Florida

The Department of Community Affairs says it will amend its modular home rules this summer to resolve a problem created by a new interpretation by the Department of State of the statute on DCA stickers.

The DCAs new reading of the law is that the third party inspector must physically affix the seal to the home. The practical effect in some cases would be that the inspector would have to make a special trip to the factory simply to affix the sticker, at an additional cost of about $350 (mileage and hourly fees).

Previously, third party entities, after the in-factory home inspection, would (1) find the home in compliance and ready for a sticker, or (2) find it not in compliance, and designate what must be fixed. When the manufacturer notified DCA the deficiencies had been fixed and the home is ready for the sticker (all done through a computer database), DCA would ship the label directly to the manufacturer.

After internal discussions, DCA staff and attorney’s decided not to implement some sort of “waiver” but to amend the rule to alleviate the extra cost. Rule development is expected to start in August for probable adoption in October. The Florida Manufactured Housing Association is working closely on this issue.

Minnesota

It has been a tough couple of years in most states for any tax relief provisions, especially in Minnesota. With the support of the Minnesota Manufactured Housing Association, the Minnesota Legislature considered the modular sales tax bill that corrects the disparity between modular and manufactured home sales tax rates, and will save the industry close to $2,000,000 per year. Currently modular homes are taxed at 6.5% of the invoice. However, both the House and Senate Tax Committees had negative targets for their tax bills, thus to give a lower tax rate to modular homes would have meant having to offset the cost with a tax increase to some other groups. Despite the efforts of industry supporters in the Senate to attempt to get the modular amendments into the Omnibus Tax Bill, the language was not included and there was no Tax Bill due to legislative stalemate and adjournment.

South Carolina

The MHI of South Carolina this year introduced and successfully got signed into law HB 4735. Like the North Carolina bill, this legislation sets out aesthetic requirements for modular housing; such as roof pitch, wall height, foundation materials, and exterior siding standards. The South Carolina bill also corrects the unfair taxation of modular homes within the state.

Modular homes in South Carolina must be built with minimum 5/12 roof pitches, 10-inch eave projections unless the roof pitch is 7/12 or higher, exterior walls of at least 7 feet 6 inches, and siding and exterior materials compatible to those used in site-buit construction. The homes also must be situated on brick or masonry type foundations.

Modular homes will now be taxed on fifty percent of the gross proceeds of the sale of the home, with gross proceeds equaling the manufacturers net invoice price of the home, including all accessories.


New York

The Modular Third Party Plan Approval Pilot Program in New York will begin August 1, 2004. The third in a series of meetings was held on June 17, 2004 between modular representatives of the New York Manufactured Housing Association, the Manufactured Housing Institute, the Modular Building Systems Association, the Building Systems Council of the National Home Builders Association, Third Party Inspection Companies, and the Codes Division of the New York State Department of State. 32 people participated in the comprehensive review and made recommendations to finalize draft guidelines for a pilot program for third party approvals of New York state model home modular plan approvals. Many constructive suggestions were discussed.

The department has to make the final revisions to the program and modify the Pilot Program Application and Plan Approval Check List. Once completed, all the requirements and forms will be posted on the department’s website. Ron Piester, Director of Building Codes for the Department of State, confirmed that this should be accomplished no later than August 1, 2004, if not sooner. Once implemented, a model home plan outside of a manufacturer’s systems or model approval will be processed in two weeks or less. There will be some educational requirements for manufacturers and third party agencies to meet, as well as certain other requirements. The department answered questions and discussed several other topics with the group.