This may not specifically answer your question, but I thought it worth sharaing here:
Every now and then I get a call from someone asking how to tell if the previously owned home they’re considering is a manufactured home (i.e. HUD-code) or a modular home, or perhaps a so-called park model home. My answer: “Look for the red metal (aluminum) label, 2 by 4 inches in size, affixed to the lower exterior corner of each of the home’s transportable sections. For example, a double wide (two-section) home would have two HUD labels. They look like this:
This certification label, commonly known as the “HUD Label” is permanently affixed to all transportable sections of homes built to HUD standards after June 15, 1975. (Image courtesy of Institute for Building Technology & Safety)
The label is located close to the bottom of the exterior corner of the rear end of each transportable section (the front end being where the towing hitch was/is located). HUD labels are sometimes inadvertently removed during painting or re-siding, or even installation. (Image courtesy of ITBS)
This label is proof positive that this is a HUD home (and only a HUD home). HUD labels are designed to be permanently attached to their sections, and for good reason. They are proof of the home’s identity (including when and where constructed) and they certify it was built to exacting HUD standards.
As important, evidence of HUD labels, and their unique ID numbers, are almost always demanded by lenders, insurance underwriters, local governments and manufactured home communities as a condition for getting a loan approval, a policy, or the okay to put the home in a MH park.
If your home is new, be sure to note the location of the HUD label(s) and protect them going forward. Don’t paint over them. If you cover them–while adding steps, siding or a porch, for example–make sure you can still easily access them for viewing by an inspector (by removing a board or face plate, for example).
HUD will not replace lost or missing labels. But if the label is missing (not uncommon with older HUD homes), all is not lost. A non-governmental entity, the Institute for Building Technology & Safety (IBTS), under contract to HUD, has been keeping track of all those certification labels since 1976, keeping tabs on their histories, the homes on which specific labels have been affixed, and the first destinations of those homes.
In response to repeated requests from homeowners, lenders and other interested parties, IBTS now offers a fee-based label verification service. You can now go to
www.ibts.org and click on Label Verification. The page is
http://www.ibts.org/label_req.htm
For a $50 fee (to offset the cost of research and the issuance of a verification letter) you can get a fast answer, usually within two business days. The Institute’s Richard St. Onge claims “at most, we’re unable to identify five percent of the homes we’re asked about–they’re either pre-HUD, park models, or modular homes.”
Hope that helps.
John Grissim, author, The Grissim Buyer's Guide to Manufactured Homes & Land, and The Grissim Ratings Guide to Manufactured Homes.