24 CFR Part 3282 - MANUFACTURED HOME PROCEDURAL AND ENFORCEMENT REGULATIONS

Consistent with Executive Order 13771 entitled “Reducing Regulation and Controlling Regulatory Costs,” and Executive Order 13777 entitled, “Enforcing the Regulatory Reform Agenda,” and as part of the efforts of HUD's Regulatory Reform Task Force, this document informs the public that HUD is reviewing its existing and planned manufactured housing regulatory actions to assess their actual and potential compliance costs and reduce regulatory burden. HUD invites public comment to assist in identifying regulations that may be outmoded, ineffective or excessively burdensome and should be modified, streamlined, replaced or repealed.

Consistent with the National Manufactured Housing Construction and Safety Standards Act of 1974, as amended, this document invites interested persons to submit proposed changes to update and revise HUD's Manufactured Home Construction and Safety Standards, its Manufactured Home Procedural and Enforcement Regulations, its Model Manufactured Home Installation Standards, and its Manufactured Home Installation Program regulations. Proposed changes will be submitted to the Manufactured Housing Consensus Committee (MHCC) for review and consideration as part of its responsibility to provide periodic recommendations to HUD to adopt, revise, and interpret the HUD standards and regulations.

This rule makes final the interim final rule, published on June 15, 2016, to amend HUD's civil monetary penalty (CMP) regulations. The interim final rule applied a new methodology to calculate civil money penalties as mandated by the Federal Civil Penalties Inflation Adjustment Act Improvements Act of 2015, starting with a “catch up” adjustment to correct previous inaccuracies; removed three obsolete civil monetary penalty provisions; and made a technical change to the existing codified regulation implementing the Program Fraud Civil Remedies Act. The changes from the interim final rule made final by this final rule continue to be effective as of August 16, 2016. In addition, this rule provides for 2017 inflation adjustments of civil monetary penalty amounts required by the Federal Civil Penalties Inflation Adjustment Act Improvements Act of 2015, and makes three technical amendments and a conforming statutory change.

This proposed rule would revise the minimum payments to states approved as State Administrative Agencies (SAAs) under the National Manufactured Housing Construction and Safety Standards Act of 1974 in order to provide for a more equitable guarantee of minimum funding from HUD's appropriation for this program and to avoid the differing per unit payments to the states that have occurred under the present rule. This rule would base the minimum payments to states upon their participation in the production or siting of new manufactured homes, including for new manufactured homes both produced and sited in the same state.

This interim final rule amends HUD's civil monetary penalty regulations by making inflation adjustments as mandated by the Federal Civil Penalties Inflation Adjustment Act Improvements Act of 2015. HUD also removes three obsolete civil monetary penalty regulations previously authorized under statutes for which either HUD no longer has enforcement authority or the program is no longer active. Lastly, HUD makes a technical change to the regulation language implementing the Program Fraud Civil Remedies Act which, due to a typographical error under the last civil money penalty adjustment, failed to include language assigning a penalty for causing a false claim or statement to be made.

This rulemaking proposes to revise the exemption for recreational vehicles that are not self-propelled from HUD's Manufactured Housing Procedural and Enforcement Regulations. This proposed rule is based on a recommendation adopted by the Manufactured Housing Consensus Committee (MHCC) which would define a recreational vehicle as one built on a vehicular structure, not certified as a manufactured home, designed only for recreational use and not as a primary residence or for permanent occupancy, and built and certified in accordance with either the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) 1192-15 or American National Standards Institute (ANSI) A119.5-09 consensus standards for recreational vehicles. HUD is adopting the MHCC's recommendation but modifying it to require certification with the updated ANSI standard, A119.5-15, and by including a requirement that units claiming the ANSI A119.5-15 exemption prominently display a notice stating that the unit is designed only for recreational use, and not as a primary residence or permanent dwelling.

This final rule establishes a procedure whereby construction of new manufactured housing that is substantially completed in the factory can be completed at the installation site, rather than in the plant. Before this rule, a manufacturer would first be required to obtain HUD approval for on-site completion of each of its designs using the alternate construction provisions of HUD's regulations. This final rule simplifies this process by establishing uniform procedures by which manufacturers may complete construction of their homes at the installation site without having to obtain advance approval from HUD. This final rule applies only to the completion of homes subject to the Manufactured Home Construction and Safety Standards, not to the installation of homes subject to the Model Manufactured Home Installation Standards. Moreover, this final rule would not apply when a major section of a manufactured home is to be constructed on-site.