Issue link: https://read.dmtmag.com/i/420183
DECEMBER 2014 16 THE JOURNAL BY GEORGE PORTER SERVICE & SET-UP Times Are Changing In the year 2000 Congress passed the Manu- factured Housing Improvement Act. Part of the act was that all states would develop a li- censing and inspection program for Manufac- tured Housing. The states would also be required to comply with a minimum standard put forward by HUD. If they did not do this within five years then HUD would step in and enforce a program of its own. So... 2005 came and went and nothing happened. 2010... same thing. 2015 will be different. We have a new Administrator of the Office of Manufac- tured Housing and Construction Standards and her name is Pamela Danner. She has been active in this industry for many years and un- derstands it pretty well. For all practical pur- poses you might say HUD just got a heart transplant and the pa- tient is becoming healthy and active again. The new installation program for states that do not have their own programs will be run by a subcontractor called SEBA Professional Serv- ices. The expertise of this company is organiz- ing and administration with a background in housing, digital analysis, and record keeping. These people have a good history interacting with government agencies and are quite com- petent. The staff SEBA Professional Services has put together for this project all have a large background in the housing industry and 75 per- cent are from the manufactured housing indus- try. At this point in time they have completed; nearly completed; or are working intensely on all the parts of the program. A partial list would be: • Installation training and testing both on- line and in person • Inspections of new homes • Issuing licenses to installers • An installer labeling system for all new homes • Recordkeeping system for all homes, in- stallers and inspec- tors • Checklists for all inspections There are many parts to the program and while most of them are not new the functioning under this system has not been tested. The plan is to choose two states for a pilot pro- gram before imple- menting it in the remaining fourteen states. By the time you read this those two states will have already have been chosen. The target date for implementation is within the first half of the new year. Interestingly, the focus of this program is to make it as user friendly as possible. The purpose is to create a high level of competence in installers and an equally high level of confidence with con- sumers. This will be done with as little burden on the business in the default states as possible. There will be more details than in a nonexistent program, but for those people who want to do, and have always done the right thing, there will be very little change in their business other than a little paperwork. Here is a list of the default states as of this writing: Alaska Connecticut Delaware Hawaii Illinois Maryland Massachusetts Montana Nebraska New Hampshire New Jersey Rode Island South Dakota Vermont Wisconsin Wyoming One of the best things about this program is that a valid federal license in any one of these states is good for all the rest of them. You will not have to maintain multiple licenses in several default states. If your state does not choose to reciprocate with the federal program then you will have to follow the rules for maintaining a license in your state and the default state both. This program is quite a bit past the formative stages and may evolve some as it becomes im- plemented, but this is going to happen. I will let you know more as information becomes available. George Porter is a consultant to the manufactured hous- ing industry. His Company is Manufactured Housing Re- sources, P.O. Box 863, Rehoboth Beach, DE 19971 (302) 645 5552, Web: www.george-porter.com. Some of his services are both in person and On-line training for certification in many states plus expert witness and inves- tigation for the industry. You will not have to maintain multiple licenses in several default states. If your state does not choose to reciprocate with the federal program then you will have to follow the rules for maintaining a li- cense in your state and the default state both. T J