Committee clears bill clarifying liens and title rules for manufactured housing

The House Banks and Banking Committee passed House Bill 377, a measure intended to clarify lien and title treatment when manufactured housing is converted from titled personal property to real property by recording a Certificate of Permanent Location.

Representative Rob Leverett, presenting the bill, said current law lets owners surrender a certificate of title and record the home as real property, but lenders and buyers have raised questions about whether existing liens survive that conversion. Leverett said the bill clarifies that a lender’s lien will be preserved when the certificate is surrendered and that lenders retain enforcement rights even after the home is treated as real estate.

“The primary function of this bill is making it a little simpler to do all that and to make it clear that the lien of the lender doesn’t get scrubbed out or extinguished by going through that process,� Leverett said. He told the committee the change is intended to encourage more lending in the manufactured-housing market by reducing legal and administrative uncertainty.

Leverett explained the current practice: manufactured homes typically have a certificate of title, like a motor vehicle, showing lienholders; surrendering that title and recording a Certificate of Permanent Location in the county real estate records converts the home to real property. The bill intends to make clear how lenders’ rights and lien perfection operate through that transition and confirms statutory remedies remain available.

Members asked whether the certificate could be surrendered without the lienholder’s sign-off and how a homeowner ensures lien satisfaction is recorded; Leverett said the statute addresses enforcement and that lenders typically must record satisfactions in the real estate records, with penalties for failure to file satisfactions after payoff. Committee members also asked how the rule applies in mobile-home parks or when owners do not own the land; Leverett said the certificate of permanent location generally requires common ownership of the home and land.

Members asked about tiny homes and how zoning might intersect; Leverett said a tiny home that is mobile would likely be treated as manufactured housing, while a tiny home placed on a permanent foundation would be treated as real property and subject to local zoning rules.

A motion to pass was made and seconded; the committee adopted the bill by voice vote. The transcript shows the committee approved the measure but does not provide a roll-call tally.