable steps to ensure homeowners have quiet enjoyment of their sites and common areas
• not interfere with the homeowners' reasonable peace, comfort, and privacy.

Emergency plans

All park owners must have an emergency plan in place for each residential park, as of 1 September 2019.

As a park owner, you must keep the following at the park:

• a written copy of the emergency plan
• a written record of each test conducted for emergency procedures detailed in the emergency plan.

You should also keep another copy of the emergency plan off-site.

Access for emergency vehicles

As a park owner, you must ensure that emergency vehicles (e.g. ambulance, fire and police) have ready access to the park at all times, unless the park owner has a reasonable excuse.

You should also keep other relevant information with the emergency plan, including how to notify emergency services if access to the park has changed (e.g. gates are installed, codes to access gates have changed).

Residential park comparison document

As a park owner, you must prepare a residential park comparison document (RPCD) for the residential park.

You can find out more about the requirements you must follow when preparing, changing, and sharing a RPCD.

Maintenance and capital replacement plans

As a park owner, you must prepare and keep a maintenance and capital replacement plan (MCRP) for the residential park unless you meet the criteria for exemption prescribed by regulation.

Your MCRP must:

• include the information prescribed by regulation such as the capital items in the park, planned maintenance of capital items, and park policies for maintaining common areas and facilities
• be revised at least every 2 years from the date it was last revised
• be developed in consultation with homeowners and the homeowners committee for the park (where one exists) except for the first interim plan
• be provided to homeowners and the department within 28 days of the plan being prepared or revised.
• be provided to homeowners on request.

Once you have prepared a MCRP, you must take reasonable steps to implement the plan.

A park is exempt from these requirements where they contain 15 or less manufactured home sites, or where manufactured homes in a mixed-use park make up less than 30% of total sites. If a park that was previously exempt no longer meets this criteria (for example, the number of sites is 16 or more), the park owner has 12 months to prepare a plan.

Parks registered on or after 31 December 2025 have 2 years from their date of registration to prepare a plan. After this period, an ordinary MCRP which meets regulatory requirements must be in place.

Restricting visitors

Park owners must not:

• restrict a visitor who is visiting a homeowner or another resident at the site or in a common area of the park if the visitor is
  • providing, or intending to provide a health or community service to the homeowner or other resident
  • suitably qualified to provide the service
• restrict other visitors from visiting a homeowner or other resident at the site or in a common area, without a reasonable excuse.

Maintenance of trees in common areas

Park owners must ensure that trees in common areas of the park are maintained so they do not pose a danger to any person or property.

Homeowners who believe the park owner has not maintained a tree can apply to the tribunal for an order requiring them to do so, subject to the dispute resolution procedures in the Act.

Mail facilities

The park owner must establish and maintain reasonable and accessible mail facilities for the homeowners.

Separate measurement or metering of utilities

The park owner must:

• pay for the cost of installing measuring devices or meters to measure individual site usage, if you want to separately measure or meter use of a utility at the site
• not charge a homeowner an amount (or arrange for a homeowner to be charged an amount) for the use of a utility that is more than the relevant supply authority would charge to supply the utility to the site (this applies if a utility is separately measured or metered and charged, or if the utility becomes separately measured or metered and charged).

Change of business hours phone number

The park owner must give the homeowners written notice of a change in their business hours contact phone number for the park within 7 days of the change.

Access to a site by park owner

As a park owner, you may only enter a manufactured home site (in accordance with section 94 of the Act) under the following circumstances:

• when a homeowner has consented to the entry
• in an emergency
• to read a utility meter
• to carry out an inspection or maintenance on the site after giving the homeowner 2 days' notice
• to show the site to a prospective buyer after giving the home owner 1 days' notice
• when you reasonably believe the manufactured home has been abandoned
• under an order of the Queensland Civil and Administrative Tribunal (QCAT) for a stated purpose.

You must also have the written consent of the homeowner to enter a site on a Sunday, public holiday, or between the hours of 8pm and 8am to carry out the following:

• read a utility meter
• carry out an inspection
• conduct maintenance on the site
• show the site to a prospective buyer.

Park owner behavioural standards

As a park owner, you must:

• respect the reasonable peace, comfort, and privacy of a homeowner or other resident
• take reasonable steps to ensure a homeowner or other resident (or their guests) do not interfere with the reasonable peace, comfort, and privacy of another homeowner or resident
• use your best endeavours to ensure each homeowner or other resident lives in an environment free from harassment and intimidation
• respect the right of a homeowner or other resident to have autonomy over their personal, domestic, or financial affairs or possessions
• respond to correspondence from a homeowner or other resident (or their representative) within 21 days of receipt of correspondence and provide a complete response to the correspondence.

Enforcing these obligations

Both homeowners and park owners are required to comply with these obligations and behavioural standards. These obligations are currently enforceable through the dispute resolution procedures in the Act.