Responsibilities during sales transactions of manufactured homes

When a manufactured home owner in a residential park decides to sell their home, as the park owner you have responsibilities to both the seller and prospective buyer under the Manufactured Homes (Residential Parks) Act 2003 (the Act).

Your responsibilities to the buyer

As the park owner, before entering into a site agreement for a manufactured home with a prospective buyer you must supply the following pre-contractual disclosure documents:

• the residential park comparison document for the residential park (Form 16)
• the home owners information document (Form 18)
• a copy of the proposed site agreement (Form 2).

You must provide these documents at least 21 days before entering into the site agreement. This period may be reduced to 7 days by completing a precontractual disclosure waiver (Form 1C).

If you are not the seller of the manufactured home:

• the seller must notify you if they enter a sale agreement and give you the buyer’s name and contact details
• you have 7 days after receiving this to give the prospective buyer the pre-contractual disclosure documents.

You must ensure the pre-contractual disclosure documents are in the approved form and include current information required by the:

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

A sale agreement for a manufactured home must not be completed unless:

• you have provided the prospective buyer with the required disclosure documents
• you and the buyer have entered into a site agreement for the manufactured home.

The new site agreement with the prospective buyer must include the same terms for utilities, communal facilities, services, and other amenities included in the site rent as included in the existing seller’s site agreement.

However, you and the buyer can mutually agree to change these terms.

To do this, you must sign a notice clearly explaining the changes and the new terms of the site agreement. You cannot make entering the site agreement conditional on the buyer agreeing to change the terms in the site agreement.

Your responsibilities to the seller

When a home owner proposes to sell a manufactured home, they must notify you by providing a notice of intention to sell the manufactured home.

Once you receive this notice, you must respond to home owner within 7 days and advise:

• whether you offer services to help sell a manufactured home in the residential park (seller services)
• the amount of site rent a new home owner will need to pay under the site agreement for the site where the manufactured home is located.

If a home owner decides to sell their manufactured home, you must not:

• restrict the home owner from placing a suitable 'for sale' sign on the site if it's allowed under the site agreement
• hinder the sale (for example, by stopping potential buyers from inspecting the home)
• restrict the home owner's right to get independent legal advice
• charge the home owner a fee for providing pre-contractual disclosure documents to the prospective buyer which exceeds either $0.70 per page or a total cost of $100
• unreasonably refuse to enter into a site agreement with a prospective home owner.

Being appointed to sell by the home owner

A home owner may ask (appoint) you to act as their agent to sell or negotiate the sale of their manufactured home.

To do this they must sign a Selling authority (Manufactured Homes Form 9) (PDF, 146KB).

Under this authority, as the selling agent you must not charge a fee that is more than the amount set by regulation. If the sale price is:

• more than $18,000: you may charge a maximum fee of $900 plus 2.5% of the sale price amount above $18,000
• $18,000 or less: you may charge a fee of up to 5% of the sale price.

You cannot charge a fee for the agency if you were not the effective cause of the sale.

The Act does not allow a park owner to engage in fraudulent, misleading, harassing or unconscionable conduct when either:

• acting as a home owner's selling agent to sell
• to negotiate the sale of, a manufactured home.

Approved sale agreement form for manufactured homes

When selling a manufactured home or if appointed to sell a manufactured home you must ensure the sale agreement is in the approved sale agreement form (PDF, 329KB).

The approved sales agreement form:

• highlights key information to buyers
• improves standardisation
• assists sellers to meet the regulatory requirements for sales contracts.

It is not a complete contract and is designed to be used with additional terms added by the parties or with existing industry sales contracts.

Buyback and site rent reduction scheme for unsold manufactured homes

A home owner experiencing difficulty selling their manufactured home may qualify for the buyback and site rent reduction scheme.

This scheme was established by the Manufactured Homes (Residential Parks) Amendment Act 2024 and commenced on 7 June 2024.

Under the scheme, you may be required to:

• buy an eligible home from an eligible home owner under a buyback agreement
• reduce the site rent the home owner pays under their site agreement.

A manufactured home is considered an eligible home if:

1. the manufactured home is positioned on a site in a residential park
2. the manufactured home was not brought onto the site, or another site in the residential park, by the home owner of the manufactured home or a former home owner of the manufactured home.

How a home owner can join the scheme

A home owner can ‘opt in’ to the buyback and rent reduction scheme if the home:

• has been on the market for 6 months and hasn’t sold
• is vacant

and either of the following applies:

• you indicated you offer selling services after receiving a notice of intent to sell, and have been appointed to sell the manufactured home
• you indicated you do not offer selling services after receiving a notice of intent to sell.

If you indicated you do not offer selling services after receiving a notice of intent to sell and the home owner joins the scheme, you may send them a notice requiring them to appoint you to sell the manufactured home.

Where this occurs, you must be appointed within 7 days to sell the home.

Agreeing on a resale value

Once the home owner joins the scheme, you must both agree on a resale value for the home within 14 days.

If you cannot agree on the resale value, you must work together to appoint a valuer to determine the resale value.

If the home doesn’t sell

If the home doesn’t sell, you and the home owner must reconsider and agree on a new resale value, or appoint a valuer to re-estimate a new resale value at these times:

• 6 months after the home owner opts into the scheme
• 9 months after the home owner opts into the scheme.

If you and the home owner can’t agree on a registered valuer, you must notify the chief executive of the Department of Housing and Public Works. The chief executive will nominate a valuer within 14 days of receiving the application.

If the home still doesn’t sell, under the scheme the following actions must occur:

• 6 months after the home owner joins the scheme: you must reduce their site rent by 25%
• 12 months after the home owner joins the scheme: you must buy back the home at the agreed resale price.

You may apply to the Queensland Civil and Administrative Tribunal (QCAT) for an extension to buy back the home, including a:

• once-off 6-month extension: if you have made all reasonable attempts to sell the home and the extension would not be unfair to the home owner
• repeatable extension: if buying back the home would cause you undue hardship and the extension would not be unfair to the home owner.