I have a bureaucratic nightmare on my hands, and wanted to see if anyone has had a similar problem.
Back in June, we bought 2 nice repoe’d homes one 5 years and one 10 years old, from a local credit union. We moved them to our park, installed them, and even found 2 worthy tenants. Seemed like a slam dunk, since we didn’t pay much for the homes or the moving ($7K for single, $10 for double, $7500 to move both)
Here is the problem. Homes were manufactured by Four Seasons Housing out of Indiana. Four Seasons is now defunct, some assets were bought by Clayton, but not all. We cannot get the installation manuals anywhere, and the local housing inspector refuses to give us a certificate of occupancy without them. We tried calling local retailers, but they didn’t have any because the home are 5-10 years old.
Where could I possibly find a copy of these manuals? I’ve tried online, the State building department, parks in the region, and have run into walls on all ends. I’m hoping I haven’t wasted $25K due to a lack of a $100 manual.
Any input will be greatly appreciated, and I’m even willing to put a $100 bounty on the manuals. It would be the best $100 I’ve ever spent if I can get these units up and running.
Where I live, the code says that a home must be installed accprding to the manufacturers specs, OR the ANSI standard ANSI A225.1
I am not having luck googling for a pdf - email me privately if you cannot find it either
ddbpr@hotmail.com
Greg,
I’ve run into a similar situation with homes I had moved from one township to another. Specifically, the inspector wanted to see the manufacturers pier print diagram to make sure we were placing the correct number and location of each pier. Because the home was 15 years old at the time, even the manufacturer didn’t have this information anymore.
The inspector told us that, absent of the installation manual, we could have an engineer diagram the piers from the old site. Then place the new piers in similar fashion. I drew this up myself (not an engineer) and he was happy with it.
I have found with inspectors that although they play tough, they have a lot of latitude in moving things along if they can see that you are making an effort to do things the right way. They have a responsibility to make sure buildings are constructed properly, so if you can make them feel like they are “covered” they will be much more flexible.
My short answer is, I would find out from the inspector exactly what information he needs from the manual and find another way to prove you have complied with the proper installation procedure.
Jeff