State board begins work on manufactured housing rule changes
November 14, 2019
For further information, contact Andy Gallagher,
andy@wvhi.org or (304) 415-4187
State board begins work on manufactured housing rule changes
CHARLESTON — The state board that oversees the factory-built housing industry began work Wednesday on proposals to rewrite the state’s manufacture housing regulatory rules.
The discussion was triggered when the federal regulatory agency, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, told the state Division of Labor that changes must be made in the state’s program to conform to national requirements.
The changes include such things are more inspections of manufactured homes when they are installed and additional continuing education for the industry. HUD would like the installation of every new home in the state to be inspected, but DOL Commissioner Mitchell E. Woodrum said not only is that not realistic, given DOL’s resources, but the equivalent type of inspections are not required for stick-built housing, which accounts for 84 percent of the state’s homes.
The changes offered by Woodrum at the meeting of the West Virginia Manufactured Housing Construction and Safety Standards Board were general and will act as a framework to which the regulators and industry can recommend changes. The final proposals will go to the Legislature for its review in 2021. The Legislature must approve changes before they become law.
Proposals will be brought to the board at its next meeting on Feb. 19.
Woodrum said he will meet with representatives of HUD on Jan. 7 to go over the state’s manufactured housing regulatory program and whether it needs further improvements.
In other action, the board:
–Warned a manufactured and two retail centers to repair problems in manufactured houses they built or sold or lose their licenses within 15 days.
–Renewed the retailer license for Carl Frye’s Housing Inc. of Winchester, Virginia.
–Issued $2,750 in fines against six companies over a number of installation violations.
–Imposed $675 in penalties on 15 companies that failed to file paperwork with the DOL to specify their business activity.
–Fined one contractor $250 and reprimanded a second for doing business in the state without a license. The reprimanded company obtained its license as soon as it knew it was at fault.