The Regulation organises around several core regulatory concepts that expand the Act’s operational detail. Those concepts are registration information, disclosure and comparison documents, site-agreement content and prohibited terms, sale and selling-authority parameters, permissible rent-increase bases, and park-owner operational duties regarding emergency planning and records.

Registration information, as prescribed in s 2A, focuses on pre-operational transparency. The park owner must supply to the regulator the development approvals for planning and construction that are required under the Planning Act 2016 and that have been obtained by the park owner (s 2A(a)). The regulation also requires disclosure whether the park will include accommodation other than owner-occupied manufactured homes, with examples expressly identified (caravans, holiday rentals, residential premises under residential tenancy agreements) (s 2A(b)). The park owner must also disclose other residential parks they own, provide template instruments used or to be used as site agreement templates or sale agreements for homes in the park, and estimate proposed site rent or a range for the first year of operation (s 2A(c)-(e)). This concept is one of prospective transparency for the regulator and potential home owners.

Disclosure and the residential park register are specified in s 2B and s 2D. The register must contain the same registration materials filed under s 2A, the comparison document or its information, and whether the park has commenced operation and the commencement date (s 2B). The comparison document’s required particulars are linked to schedule 1 by s 2D, so that comparison documents will follow standardised content, although the schedule text is not reproduced here.

Site agreements are a central focal point. The Regulation makes park rules automatically part of a site agreement (s 2E(2)), and prescribes specific clauses that must appear in any site agreement (s 2E(3)-(8)). Those required clauses address utilities supplied and whether included in site rent, availability and inclusion of landline telephone and internet services, rules for ‘for sale’ signage, the park owner’s right to require home repositioning, clearly allocated maintenance responsibilities for external site features, and whether home owners can sub-rent the site temporarily (s 2E).

Complementing mandatory content is an extensive prohibition of specific “special terms” in site agreements, set out at s 3. The prohibited list targets terms that are misleading about rent increases, opaque about additional charges, that improperly transfer legal obligations (consent requirements that prevent compliance with law), that require unnecessary certificates, that restrict internal alterations, that overreach the park owner’s consent powers, or that shift liability away from the park owner for their negligence or breach. The prohibition also targets clauses that impose monetary penalties, prevent rent reduction, or attempt to exclude the application of legislation (s 3). The regulation thus frames the site agreement as a constrained private contract subject to specified public-order limits.

Sale mechanics are adjusted by prescribing disclosure materials for sale agreements (s 3B) and by limiting the selling-authority fee an owner may charge under s 61 of the Act. The prescribed maximum fee equals 5% of sale price up to $18,000, and $900 plus 2.5% of the portion over $18,000 where the sale price is higher (s 4). The Regulation therefore standardises the maximum commission or fee that can be claimed under the Act’s selling-authority mechanism.

Rent variation is operationalised through s 4A, which prescribes a menu of mathematical bases for calculating site rent increases. These bases include CPI-based multipliers, stated percentages or dollar amounts, apportionments of council rates increases, maxima/minima of two specified bases (including specific caps of 3.5% and 2.5% in examples), sums of two bases, and CPI plus 1% (s 4A). The Regulation defers to the Act for any statutory restrictions on increasing site rent (see reference to s 69B of the Act in s 4A).

Operational obligations for park owners are narrow but specific: the emergency plan must specify evacuation locations (s 5), park owners must ensure written records of each emergency-procedure test are kept at the park (s 6) with a stipulated penalty for breach, and the emergency plan must be displayed on the park noticeboard for any period during which a home owner or their tenant resides in the park (s 7). These obligations create low-frequency but tangible ongoing compliance tasks for park owners and managers.

Collectively, the Regulation trades off contract autonomy for standardised consumer protection and administrative transparency, while leaving enforcement architecture and many substantive duties to the Act. The Regulation repeatedly cross-references the Act and other statutes, making the Act the operative centre for dispute resolution and enforcement beyond the few specified penalties.

Primary subjects of the Regulation are residential park owners, park managers acting on their behalf, home owners (owners of manufactured homes whose homes are positioned in parks), prospective buyers and sellers of manufactured homes in parks, tenants of home owners, and the regulator that administers the Act’s registration and disclosure framework.

Park owners bear multiple affirmative duties under the Regulation:

• They must provide prescribed registration information when applying to register a park, including development approvals obtained under the Planning Act 2016, templates for site and sale agreements, details of other residential parks they own, and an estimate of first-year site rent (s 2A). The obligation to supply approvals is framed as “required under the Planning Act 2016, and obtained by the park owner” (s 2A(a)), which ties the park owner’s regulatory burden to their planning permissions.
• They must ensure that the residential park register contains specified items; specifically, the registration materials from s 2A, the comparison document, and whether and when the park started operating (s 2B).
• They must include specific mandatory terms in site agreements and must not include certain prohibited special terms (s 2E, s 3).
• They must keep written records of emergency procedure tests at the park (s 6), display the park emergency plan on the notice board for the period residents occupy the park (s 7), and include the evacuation place in their emergency plan (s 5). Failure to keep written records attracts a maximum penalty (s 6).

Home owners are affected in multiple ways:

• Site agreements must contain specific disclosures and cannot contain prohibited special terms that would shift liability, impose penalties, or mislead about rent increases (s 2E, s 3). That shapes the contractual terms home owners will rely upon.
• Home owners or tenants will see the emergency plan displayed for their period of residence (s 7) and can expect to find records of emergency tests kept at the park (s 6).
• Rights to temporarily rent a site are governed by whether the site agreement permits it; the Regulation requires the site agreement to state whether temporary site-renting is allowed (s 2E(8)).

Prospective buyers and sellers of manufactured homes are affected by:

• The requirement that park owners provide template instruments and the prescribed sale-agreement information (s 2A(d), s 3B), and the capped fee for selling authority set by the Regulation (s 4). The cap constrains fees that may be charged under the Act’s selling-authority mechanism.
• Prohibitions on park-owner pre-emptive purchase rights in site agreements mean sellers should expect the contractual environment to prohibit park-owner first-rights to buy before open offers are made (s 3(i)).

Park managers acting for park owners will need to implement the operational requirements for site agreements, emergency-plan display, record-keeping, website maintenance (or reliance on the small-park exemption), and registration inputs (s 2C, s 2E, s 5-7).

The regulator is affected because the register must contain the prescribed items (s 2B), and the regulator will receive the prescribed registration content, comparison documents and templates (s 2A, s 2D). The Regulation thereby increases the administrative information flows into the registration and disclosure system managed under the Act.

Other law-makers and local authorities are indirectly affected insofar as the Regulation requires park owners to file any development approvals required and obtained under the Planning Act 2016 (s 2A(a)), and ties the rent-increase permissible bases to a “relevant rates increase” defined against rate notices issued under the City of Brisbane Act 2010 or the Local Government Act 2009 (s 4A).

Who pays and who decides:

• Park owners pay most compliance costs for registration, disclosure, emergency planning and record-keeping, and they decide what to include in site agreements subject to the Regulation’s mandatory and prohibited matter (s 2A, s 2E, s 3).
• Sellers and buyers of homes are subject to prescribed sale-agreement information and the selling-authority fee cap; the Regulation prescribes the maximum amount but does not in the text define which party pays the fee , that allocation is for the Act or commercial agreement to specify (s 4).
• The regulator decides whether registration materials meet statutory requirements and holds the register entries (s 2B). The Regulation prescribes the information the regulator must receive, thereby constraining the regulator’s intake.

Indirect costs fall on home owners if park owners pass through compliance costs via site rent or other charges, noting the Regulation specifically limits certain pass-throughs by dictating transparency and banning misleading rent-calculation terms (s 3).

The Regulation creates or clarifies specific duties for park owners and specific rights (or protections) for home owners and prospective buyers and sellers. These duties and rights are expressed either as mandatory content obligations, prohibited contractual clauses, prescribed disclosure requirements, or operational obligations with a stated penalty for breach.

Duties of park owners:

• Registration disclosure duties: When applying to register a residential park, a park owner must provide the development approvals required and obtained under the Planning Act 2016, disclose whether other accommodation types will be offered, provide details of any other residential parks owned, include a copy of instrument templates for site agreements and sale agreements used or to be used, and provide an estimate of proposed site rent or range payable in the first year (s 2A). The park owner is the declarant of this information.
• Register maintenance duties: Information from the registration application must go on the residential park register, along with the comparison document or its information, and whether and when the park has started operating (s 2B).
• Website maintenance duty with exemption: The Act requires parks to maintain a website; the Regulation exempts parks that have not more than 15 sites from that requirement (s 2C).
• Site agreement content duties: Site agreements must state that park rules are taken to be terms of the site agreement (s 2E(2)). They must also identify utilities supplied to the site and whether those utilities are included in the site rent, state whether landline telephone and internet services are available and whether they are included in site rent, specify any requirements related to the placement of a ‘for sale’ sign (if placement is provided for), state whether the park owner may require repositioning of the home and set out maintenance obligations for external site features (for example gardens, lawns, trees, retaining walls), and state whether temporary renting of the site by a home owner is permitted (s 2E(3)-(8)).
• Emergency plan and records duties: The emergency plan must specify an evacuation place (s 5). The park owner must keep a written record of each emergency-procedure test at the park (s 6). The emergency plan must be displayed on the notice board for any period during which a home owner, or a tenant of a home owner, resides in the park (s 7).

Prohibited terms in site agreements (rights or protections for home owners):

• The Regulation lists prohibited special terms that cannot validly appear in a site agreement (s 3). These include clauses that misrepresent how rent increases are calculated (for example stating an increase is CPI-based while adding an extra charge), clauses that require payment of other charges without full explanation, clauses requiring park-owner consent to a home owner complying with legal obligations, and clauses that prevent a seller’s site agreement ending on assignment to a buyer until a new agreement is entered by the buyer (s 3(a)-(d)).
• Other prohibited terms include requiring a current building inspection certificate, restricting internal alterations not visible externally, allowing park-owner consent powers contrary to s 98 of the Act, indemnity clauses protecting the park owner for loss not caused by the home owner, pre-emptive purchase rights or rights to make a final offer after others have had the opportunity to buy, clauses that prevent site rent being reduced following reductions in standards or withdrawal of communal facilities, clauses disclaiming site suitability, clauses permitting unreasonable exclusion of persons, clauses appointing the park owner as attorney, clauses imposing monetary penalties on the home owner, clauses removing park-owner liability for negligence, clauses purporting to exclude legislation unless the legislation permits it, and clauses preventing the park owner from reducing the site rent for any reason (s 3(e)-(s)).
• The Regulation therefore explicitly protects home owners from a listed set of potentially onerous or unfair contractual terms.

Sale and selling-authority provisions:

• The Regulation prescribes additional information required in disclosure documents (s 3A) and in sale agreements (s 3B), cross-referencing schedule 2 and schedule 3 respectively (s 3A, s 3B). The text of those schedules is not included here, but the Regulation makes them mandatory references.
• The Regulation prescribes the maximum fee under a selling authority created under s 61 of the Act, being 5% for sale prices up to $18,000, or $900 plus 2.5% of the excess where sale price exceeds $18,000 (s 4). The Regulation thus creates a statutory cap on that fee.

Rent variation duties and permissible bases:

• For the Act’s mechanism to vary site rent, the Regulation prescribes a range of acceptable bases to calculate increases, with specific arithmetic forms including CPI multipliers, stated percentages, stated dollar amounts, apportionment of relevant rates increases, greater or lesser of two bases, sums of two bases, and CPI plus 1% (s 4A). The Regulation defers to s 69B of the Act for restrictions on increasing site rent, but otherwise allows a menu of bases to be specified in notices or agreements.

Enforcement and penalties:

• The Regulation itself prescribes a penalty only for the duty to keep written records of emergency-procedure tests, setting a maximum of 20 penalty units for non-compliance (s 6). For other compliance failures, the Act’s enforcement and remedy provisions will apply; the Regulation references Act sections (for example s 18A, s 18C, s 25) but does not restate Act enforcement terms.

Operationally, the Regulation translates principles of transparency and consumer protection from high-level Act provisions into concrete documentary and contractual requirements. Who decides what information is provided remains the park owner for registration and the parties to site and sale agreements, but their freedom is constrained by the Regulation’s mandatory items and prohibited terms.

The Regulation contains a narrowly defined monetary penalty and otherwise relies on the Act for enforcement mechanisms referenced throughout. The only express penalty set in the Regulation is in s 6: a park owner who fails to ensure that a written record of each emergency-procedure test for the park is kept at the park faces a maximum penalty of 20 penalty units. The Regulation also defines “emergency procedure test” as a test of an emergency procedure provided for in the park’s emergency plan (s 6).

For other compliance obligations prescribed by the Regulation , for example failure to include required terms in a site agreement (s 2E), failure to provide the information required for registration (s 2A), failure to populate the residential park register with required information (s 2B), use of prohibited special terms in site agreements (s 3), failure to meet disclosure or sale-agreement information requirements (s 3A, s 3B), or non-observance of the prescribed rent-variation bases (s 4A) , the Regulation does not set penalties itself. Instead, those enforcement powers and sanctions, if any, lie under the Act. The Regulation repeatedly references the Act’s sections and is designed to be read in tandem with the Act, so enforcement is expected to follow the Act’s framework (for example references in s 2A to the Act’s s 18A, in s 2B to s 18C, in s 2C to s 18G, and site-agreement references to s 25 of the Act). The Regulation therefore prescribes substantive requirements and leaves the Act to prescribe remedies and enforcement pathways.

Because the Regulation limits or prescribes particular contractual terms, an affected party may have civil remedies under contract law and the Act where a prohibited term is attempted to be enforced. The Regulation’s prohibition list in s 3 can be used as a basis to argue a term is void, unenforceable, or contrary to statutory requirements, but the Regulation itself does not set out the procedural route to obtain such relief. Practitioners must therefore consult the Act for the specific enforcement mechanisms, including administrative sanctions, dispute resolution procedures, or tribunal remedies that the Act provides for breaches of the Act or regulation.

Regulatory compliance obligations create administrative tasks for regulators as well. The residential park register must contain prescribed items (s 2B), which increases the regulator’s information intake and monitoring load. The Regulation’s small number of express penalties suggests that the legislature intended the Act to retain primary enforcement functions, with the Regulation standardising inputs and behaviours for compliance rather than adding a wide penalty schedule.

Finally, because the Regulation prescribes maximum selling-authority fees (s 4) and prohibits certain contractual terms (s 3), a contractual dispute over an allegedly excessive fee or prohibited clause could lead to tribunal or court proceedings under the Act or ordinary contract law. The Regulation, however, does not specify a dispute resolution mechanism for such matters; the Act must be consulted for the available enforcement processes.

The Regulation embeds cross-references to the Act and to a number of external statutes, thereby operating as a subordinate, implementing instrument within a broader legislative ecosystem. It must be read alongside the Act from which it takes authority and it explicitly references at least three other statutes for substantive content or definitional purposes.

Linkage to the Act

• The Regulation is explicitly framed as prescribing material required by named sections of the Act. For instance, it prescribes information required for an application to register a residential park under s 18A of the Act (s 2A), information to be included in the residential park register under s 18C of the Act (s 2B), an exemption under s 18G of the Act from the website requirement (s 2C), details for the comparison document under s 18H (s 2D), requirements for site agreements under s 25 (s 2E), particular types of special terms prohibited under s 25B (s 3), obligations for disclosure documents in the Act’s schedule 1 (s 3A), sale-agreement information under s 56B (s 3B), maximum selling-authority fee under s 61 (s 4), bases for site rent increases under s 69A (s 4A), and emergency-plan matters under s 86A and s 89 (s 5, s 7). The Regulation therefore operates solely as an implementation instrument for Act provisions; enforcement and many rights remain defined in the Act.

Interaction with planning and local government law

• The Regulation requires park owners to supply copies of development approvals that are required under the Planning Act 2016 and that the park owner has obtained (s 2A(a)). This creates a direct documentary bridge between a park’s planning approvals and its registration under the Act, and makes the availability of planning approvals a gating matter for registration information.
• The Regulation defines “rate notice” by reference to regulations made under the City of Brisbane Act 2010 and the Local Government Act 2009 for purposes of calculating “relevant rates increase” in s 4A. The calculation of permissible site rent increases can therefore be anchored to the actual council rates levied under local government frameworks, linking monetary rent adjustment mechanisms to local-government fiscal instruments (s 4A).

Relationship with contract law

• The Regulation prescribes mandatory terms for site agreements and prohibits specific “special terms”. Those prescriptions do not themselves create contract law remedies, but they limit the parties’ freedom to contract and will be relevant to contract interpretation, invalidity, or unenforceability claims. For example, if a site agreement purported to impose a monetary penalty on a home owner in breach, s 3 prevents such a term as a prohibited special term. The remedy for enforcement of a prohibited term will usually require reference to the Act and standard contractual remedies.

Interface with emergency management obligations

• The Regulation requires the emergency plan to state an evacuation place (s 5), requires that plan to be displayed on the notice board for the residence period (s 7), and requires records of emergency procedure tests to be kept at the park (s 6). These obligations intersect conceptually with broader public-safety and emergency-response frameworks, but the Regulation does not reference other emergency-management statutes. Obligations will sit alongside any local emergency-management schemes or local council requirements.

Administrative law and information management

• By prescribing what must be included in the residential park register (s 2B), and the documentation to be supplied at registration (s 2A), the Regulation increases the information that the regulator must collect, hold and potentially publish. This raises administrative obligations in relation to record-keeping, privacy and disclosure that are not detailed in the Regulation but flow from general administrative law and privacy statutory frameworks.

Overall, the Regulation is designed to be read, applied and enforced together with the Act, with specific operational ties to the Planning Act 2016 and local government rate instruments. For any enforcement, remedy or interpretive question, the Act should be consulted since the Regulation prescribes detail but does not supplant the Act’s primary legal architecture.

The text of the Regulation contains internal amendment and insertion notes that document a modest sequence of changes and renumberings since the instrument’s original commencement. The in-text notes must be used as the authoritative amendment trace available in this instrument. Key chronological markers and changes recorded in the instrument text are as follows.

Commencement

• The Regulation provides its commencement in s 2: the instrument, other than section 3, commenced on 1 September 2017, while section 3 commenced on 1 October 2017 (s 2). This establishes the original operational dates for the Regulation’s core provisions.

Insertions and renumberings reflected in the text

• Sections s 2A and s 2B and s 2C and s 2D are annotated as inserted by 2024 subordinate legislation: each shows the note “s 2A ins 2024 SL No. 238 s 4”, and corresponding notes for s 2B, s 2C, s 2D. That indicates the 2024 amending instrument SL No. 238 (s 4) introduced these sections or materially amended them (s 2A-2D).
• Several sections show insertions or renumberings effected by 2025 subordinate legislation. For example, s 2E contains the note “s 2E ins 2025 SL No. 119 s 6”, while s 3A and s 3B are marked “ins 2025 SL No. 119 s 7” and “ins 2025 SL No. 119 s 8” respectively. Section 4A carries the note “s 4A ins 2025 SL No. 119 s 9”. These notes indicate a 2025 amending instrument SL No. 119 added or materially changed those provisions.
• Renumberings from a 2019 instrument are noted in several sections. For instance, s 5 includes the note “s 5 (prev s 4A) ins 2019 SL No. 82 s 4 renum 2019 SL No. 82 s 5”; s 6 and s 7 carry similar renumbering and insertion notes referencing 2019 SL No. 82. These notes show that earlier numbering was reorganised by the 2019 instrument.
• Section 8 shows a removal note: “om 2025 SL No. 119 s 11”, indicating the omission of that provision by SL No. 119 in 2025.

Transitional references

• Section 9 confirms that references in documents to the Manufactured Homes (Residential Parks) Regulation 2003 may, if the context permits, be taken to be references to this Regulation (s 9). That establishes the Regulation as the successor to the 2003 instrument and clarifies continuity in references.

Practical reading of the amendment notes

• The instrument’s insertion and renumbering annotations provide the only explicit amendment history present here. They show an initial commencement in 2017, renumbering and insertions in 2019, and further substantive insertions and omissions by amending instruments in 2024 and 2025. The 2024 amending instrument added registration and register-prescription material (s 2A-2D). The 2025 amending instrument added detailed site-agreement requirements (s 2E), new disclosure and sale-agreement content requirements (s 3A, s 3B), and expanded rent-variation bases (s 4A), and omitted an earlier s 8.

Limitations of the recorded history

• The text provides only internal legislative annotation markers and does not reproduce the amending instruments themselves. The in-text notes identify which subordinate legislation inserted or amended particular provisions and the clause numbers of those amending instruments, but they do not reproduce explanatory memoranda, select committee reports, or the amending instruments’ full text. Practitioners requiring the full legislative history, including explanatory materials and commencement dates for the 2024 and 2025 amendments beyond the insertion references, should obtain the full amending instruments referenced (SL No. 238 of 2024 and SL No. 119 of 2025) and any contemporaneous regulatory impact statements or explanatory notes.

In sum, the Regulation was commenced in 2017, renumbered in 2019, and materially augmented by amending subordinate legislation in 2024 and 2025, principally adding registration, site-agreement, disclosure, sale and rent-variation detail.

The Regulation text supplied contains no references to judicial decisions, tribunal determinations, or litigation outcomes. It contains internal references to the Act, to schedules and to subordinate legislation insertions and omissions, but it does not record any case law, appeals, or precedential decisions. The instrument names no cases and provides no extracts from judgments.

Given the absence of litigation references in this text, two practical points follow for practitioners:

• Any analysis of how the Regulation is being interpreted, enforced or litigated must be sourced from judicial and tribunal databases, and from decisions under the Act, because this Regulation document alone does not record or summarise adjudicative outcomes.
• Where parties dispute the interpretation or application of prescribed items (for example the meaning of “relevant rates increase” in s 4A, whether a particular contract term falls into the prohibited list in s 3, or what constitutes adequate disclosure under s 2A or s 3A), the Act’s dispute resolution and enforcement mechanisms will be the procedural path for adjudication. The Regulation contains no procedural or remedial text beyond the 20 penalty units in s 6.

Practitioners should therefore treat this Regulation as a source of statutory prescription that may be litigated, but without precedential guidance embedded in the instrument itself. To understand how courts or tribunals have applied these provisions, one must search for decisions referring to the Act and to these regulatory provisions in the relevant courts and tribunals since the Regulation’s commencement and its subsequent amendments.

The Regulation contains a number of concrete traps for the unwary, both for park owners drafting documents and for home owners and sellers relying on contractual entitlements. These “gotchas” derive from the interaction of mandatory wording, prohibited terms, cross-references to the Act, and the narrow scope of penalties in the Regulation itself. Below are practical items to watch for, tied directly to the Regulation’s provisions.

1. Registration disclosure tied to Planning Act approvals (s 2A(a))

• The Regulation requires park owners to provide any development approvals that are required under the Planning Act 2016 and that have been obtained by the park owner. A park owner who lacks the relevant approvals may thereby be unable to provide the prescribed registration material, which could delay registration or attract regulatory scrutiny. The requirement also creates a documentary link between planning and registration. Don’t assume registration can proceed without assembling the correct approvals.

2. Small-park website exemption is numeric and narrow (s 2C)

• The Regulation exempts residential parks with not more than 15 sites from the Act’s website requirement. That exemption is binary and relies on an objective site-count. Park owners should not assume partial exemptions or alternative thresholds apply. Counting the number of sites and documenting that count is therefore a compliance point.

3. Mandatory inclusion of park rules as site-agreement terms (s 2E(2))

• The Regulation states park rules are taken to be included as terms of the site agreement. Park owners must ensure park rules comply with the Act and the Regulation because those rules will have contractual force. Conversely, home owners should inspect park rules closely because they will form part of the site agreement whether or not separately signed.

4. Site-agreement content obligations are specific (s 2E(3)-(8))

• Site agreements must not only identify utilities supplied, they must state which utilities are included in site rent. They must declare whether landline and internet services are available and whether those services are included in rent. Failure to state these particulars is a breach of the prescribed content requirements. The Regulation also requires explicit statement regarding whether the park owner may require the home owner to reposition a home, and the allocation of maintenance responsibilities for external features. Drafting that omits these clauses or is ambiguous risks non-compliance and subsequent dispute.

5. Prohibition on certain special terms is extensive and detailed (s 3)

• The s 3 list includes many specific and potentially subtle prohibitions. Examples: a clause purporting to calculate rent increases by reference to CPI but adding an additional charge will be a prohibited misleading term (s 3(a)). A clause that requires the home owner to secure park-owner consent before complying with a legal obligation will be prohibited (s 3(c)). An indemnity that attempts to shift liability for park-owner negligence is prohibited (s 3(h),(r)). A clause imposing monetary penalties on home owners is prohibited (s 3(q)). These prohibitions can invalidate or make unenforceable common contractual approaches if the drafting is careless.

6. Sale-related caps and disclosure specifics (s 3B, s 4)

• The Regulation prescribes the information required in sale agreements by schedule 3 (s 3B) and caps selling-authority fees by formula (s 4). Practitioners must ensure sale-agreement documentation includes the prescribed schedule items and that any selling-authority fee charged does not exceed the capped formula. The Regulation does not state who pays the fee; consult the Act or commercial agreements for allocation.

7. Rent-increase bases may be legally prescribed in notices but constrained by the Act (s 4A)

• The Regulation provides a menu of calculation bases for site rent increases, including CPI-based increases, fixed percentages, fixed dollar amounts, apportionment of rates increases, and combinations and comparative maxima/minima. However s 4A explicitly references s 69B of the Act for restrictions on increasing site rent. Practitioners must check both the Act and the Regulation when drafting rent-increase notices. Also note that “relevant rates increase” is defined in terms of council rate notices under other Acts; accurate apportionment requires obtaining those rate notices (s 4A).

8. Ambiguity about who pays certain fees and charges

• The Regulation prescribes maximum fees and requires disclosure of utilities included in rent, but it does not allocate responsibility for who pays certain compliance costs or the selling-authority fee. That allocation may be governed by the Act or by separate contract terms; the Regulation does not resolve that ambiguity.

9. Narrow penalty schedule within the Regulation (s 6)

• The Regulation provides an explicit penalty only for failing to keep written records of emergency-procedure tests (20 penalty units). Other breaches of the Regulation must be remedied under the Act. Parties should not assume the Regulation itself provides an enforcement pathway beyond that single penalty.

10. References to external schedules and provisions not included in the instrument text

• Several provisions refer to schedules (s 2D refers to schedule 1; s 3A refers to schedule 2; s 3B refers to schedule 3) or to sections of the Act (many cross-references). The schedules’ actual text is not reproduced here. The absence of the schedule text in this copy may create a compliance gap unless the full Regulation with schedules is consulted.

These “gotchas” emphasise the need for careful document drafting, precise counting and documentation of park sites, accurate linkage to planning approvals and local government rate notices, and care in drafting site agreements to avoid falling foul of the Regulation’s detailed prohibition list.

This section provides step-by-step, source-grounded actions that park owners, managers, sellers and advisors should follow to comply with the Regulation. Each step cites the relevant regulatory provision.

1. Registration and the residential park register (s 2A, s 2B)

• Before applying to register a park, assemble copies of all development approvals required by the Planning Act 2016 and obtained by the park owner, and include these with the registration application (s 2A(a)). Ensure the approvals are complete and correspond to the park as proposed.
• Prepare a statement identifying whether the park will contain accommodation types other than owner-occupied manufactured homes, and if so, list those types (examples provided include caravans, holiday rentals, residential premises under residential tenancy agreements) (s 2A(b)).
• List any other residential parks owned by the park owner and include details in the application (s 2A(c)).
• Provide copies of template instruments you use or will use for site agreements and for sale agreements for manufactured homes in the park (s 2A(d)). Ensure those templates meet the Regulation’s site-agreement content requirements and avoid prohibited special terms (s 2E, s 3).
• Include an estimate of the proposed site rent or a range of proposed site rent for the first year (s 2A(e)). Base this estimate on a clear methodology, and retain underlying calculations because the same figure appears on the residential park register (s 2B).

2. Populate and maintain register information (s 2B)

• Ensure that the residential park register contains the registration information provided under s 2A, the comparison document or its contents, whether the park has started operating, and if so the date it started (s 2B(a)-(d)). Coordinate with the regulator to confirm the register entry was made and is accurate.

3. Website requirement and small-park exemption (s 2C)

• Determine the total number of sites. If the park has not more than 15 sites, confirm that the exemption from the website requirement applies and document your site-count justification (s 2C). If the park has more than 15 sites, prepare and maintain the website as required by the Act and ensure it contains the materials the Act mandates.

4. Prepare the comparison document and disclosure materials (s 2D, s 3A)

• Draft a comparison document following the details prescribed in schedule 1 as required by s 2D. Identify or obtain schedule 1 and ensure the comparison document includes all required items.
• For disclosure documents required under the Act’s schedule 1, include the additional information prescribed by schedule 2 as referenced in s 3A. Obtain schedule 2 to ensure full compliance.

5. Draft and review site agreements to meet mandatory content and avoid prohibited terms (s 2E, s 3)

• Ensure each site agreement contains an express statement that park rules are taken to be included as terms of the site agreement (s 2E(2)). Review park rules for legal compliance.
• Include explicit statements about utilities supplied to the site and which utilities (if any) are included in the site rent payable for that site (s 2E(3)). Keep clear records of which utilities are separately charged and how.
• State whether landline telephone service and internet service are available or accessible to the site; if available, state whether that service is included in the site rent (s 2E(4)).
• If the agreement permits a ‘for sale’ sign on the site, specify the requirements that apply to its placement (s 2E(5)), and ensure compliance with s 57 of the Act as referenced (see s 2E(5) cross-reference).
• State clearly whether the park owner may require the home owner to reposition the manufactured home and ensure any exercise of that power is consistent with the Act’s s 93 (s 2E(6)).
• Identify external site features the home owner must maintain and those the park owner will maintain (examples provided include gardens, lawns, trees, retaining walls) and document access arrangements for maintenance consistent with s 94 of the Act (s 2E(7)).
• State whether the home owner is allowed to rent the site temporarily to another person (s 2E(8)).
• Actively avoid including any of the prohibited special terms listed in s 3. Use a compliance checklist when drafting or reviewing agreements to ensure the agreement does not misstate rent-increase calculations, require unexplained charges, demand consent to comply with the law, impose building-inspection certificate requirements, restrict internal alterations, allow indemnities that shift park-owner negligence, grant park-owner pre-emptive buying rights, impose monetary penalties, exclude legislation, or prevent rent reductions (s 3(a)-(s)).

6. Sale agreements, disclosure and selling-authority fees (s 3B, s 4)

• For a sale of a manufactured home positioned on a site, include the information prescribed in schedule 3 as required by s 56B of the Act and prescribed in s 3B. Obtain schedule 3 and incorporate each item into the sale agreement form.
• If selling under a selling authority created by the Act, ensure any fee charged does not exceed the Regulation’s cap: 5% of the sale price if the sale price is not more than $18,000, or $900 plus 2.5% of the part of the sale price over $18,000 where the price exceeds $18,000 (s 4). Keep a calculation worksheet for audit or dispute purposes.

7. Calculate site rent increases using permitted bases and reference external rate notices where necessary (s 4A)

• When preparing a site-rent increase, select a permissible basis from s 4A, for example CPI-based multiplication, a stated percentage, a stated dollar amount, an apportionment of the park’s “relevant rates increase” among home owners, or combinations as permitted (s 4A(a)-(g)). Be explicit in notices which basis is being used and provide the arithmetic demonstration.
• If using the “relevant rates increase” basis, obtain the rate notices issued under the City of Brisbane Act 2010 or the Local Government Act 2009 and perform the apportionment across home owners for the 12-month comparison periods specified in s 4A. Maintain the rate notices and the apportionment formula as supporting documentation.
• Check s 69B of the Act for any statutory caps or procedural restrictions on when or how site rent may be increased; s 4A expressly notes that s 69B may restrict increases.

8. Emergency plan drafting, testing, record-keeping and display (s 5-7)

• Ensure the park emergency plan specifies the place to which home owners and other residents must evacuate in an emergency (s 5).
• Conduct emergency-procedure tests as provided in the emergency plan and maintain written records of each such test at the park location (s 6). Note that failing to keep these written records carries a maximum penalty of 20 penalty units.
• Display the emergency plan on the park notice board and ensure it remains displayed for any period a home owner or a tenant of a home owner resides in the park (s 7). Keep dated logs of display and any updates.

9. Administrative record-keeping and regulatory interface

• Maintain a master file of all registration materials, comparison documents, templates for site and sale agreements, rate-notice calculations, and emergency-test records. These materials will be important in interactions with the regulator and in any dispute.
• Coordinate with the regulator to verify that the residential park register accurately reflects the registration information, the comparison document, and operational status as required by s 2B.

10. Review and cross-reference the Act and schedules

• For matters where the Regulation cross-references the Act or external schedules (for example s 57, s 93, s 94, s 69B, schedule 1, schedule 2, schedule 3), review those provisions and schedules to ensure full legal and procedural compliance. The Regulation prescribes content but delegates enforcement mechanisms and some substantive limitations to the Act.

By following the steps above and retaining documentary support for each compliance decision, park owners, managers and practitioners can reduce the risk of administrative non-compliance and contractual dispute. When in doubt on enforcement consequences or interpretive issues, consult the Act and relevant tribunal or court decisions, since this Regulation prescribes detail but does not itself set out the full enforcement architecture.