Mobile Home Park Inspections Explained by The Department of Housing

Every 5 to 7 years, California law requires that the California Department of Housing and Community Development maintain an health and safety hazard inspection on every mobile home or manufactured home community in California. The Department of Housing, or HCD, has released this informative video, explaining why these inspections are necessary.

Mobile home and Manufactured home communities provide desireable lifestyles at affordable costs, however, the nature of such community style living requires that each homeowner be responsible for maintaing their home and their lot to ensure that the community remains free of any illegal health and safety hazards.

To ensure that each Mobile Home park remains free from these hazards,  legislation was put into place in 1991 that ensures every mobile home park in the State of California is inspected every 5 to 7 years.

In the course of their research, the Department of Housing realized that most of the violations exist because home owners and park operators simply do not realize that the violations are illegal and dangerous. However, the following examples of common violations are offenses that must be corrected to ensure the safety of the home owners and the general public:

Broken Windows

Missing Steps

Combustibles stored under homes

Blocked emergency exits

Another common fire safety violation is the construction of a combustible accessory structure, such as a shed. The easiest way to remedy this violation is to remove or relocate the structure.

Awnings and screens that are attached to homes sometimes are added by homeowners that don’t realize that the home was not manufactured to support additional weight. For this reason, adding an awning or screened in area to your home must be done with a construction permit.

Other common violations are missing handrails and guardrails along the steps and porches of manufactured homes. The law states that handrails must be present if there are more than two steps attached to the home. Guardrails must be present on porches that are 30 inches from the ground. While these handrail and guardrail requirements seem strict, statistically most injuries in manufactured home parks are caused by falls in and around one’s own home.

These are the typical, correctable violations that are most commonly seen in mobile home parks.

Lastly, when an inspector visits your park, you should know that the inspector is not allowed to enter your home without your permission, however, the inspector is required to enter your lot for the inspection. The inspector must inspect the condition of your lot, your utility hook uips and the exterior of your home.