Manufactured Homes and the T-234

A T-234 is a "Certificate of Permanent Placement" for a manufactured home and must be filed in Georgia before a manufactured home becomes part of the real property. Without a T-234, a manufactured home is personal property. This requirement was made law in 2002 by HR 506.

Appraisers continue to misunderstand House Resolution 506 and the required T-234. A T-234 DOES NOT have to be recorded before the manufactured home can be appraised. The appraiser DOES NOT have to check for existence of a T-234. The appraisal is accomplished whether or not a T-234 has been filed even if the appraiser doesn’t know one way or the other.

Further, the appraiser DOES NOT CARE whether or not a T-234 has been filed.

The Scope of Work (SOW) Rule says in part:

• Communication with the client is required to establish most of the information necessary for problem identification.Assignment conditions include assumptions, extraordinary assumptions

• Assignment conditions include assumptions, extraordinary assumptions…

Since the appraiser may not have sufficient information to determine if the manufactured home is real or personal property, the T-234 becomes a scope of work issue.

Since a Scope of Work that includes the above extraordinary assumption may not be suitable in view of the client’s intended use, discussion with the client of the of the need for an extraordinary assumption regarding the T-234 is required IN ADVANCE.

When appraising a manufactured home an appraiser may not know if a T-234 has been filed and, if not, must make the appraisal subject to an extraordinary assumption such as the following:

This appraisal is subject to appropriate filing of a Certificate of Permanent Placement (T-234).

The recommended comment is from the GREAB (click here).