The question we get quite often is, “My manufactured home was constructed according to Federal Manufactured Home Construction and Safety Standards (CFR 3280); is it installed on a permanent foundation?”
The short answer is this: Although your home was constructed to the Federal Manufactured Home Construction and Safety Standards (CFR 3280), that does not necessarily mean that it was installed on a permanent foundation.
The Federal Manufactured Home Construction and Safety Standards pertain to the home itself (the walls, windows, heating and air conditioning, electrical, roof, etc.) and how it was constructed at the factory, but it does not pertain to the foundation; the foundation and the home superstructure are two separate animals, so to speak.
Mobile homes can be placed on non-permanent foundations, or either permanent ones. What determines if it is permanent or not is the HUD’s Permanent Foundation Guide for Manufactured Homes, dated 1996 (HUD Publication 7584, PFGMH).
All Mobile Homes receive an overall HUD certificate of approval direct from the factory; they install a little red metal tag on the outside of the home to state this fact. However, since not all manufactured homes involve an FHA or VA loan to be sold, many are not installed on a permanent foundation (according to the PFGMH), and therefore, not all manufactured homes need a foundation certification.
Many mobile home dealerships do their own financing so they don’t necessarily involve installing the home on a permanent foundation. Some dealerships install permanent foundations for all their homes they sell and some do not
Ed Harrison, PE is a licensed professional engineer in a multitude of states across the country and is the owner of Foundation Certifications. He works with mortgage lenders, loan officers, real estate agents, and private parties across the United States with their mobile home foundations and loans. He is an expert in the field of FHA/HUD/VA compliant mobile home foundations. His engineering firm provides not only certifications for HUD compliant mobile home foundations, but they are also a full service civil and structural engineering design firm. To learn more about Ed Harrison and his company, go to http://www.FoundationCertifications.com
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