The bottom line
Closing a manufactured home park in British Columbia to build something new is a four to seven year process governed by overlapping provincial and municipal requirements. It starts with a $20,000 per tenancy statutory floor before a single shovel hits the ground. Negotiated packages in Surrey have gone far beyond that, but those were developer offers, not a municipal requirement.
The Manufactured Home Park Tenancy Act (MHPTA) mandates 12 months' notice and escalating compensation obligations. Many municipalities add their own redevelopment policies, which apply when an owner asks the city for a rezoning or permit. The tenant protection bylaws adopted since 2024 are a different instrument: Surrey's and Maple Ridge's both say they do not apply to property governed by the MHPTA. The 2023 to 2025 legislative changes have also expanded penalties for bad-faith closures.
The regulatory path is navigable but slow, expensive and politically fraught. This guide maps every stage so owners and investors can underwrite redevelopment with realistic numbers, not floor numbers.
Set by regulation in June 2018, replacing the prior formula of 12 months' rent.
Runs after rezoning is adopted and the development permit is issued.
What the developer offered double-wide owners, and $250,000 for one single-wide. Developer offers, not a municipal requirement.
From feasibility to completed redevelopment. Holding costs are the silent line item.
Provincial framework: MHPTA section 42
The Manufactured Home Park Tenancy Act (SBC 2002, c. 77) is the governing statute. It applies wherever a tenant rents a pad site but owns their manufactured home. Where both the pad and the dwelling are rented, the Residential Tenancy Act applies instead. For the buyer's side, see Understanding the BC MHPTA.
Section 42: the two conditions
A landlord may end pad tenancies for redevelopment only when both of the following conditions are met at the same time:
- 1The owner has obtained all necessary permits and approvals required by law (rezoning bylaw adopted, development permit issued).
- 2The owner intends in good faith to convert all or a significant part of the park to a non-residential use or a residential use other than a manufactured home park.
Critical procedural rules
- The notice must be on the approved RTB-31 form, or it is not effective.
- The effective date must fall no earlier than 12 months after the tenant receives the notice.
- The notice cannot be served until rezoning is complete. The 12-month clock cannot start until permits are in hand.
That means 18 months or more before a single tenant receives notice, then 12 more months before the park is empty. Holding costs run the whole time.
Compensation framework: three tiers
The compensation framework set by the Act and its regulation operates in three layers. A complete redevelopment budget has to include all three.
Tier 1, base: $20,000 per tenancy
Payable on or before the effective date of tenancy termination. Set by regulation in June 2018, replacing the prior formula of 12 months' pad rent. For a park with 100 tenancies under the MHPTA, this represents $2 million up front, before construction. A pad with no tenancy carries no payment.
Tier 2, immovable home: BC Assessment top-up
If the tenant cannot get the permits to move the home, or cannot move it to another site within a reasonable distance, and owes no tax on it, the tenant can apply to the RTB for the amount by which its assessed value exceeds $20,000. On a home assessed at $150,000, an order would bring total compensation to $150,000.
Tier 3, no steps taken: $5,000 or 12 months' rent
If steps have not been taken to accomplish the stated purpose within a reasonable period after the notice takes effect, the landlord owes the greater of $5,000 or 12 months' pad rent, unless the RTB excuses it for extenuating circumstances. Tenants have 15 days to dispute the notice itself. RTB jurisdiction is capped, but Section 37.1 (Bill 14, 2024) now adds statutory offence exposure on top.
What changed in 2023 to 2025
The rules around a closure have moved since late 2023, and not all in one direction. Any redevelopment underwriting done before then needs a second look. The relevant changes:
Eliminated public hearings on residential rezonings consistent with the OCP where residential uses comprise 50% or more of gross floor area. OCP amendments still require full public hearings.
Let councils require notice, compensation, relocation help and a right of first refusal when an owner demolishes a building containing rental units, under Community Charter sections 63.1 to 63.3. Surrey's and Maple Ridge's bylaws under it exclude property governed by the MHPTA.
Added Section 37.1 to the MHPTA. A landlord must not give notice to end a tenancy unless the grounds applied, or the landlord reasonably believed they did. A breach is an offence with a fine of up to $5,000, and the RTB can also impose an administrative penalty of up to $5,000.
Replaced Part 6 of the Manufactured Home Park Tenancy Regulation, which governs personal property left behind: a 30 day minimum storage period and a duty of reasonable care. Relevant when a closing park has homes or belongings left on site.
Municipal layer: the floor, not the ceiling
The provincial MHPTA establishes minimum standards. BC municipalities increasingly adopt their own park redevelopment policies. Check the instrument before you rely on it. Bill 16 lets councils require compensation when an owner demolishes a building containing rental units, and the tenant protection bylaws adopted under it can exclude manufactured home parks outright: Surrey's and Maple Ridge's both do. The park-specific policy is usually a separate document, applied through a rezoning or permit rather than enforced as a bylaw.
| Municipality | Policy or bylaw | Key requirements | Notable feature |
|---|---|---|---|
| Surrey | City Policy O-34A, Manufactured Home Park Redevelopment and Strata Conversion Policy, revised 27 July 2015 | The developer prepares an affordable housing program for all residents from five options, including compensation based on assessed value, in addition to provincial requirements | Names no dollar figures, and Surrey's own guide says it is not a law. Tenant Protection Bylaw No. 21788 does not apply to parks: section 5(a) excludes property governed by the MHPTA |
| Coquitlam | Mobile Home Park Redevelopment Tenant Assistance Policy | A relocation assistance program submitted with the development application, with components that may include a payment equal to the home's assessed value on top of the MHPTA amount | UBCM asked the province to amend the MHPTA along these lines |
| Nanaimo | Manufactured Home Community Relocation Assistance Policy, approved 17 November 2025 | Compensation at least equal to assessed or appraised value, a quarter payable within 30 days of rezoning | Amended 15 December 2025 to add a further 25% within 180 days of rezoning |
| West Kelowna | Policy 0008, approved 16 September 2025 | Hard dollar figures, a rent test, a mandatory section 219 covenant and relocation support. A home owner gets the greater of appraised value, BC Assessment value or the MHPTA amount if the home is disposed of, or the MHPTA amount if it is moved, and the applicant pays for the move. Everything else stacks on the provincial minimum | Replaced a policy that had stood since 2008 |
Negotiated Surrey settlements have run well above the statutory $20,000 floor, but they are developer offers rather than a municipal tariff, and they vary by park. Underwrite the $20,000 floor, any section 44.1 top-up on homes that cannot be moved, and whatever the local council policy adds beyond those amounts. Treat anything above that as a negotiation.
Real-world cases
Four BC precedents worth knowing:
Green Tree Estates, Fleetwood, Surrey (2018)
Roughly 80 homes cleared for 137 townhouses. The developer told council every resident had agreed to sell at an independent appraisal plus a $20,000 bonus, and estimated $11 million in compensation. Some took $10,000 more to leave by 13 March 2019, and demolition was under way while eight or nine residents still lived on site. The figure often quoted, up to $1,500 a month for life, was offered in May 2019 at West Villa Estates next door: a developer's offer, not a bylaw.
King George MHPs, Surrey (2018)
All 81 residents signed agreements to sell, making way for 328 homes on a 3.8 hectare site along the light rail line planned in 2018. The options were selling the home to the developer, a paid relocation, or up to $700 a month for life plus moving expenses, and every tenant was also to receive 12 months' rent.
Shady Acres, West Kelowna (2024 to 2025)
Council deferred the rezoning more than once over where displaced residents would go, and gave third reading only after confirming the remaining owners would be eligible for compensation. West Kelowna replaced its 2008 park redevelopment policy with Policy 0008 in September 2025.
Crescent Heights, Revelstoke (2018 to 2019)
The owner served notice weeks before the 2018 rules brought in the $20,000 payment, and said the plan was bare ground, so there was no rezoning for the city's policy to act on. Six tenants disputed the notice at the RTB in 2018 and lost, and had to leave by 31 May 2019. The owner offered 24 months' pad rent, 12 more than the old rules required.
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The five-phase redevelopment roadmap
Every redevelopment in BC moves through the same five phases. The order matters because the legal sequence is rigid: the rezoning bylaw must be adopted and the development permit must be issued before tenant notices can be served. The 12-month displacement clock cannot start until that point.
Commission a highest and best use appraisal, build the preliminary pro forma, and account for tenant compensation ($20,000 minimum per tenancy, often far more under municipal redevelopment policies and negotiated packages), holding costs through the rezoning and permitting timeline, professional fees, environmental remediation and construction.
Engage the municipality, secure OCP alignment (or pursue an OCP amendment with a full public hearing), file the rezoning application and work through council readings. A tenant relocation strategy is usually a condition of rezoning approval.
The RTB-31 twelve-month notice can only be served after the rezoning bylaw is adopted and the development permit is issued. Each notice is served individually, the compensation is paid on or before the effective date, and any commitments secured under a municipal redevelopment policy run in parallel.
After tenants have vacated, the site needs environmental remediation (heating oil tanks, septic decommissioning, contamination assessment), demolition of infrastructure (water and sewer mains, electrical, roads) and tree clearing.
Building permits, civil construction, vertical construction. The total timeline from feasibility to completed redevelopment is typically four to seven years, with the variation driven by the municipality and the complexity of the rezoning.
Strategic takeaways
Permits-before-notice is the most consequential constraint
The 12-month displacement clock cannot start until rezoning and all permits are fully secured. In practice this means two and a half years or more of holding costs before the notices take effect. Underwrite the holding cost line carefully.
Negotiated compensation runs far beyond statutory minimums
The $20,000 base is a floor, not a budget figure. Negotiated settlements have moved toward full BC Assessment value and beyond: at Crispen Bays in 2022 the developer offered double-wide owners $300,000, and one single-wide owner $250,000. Those were developer offers, so do not budget from them as though a municipality could impose them. The policies that do tie compensation to appraised or assessed value are council policies in cities such as Nanaimo, Maple Ridge and Mission, and they apply through a rezoning or permit. The Lower Mainland page sets out the Maple Ridge and Mission versions.
The reserve-land gap remains unresolved
Parks on First Nations reserve land fall entirely outside the MHPTA. Residents in those parks have a different, and often less protected, set of rights, and redevelopment underwriting on reserve-land parks works under a different framework. Consult a lawyer with reserve-land experience.
Generosity and community benefit drive approvals
In contested rezonings, council decisions increasingly turn on the perceived adequacy of the relocation package and community-benefit contributions. Owners and developers who offer above-floor compensation typically receive faster approvals. Those who do the minimum tend to experience the longest, most contested rezoning processes.
Where I can help
Whether you are a long-time owner thinking about exit options, a developer evaluating an acquisition, or an investor underwriting redevelopment optionality on a stabilized park, the right early-stage analysis can save years of timeline and meaningful capital. I work on both sides of the table on BC park redevelopments and I am happy to discuss a specific site.
If you are considering selling rather than redeveloping, the Seller's guide walks through how BC parks are priced and what a clean sale looks like.