News & Notes Archive - December 2006
Manufactured homes versus modular versus HUDular. Confused? You’re not alone.
I get a fair number of inquiries about the different types of factory-built homes and the codes to which they’re built, so I’m devoting most of this months News & Notes to the topic. Let’s start with a recent email exchange from a home shopper in the Southwest:
John,
Does your book only deal with the manufactured homes? We are looking at modulars and would like to know your opinion about value for money with these vs. manufactured. I have read your definitions. If you deal with modulars, too, I'll just go ahead and buy your book.
Thanks,
David Clark
Los Alamos, NM
David,
Thanks for writing. If you can afford a modular home, go modular. Mods (jargon for modular homes) are generally built with better construction quality and don't have the stigma with lenders of being a "mobile home."
My books deal with manufactured homes only (i.e., factory built to the HUD-code), not modular homes. This said, if you're looking at buying from a retailer who sells both HUD code and mod homes, the mod home you buy will likely have been built by a builder who produces mostly HUD homes.
If so, that mod home may be on a steel frame just like the HUD home, so it will be considered an on-frame modular, not a true modular. Confusing, yes?
Last, many retailers sell both manufactured homes (HUD-code) and modular homes, and this is fine, but just as with some dealers who selling HUD-code homes only, some of them may be less than reputable. I recommend you invest in buying The Grissim Buyer's Guide to MH because its advice on how to find a trustworthy dealer applies in your case as well.
Good luck on your search!
Regards,
John
HUDular and other variations. Or, a rose by any other name...
Elsewhere, a few weeks ago I was hired as a consultant in an Ohio court case involving 16 acres of rural property purchased by a developer who subdivided the parcel and delivered to the first home site two sections of a modular model built by Commodore Homes.
At issue was whether his doing so was legal. A deed restriction on the land reads: “No mobile home or house trailer or other manufactured home shall be located, constructed, or assembled upon the Property at any time.”
Neighbors sued, contending the modular home was not allowed since it fit within the description of the deed restriction. The owners of the modular home (along with the developer) disagreed, arguing the restriction applied specifically to mobile homes, house trailers and manufactured homes, not homes built to the modular building code.
Is this a HUD-code manufactured home? An on-frame modular? A true off-frame modular? Most important: Does the deed restriction on the land allow it?
Complicating matters, the modular home’s sections had been manufactured on the same steel chassis used to build the same model to HUD-code standards.
The neighbors (Plaintiffs) felt that the authors of the restriction intended to restrict all factory built housing and had used the term “manufactured housing” as a general descriptive term to include all forms of factory-built housing.
The neighbors asked me to come up with a list of questions that their attorney could pose to the developer and/or the modular home owner that would support their interpretation.
I’m not an attorney but I’ve watched a few Perry Mason episodes in my time, so I followed the rule that an attorney never asks a witness a question to which he or she doesn’t know the answer. In this case, I wrote the questions so that the answers to most would be a simple “yes.”
Suggested line of questioning for the Plaintiff’s counsel:
I’d like to ask you some questions about the home model at issue to help more precisely clarify its description for the court:
Was the home manufactured in a factory?
So it would be fair to say it is a factory-built home?
Was it manufactured in sections?
And these sections are transportable from the factory, correct?
And the sections are each wider than eight feet and forty feet or more in length?
Were the home’s sections built on a steel frame or chassis?
Are the steel frames or chassis meant to be permanently attached to the sections?
And is it fair to say the home is designed to be used as a permanent dwelling with or without a permanent foundation when connected to the required utilities?
And the home includes the required plumbing , heating, air-conditioning and electrical systems, correct?
And, as your documents indicate, the home was manufactured to applicable Ohio residential building codes, not the construction standards of a federal building code administered by the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). The so-called HUD code. Correct?
Attorney then reads an excerpt from the Ohio statue that defines manufactured home to mean, “A building unit or assembly of closed construction that is fabricated in an off-site facility and constructed in conformance with the federal construction and safety standards established by the Secretary of Housing and Urban Development pursuant to the “Manufactured Housing Construction and Safety Standards Act of 1974....”
Then asks:
In sum, with the exception of the construction code to which it was manufactured, the home at issue otherwise meets HUD’s statute definition of a “manufactured home.” Correct?
About the home’s floor plan. Does Commodore build a HUD-code version?
Would it be correct to say that Commodore Homes advertises it is able to build the same floor plan to either HUD or modular code?
And that the modular code version of this model is permanently mounted on the same permanent steel frame or chassis as its HUD-code counterpart, correct?
Are you familiar with the term “on-frame modular”?
Would you define it, please?
So, the home at issue could be described as an on-frame modular?
In other words a HUD-code frame on which a home built to the modular code is constructed?
I understand in the jargon of the factory built home community, the term used for that type of home is “Hudular.” Correct?
Another phrase often used instead of Hudular is “hybrid manufactured home.” Correct?
Are you familiar with the term off-frame?
Would you describe it, please?
These type of homes are also described as “true modular homes.” Correct?
So, an on-frame modular, or HUDular, such as your home, would not be considered a true modular home, correct?
Are you familiar with the term “off-site built”?
In other words a home manufactured in a factory?
Are you familiar with the term “industrialized home”?
So, again, a home manufactured in a factory?
So, it appears that there are quite a few different types of homes we’ve been talking about here that are not built on-site. They’re manufactured in different ways, and to different codes, and called by various names: factory built homes, manufactured homes, mobile homes, off-site- built homes, HUD-code homes, off-frame modulars, true-modulars, on frame modulars, even hybrid manufactured homes. Correct?
And what these homes have in common is that they’re built off-site in a factory and transported to the home site in modules and assembled upon the property, correct?
I don’t know how much, if any, of my questions were used, but the court ruled in the plaintiffs favor, agreeing that undefined words in a deed restriction, in this case the phrase “manufactured housing,” “will be given their ordinary meaning,” granting a preliminary injunction prohibiting further assembly of the modular home. Defendants said they will appeal.
This case also demonstrates the care that home shoppers should take when they purchase land for their manufactured home, or any factory-built home. Carefully read any deed restrictions (also known as Covenants, Conditions and Restrictions, or CC&Rs) before committing to a property purchase. See The Grissim Buyer’s Guide for details.