MANUFACTURED HOME
FOUNDATION INSPECTIONS
In addition to manufactured home inspections, we also provide HUD Permanent Foundation Inspections and Certifications often required by lenders through our sister company HBS Consulting, LLC.
Why is my lender requiring a foundation certification?
Mortgages are available for the purchase of new or existing manufactured homes, but they often require a foundation certification or design. The reason behind this is that most mortgages written by a lender are almost certain to be insured by the Federal Housing Administration (FHA), a division of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). As a condition of providing insurance, the FHA requires that the foundation for existing homes, be certified by a Professional Engineer that the foundation meets the requirements of of HUD 4000.1, Single Family Housing Policy Handbook, HUD 4930.3G, Permanent Foundations Guide for Manufactured Housing and the building codes that were in effect at the time the permanent foundation was installed.
A permanent foundation is one that is “constructed of durable materials (concrete, mortared masonry, treated wood) and be site built”. Since the manufactured home is built off site in a manufacturing facility, the foundation must be certified to be site built by a third party professional engineer. HUD further states that the foundation of a manufactured home must “have attachment points to anchor and stabilize the manufactured home to transfer all loads to underlying soil or rock. The permanent foundations shall be structurally developed in accordance with this document or be structurally designed by a licensed professional engineer.” Common issues that we find to be non-compliant with the HUD requirements are provided as a courtesy in our HUD Manufactured Home Foundation Requirements handout.
Shouldn’t every manufactured home’s foundation adhere to the HUD requirements?
Although the original manufactured home design must comply with the manufacturer’s instructions, doing so does not guaranty that it complies with HUD requirements. The only way for the lender to verify that the above criteria are met in an individual manufactured home is to have the foundation inspected by a licensed professional engineer and then have that engineer certify that specific foundation.