Glossary of Terms For Manufactured Homes
Part 7-B
HCD
This acronym stands for California Department of Housing and Community Development.
HCD 413
This form was replace by HCD Form 433A in 1986. However if an MH unit had been converted to a fixture between 1980 and 1986, the building deparmtne should hav recorded a HCD Form 413 with the local county recorder's office by the building department to evidence the fact that the subject home had been converted to a fixture.
HCD Form 433A
This form replaced HCD Form 413. The building department inspector is required to record this form with the local counter recorder after a MH-unit has been converted to a fixture to the underlying real estate. The 433A give public notice that the home is now a ficture.
HCD Form 433C
A very special form that may only be recorded by an escrow agent. This form gives public notice that the Registered Owner elected to convert their home from personal property subject to Registration to a fixture improvement of the underlying real property.
This is the only exception when a MH unit can be converted to a fixture without being on a Foundation System. In order to qualify for conversion without being on a Foundation System, the escrow agent must certify to HCD that the subject home meets the requirements of 18555 of the Health and Safety Code.
The requirements are that the subject home must be sited in a mobilehome park, the park was or will be converted to resident-owned subdivision, cooperative, condominiumum or nonprofit corporation and the Registered Owner is a participant in the resident ownership of the park.
HCD Form 513C: Certificate of Occupancy
This form declares that the subject MH has been successfully installed onto a foundation system and converted to a fixture as a result of being legally attached to the underlying real property. This form is issued in the field at the moment the home's installation is deemed to have been completed.
HUD
U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.
HUD-Code home
A home meeting the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development's standards for new manufactured homes, known as the Manufactured Home Construction and Safety Standards. HUD has regulated the design and construction of manufactured homes, formerly known as mobilehomes since June 15, 1976 to a specific performance code.
This is called a preemptive code because it preempts all local building codes for these single-family dwellings. The Federal program includes the monitoring of third parties involved in the design review and inspection process, but excludes the actual installation of the homes.
Some states inspect every installation, while others transfer the responsibility to local jurisdictions or not at all. While there are some lenders that will finance a mobilehome built prior to June 15, 1976, homes financed with an FHA mortgage must be HUD Homes.
Every HUD home has a special label affixed on the exterior of the home indicating that the home has been designed, constructed, tested and inspected to comply with the stringent federal standards set forth in the code. No manufactured home may be shipped from the factory unless it complies with the HUD Code and receives a certification label from an independent third party inspector.
HUD Label/Tag
The tag is a 2x4" aluminum insignia plate that is attached to the lower rear corner of each transportable unit. The first three alpha characters letters identify the third party independent inspection agency (IPIA) that inspected the home while it was under construction. A series of 6-7 numbers follow the IPIA. While the numbers are generally sequential on multiple units, this is not a requirement. The HUD Label is essentially the Social Security Number of the manufactured home and will tell you the Manufacturer, the date of manufacture and where the home was shipped to. All FHA-insured loans will require proof of the HUD Label number. If a label is missing or unreadable, most lenders will accept an IBTS letter.
HUD Tags (Missing)
HUD does not reissue tags for manufactured homes. However, effective January 2007, you may request letters of label verification from the Institute for Building Technology and Safety (IBTS). The IBTS letter will cite the Manufacturer, the Date of Manufacture, the HUD numbers, the serial numbers and where the home was shipped. Most lenders will accept the IBTS letter as a replacement for the HUD label in order for a borrower to procure an FHA-insured loan.
IBTS (INSTITUTE FOR BUILDING TECHNOLOGY AND SAFETY)
IBTS reviews a portion of the designs that have been approved by third party design agencies, as well as assisting HUD in evaluating the performance of Design Approval Primary Inspection Agencies (DAPIAs). The DAPIAs approve manufactured home designs for compliance with the Federal Manufactured Home Construction and Safety Standards.
IBTS visits the headquarters of these agencies to perform periodic audits and to make recommendations to HUD on his findings. They also maintain an imaging system to input and retrieve hundreds of thousands of design documents received annually.
In addition, the IBTS maintains a system to input and retrieve technical correspondence on the standards and their enforcement. When HUD tags are missing, IBTS can often provide verification of the provenance of the manufactured home so it can qualify for FHA financing.
I-BEAM OR C-BEAM
A steel joist or girder with short flanges and a cross section formed like the letter I or C. The beams are an integral part of the manufactured home chassis and it is the location of where the support stanchions are placed.
IPIA (IN-HOUSE PRIMARY INSPECTION AGENCY)
The third party agency that inspects each manufactured home within the factory setting to make sure the construction standards comply with the national code. Click here to obtain a list of inspection agencies.
INSIGINIA/LABEL
HCD issued insignias until June 14, 1976. HUD began issuing labels on June 15, 1976. Both confirm that the manufactured home was constructed to standards in effect at the time it was built.
LASER LEVEL
On existing homes, a laser level is usually counter-indicated because they only work where there is a continuous line of sight. Generally existing piers, plumbing lines, ducting debris and tools are in the way. All leveling should be done on the chassis, not on the floor above.
LIVE LOADS
Those loads produced by the use and occupancy of the building or other structure and not including construction loads or environmental loads such as wind load, snow load, rain load, earthquake load, flood load, or dead load.
LOAN PROCESSOR
The individual that oversees all aspects of the loan qualification process, often acting as a liaison between the borrower and the underwriter. The loan processor will gather and analyze such information as the Preliminary Title Report, the appraisal, the credit worthiness of the borrower, the type of foundation on the manufactured home and other pertinent facts.
MANUFACTURED HOME (FORMERLY MOBILEHOME)
A dwelling unit fabricated in an off-site manufacturing facility for installation or assembly at the building site, bearing a label certifying it is constructed in compliance with the federal Manufactured home Construction and Safety Standards making it a HUD home.
MARRIAGE OR MATING WALL
The joint between two sections of a double-section or triple-section home.
MOBILE HOME
A transportable, factory-constructed home, designed to be used as a year round residential dwelling and built prior to the enactment of the federal Manufactured Housing Construction and Safety Standards Act of 1974, which became effective June 15, 1976.
MODULAR (SEE FACTORY BUILT AKA MODULAR HOME)
MOISTURE BARRIER
A technique for minimizing moisture accumulation under the home is to place a continuous polyethylene sheet of at least 6-mil thickness on the ground below the home. The barrier blocks moisture in the ground from entering the crawl space.
OUTRIGGER
An integral part of the chassis, the outrigger projects laterally from the longitudinal frame members. On many manufactured homes, the outriggers are generally placed about 8' on center and give strength to the exterior walls.
PADS
The footer on the ground is designed to spread the load from a pier over a larger area, thereby providing a more stable base. The square pad footers may be concrete, either poured in place or precast, preservative-treated wood, acrylonitrile butadiene styrene (ABS), or other materials approved by the local building authority.
The spacing of the piers and the allowable bearing capacity of the soil determine the size of the footer or pad. The piers are typically spaced from 5 to 10 ft apart depending on home design, local soil characteristics, and roof snow load. However, in certain conditions closer spacings allow for better adjustability in order to tweak doors or reduce floor vibration.
PARK MODEL
A park model 14' or narrower and 40' or shorter and less than 400 square feet. It is not built to either HUD building corde or to any site building code. Park models are not modular homes and they are not manufactured homes---and they are not trailers.
They are a breed of their own. Although they are designed for being towed from the factory to the site, they are typically never moved again. While they can be permanently installed on land belonging to the same owner, their big draw back is that they cannot be easily financed because they are not eligible for Frannie Mae, Freddie Mac or FHA type of loans.
Either this type of loan will have to receive private financing or it will never be able to be sold to the secondary market. Although they can be financed and taxed as real property, it is their lack of a residential building cede that makes them ineligible for typical financing.
PENETROMETER
An instrument for measuring firmness or consistency (as of soil). The allowable bearing capacity of the soil is a measure of its strength and ability to carry the weight of the pier without settling or compressing.
On new sets, pads for piers should be set on compacted or undisturbed (not loosened by digging or plowing) soil. Organic or loose matter, such as weeds, trash, and other objects, must be cleared away, and then the area for the pad scraped until solid, undisturbed soil is exposed. If this is not done, uneven settlement can occur.
PERMANENT FOUNDATION (SEE PHOTO ABOVE)
The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) defines permanent foundation systems in its Manufactured Home Procedural and Enforcement Regulations as follows:
"(ii) A site-built permanent foundation is a system of supports, including piers, either partially or entirely below grade which is
- (A) Capable of transferring all design loads imposed by or upon the structure into soil or bedrock without failure,
- (B) Placed at an adequate depth below grade to prevent frost damage, and
- (C) Constructed of concrete, metal, treated lumber or wood, or grouted masonry."
The determination may be left up to local jurisdictions and a structural engineering depending on the type of loan.
Permanently Affixed
With respect to real property, this term is understood to refer to a structure that has been attached to the land, thus becoming a fixture. With respect to a MH-unit, the code states the home can only be deemed a fixture if it was installed pursuant to either 18551 or 18555 of the Health and Safety Code.
The conventional way of determining when a structure is affixed, via a physical inspection, does not apply to a MH-unit in California. A MH unit can be deemed legally affixed even it is not physically affixed, which is usually the case when 18555 applies.
Conversely, some MH units installed as chattel may either be, or appear to be, physically affixed, but are not legally a fixture. This has been a problem area for many mortgage lenders who have orginated residential loans that inadvertently failed to encumber the chattel MH unit.
PIER SYSTEMS
The pier and pad system has long been the common and accepted manufactured home support system. It adapts easily to local site conditions, does not require a great deal of dimensional precision, and goes into place quickly.
In the most frequently used configuration, piers are installed under the main beams of the home sections, under the mating line of multi-section homes and at other points designated by the home manufacturer. Perimeter piers or blocks may also be a part of the home's support system.
The most common pier types are steel jack stands or hollow core concrete masonry blocks with open cells placed vertically and stacked one on top of the other to the required height. These can be single stacks of blocks or double stacks, laid in an interlocking configuration.
Concrete block piers more than 36 in. high should be configured as double block piers. Piers more than 80 inches high should be designed by a registered engineer. Another pier type is the pyramid-shaped open frame, steel type with a support plate on top of an adjustable rod at the apex.
The steel pyramids come in several heights and support prescribed/rated load capacities based on manufacturer's testing. The pier height and building weight dictate the allowable spacing between the piers.
PIERS
Short columns of masonry or steel that provide support between the footing and the main beam.
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