Checking a Manufactured Home Installer's Licence in Texas

Texas licenses manufactured home installers through the Texas Department of Housing and Community Affairs, specifically its Manufactured Housing Division, under the Manufactured Housing Standards Act, which is Chapter 1201 of the Texas Occupations Code. Verifying that licence takes one search on a state website, costs nothing, and is the most useful thing you can do before letting anyone put a jack under your home.

This page explains what the licence covers, what it costs the installer to hold it, how to check it, and what else to ask for. It applies to whoever you hire, including the crews arranged through us.

What the licence covers

The word that matters is “installation,” and the statute defines it broadly. Section 1201.003(13) says installation means the temporary or permanent construction of the foundation system and the placement of a manufactured home on that foundation, and that the term “includes supporting, blocking, leveling, securing, anchoring, and properly connecting multiple or expandable sections or components and making minor adjustments.”

Read that list again. Blocking is piers. Leveling is a relevel. Securing and anchoring are tie-downs. Connecting the sections is the marriage line on a doublewide. Every job on our pricing page except house leveling and skirting is in that sentence, and section 1201.101(d) says plainly that “a person may not act as an installer in this state unless the person holds an installer’s license.”

The Department’s own rules repeat it in 10 TAC 80.21: all new manufactured homes “shall be installed by a licensed installer” to the manufacturer’s approved instructions, and all used homes “shall be installed by a licensed installer” to instructions appropriate for the wind zone, which in Hidalgo County means Wind Zone I. Those same rules set the one-inch shim limit, the pier and footer tables, and the anchor spacing table that our Texas tie-down page walks through.

What it takes to hold the licence

A licence is not a formality. Under section 1201.104 a first-time applicant must complete eight hours of instruction in the law, including consumer protection rules, and an installer applicant must complete four more hours of specialized installation instruction. Section 1201.106 requires an installer to post $25,000 in bond or other security, payable to the state’s manufactured homeowner consumer claims program, and section 1201.113 makes an eight-hour continuing education program a prerequisite to every renewal.

New installers start provisional. Under the Department’s rules a provisional licence becomes a full licence only after the Department inspects at least five of the installer’s installations and finds no violations.

Then there is the reporting. Every installer must file a Notice of Installation, Form T, within seven days of installing a home, three days on a provisional licence, and the Department says why: “so that the installation can be inspected prior to being skirted, while the home is still accessible.” The state inspects work under the skirting. That is the whole reason the licence exists.

The warranty that comes with it

Section 1201.361 requires the installer to give the homeowner a written warranty that the installation was performed in accordance with all Department standards, rules, orders, and requirements. The warranty must tell you to report claims in writing, and unless it offers longer, the installer has no obligation for a defect you report more than two years after the later of the purchase date or the installation date. Under the Department’s rules, corrective action on a written warranty claim is due within thirty days absent good cause.

Two years is a real number. If a relevel or anchor job goes wrong, a written note inside that window is what puts the state’s process behind you rather than just your own persistence.

How to check, in order

1. Ask for the licence number in writing. On the quote, by text, or by email. Not a wallet card held up in the driveway.
2. Look it up yourself. The Department’s MHweb portal at mhweb.tdhca.state.tx.us has a License View search that shows current licence holders, and an Install View search that shows installations the licensee has reported. The Manufactured Housing Division answers questions at 1-800-500-7074. Ask whether the licence is current.
3. Ask for the insurance certificate. The $25,000 security is not liability insurance. Ask for the certificate itself, with policy dates on it.
4. Ask for the written warranty. Section 1201.361 requires it. An installer who has never heard of it is telling you something.
5. Ask for the readings. A level check should produce pier-by-pier numbers on paper. A contractor who will not write down what was measured is asking you to take the diagnosis on faith.

If something goes wrong afterward, the Department takes complaints through its online form or at (877) 313-3023, and can perform a consumer complaint home inspection.

The Statement of Ownership

The other document that trips up Valley homeowners is the Statement of Ownership, which the Department issues in place of the old certificate of title. Since June 2003 the title has been replaced by the Statement of Ownership and Location, and section 1201.206 requires an application within 60 days of any sale or transfer. Under section 1201.2055 the owner elects on that application whether to treat the home as real property, which is only allowed if the home sits on land the owner owns or holds under a long-term lease. A lien on a personal-property home is filed with the Department, not the county.

Why it matters to a leveling company: parks, lenders, and buyers in McAllen, Mission, and Weslaco ask for a level and tie-down report at exactly the moment the Statement of Ownership is changing hands, and our pre-sale leveling inspection exists for that moment.

Local permits

Section 1201.008(d) says that, except as approved by the Department, a local government “may not require a permit, a fee, a bond, or insurance for the transportation and installation of manufactured housing by a licensed retailer or installer.” Cities still control where a home may be placed, and Hidalgo County’s Planning Department at 2818 S. Business Hwy 281 in Edinburg issues development permits and utility clearances for the unincorporated county, while the City of Edinburg’s Building Safety Department at 415 W University Dr handles the city. Whether a stand-alone relevel on an existing home triggers anything local is a question for those two offices, and a licensed installer will not be evasive about calling them.

Why we put this page up

We are a lead-generation site for manufactured home work in Edinburg and Hidalgo County, and the work itself is performed by licensed, insured Texas installers. Publishing the verification steps is not against our interest. The fastest way for this trade to lose a customer is a cheap relevel by somebody who could not be found afterward, and the state built a system so that does not have to happen to you.

If you want the price side first, the pricing page publishes the full tables and the cost calculator puts a range on your home without asking for an email. If you own a site-built house on piers, the house leveling page explains why none of this licensing applies and what to check instead.