Texas Factory Housing State Admin. Rule Update – TDHCA, TDLR, and DMV

We have two updates on final rules and effective dates that we previously posted about.  First, MH TDHCA rule changes are now final and effective.  Recall the few rule changes were in response to an incident of cheating on the licensing exam, and rule changes to align with statutory changes made from the 2023 Legislative Session that now allow for a retailer’s licensing exemption when more than one MH is sold in connection to an entire community sale, and the reversion of MH inventory definition and floorplan lien perfection under the UCC.

Additional new rules are anticipated for later in 2024 to reflect “phase II” of the initial licensing testing safeguards to protect against incidents of fraud and/or cheating.

Second, the Commission of TDLR finalized its rule adoption that updates the applicable statewide building codes for residential modular homes.  As we previously updated membership, and manufacturers directly, the new codes will be the 2021 version of the IRC, 2020 NEC, and remain at 2015 IECC. 

Just a bit of clarification, the announcement speaks of a posting/effective date with the Secretary of State’s office on March 1, but the new codes effective date for the industry is May 14, 2024.

Meaning residential modular manufacturers must comply and build to the updated versions of the codes starting on May 14, 2024.

For new proposed rules, the Texas Department of Motor Vehicles recently posted new proposed rules which touch on transportation of MHs.  The proposed changes are to Chapter 219 dealing with Oversized and Overweight Vehicles and Loads.  However, the proposed changes involving rules sections for MH merely eliminate the duplication in regulations of that which is in state law.  So while at first the edits with their deletions might appear alarming, nothing as a practical or regulatory matter is actually changing because all of the provisions being deleted are contained in state law.  Thus, the rule edits are simply removing the unnecessary copying of state laws into regulations.  The effect to the industry is that all remains as status quo because the permit fee amount and the specific requirements on escort vehicles needed while transporting certain size MH remain unchanged in state law.