Full timing - possible new law

[Kerrywv]

A need to read and respond to your representative.

HUD Wants to Make Living in a Tiny House or RV Illegal

[EA37TS]

Actually the new HUD rules have been floating around for a year or two for comment by the RV and Manufactured housing industry.

They were requested by the industry to define a Recreational Vehicle vs a Manufactured home and to clarify the standards to which the categories must comply and reporting and paperwork requirements. Whether or not you can full time in an RV is still a local issue which local jurisdictions stating how long you can stay in campgrounds etc...

Here is the link to the RVDA article which does a better job of explaining the new rules. Escapees also sent out an email to their members a couple of months ago explaining the rules.

Why HUD's Proposed Rule Redefining RVs is Critical to RV Industry and RV Enthusiasts

[davidgebo]

Here, again, we have the tentacles of big government reaching into our freedoms and personal rights. The federal government has created a situation over the years, through increasing regulation, higher taxes, Obamacare, ridiculous laws, that a large group of Americans has found it economically necessary to give up their homes and live in their RVs, to travel to where the work is, such as Amazon and other seasonal type employment. Retired full-timers would also be subject to these new regulations. The feds use regulations because it is easier and faster to enslave the populace this way than getting actual laws passed. Obama has unleashed the feds in all government agencies on American citizens with impunity. Never before has an administration so eagerly exercised power and authority over Americans using government regulation from so many agencies. Getting unpopular laws passed is difficult and time-consuming, but passing regulations, willy-nilly, is much easier and faster and they don't need to stand the test of Constitutionality. I dare say that manufactured housing, RVs, modular homes, park models are more strictly regulated and safer to live in than conventional stick-built on site housing. I say this because the construction practices must adhere to every local, state, and federal regulation because these units are bought and sold in every state and municipality, and must conform to the thousands of requirements for safety, fire protection and water a septic plumbing codes. These regulations will add more restrictions to American freedoms. I am disgusted with the federal government and the power-hungry administrators who lust for ever more power over their fellow Americans. Where does the government find these myopic, nosy, awful people?

[bevedfelker]

How you use an object does not necessarily define what that object is. An RV was build to a set of standards and codes to be a recreational VEHICLE. It was not built to a set of codes to make it a permanent abode. Does your RV toilet have a trap? Would the "stinky slinky" pass housing sewerage codes? Does the AC distribution part of the converter equate to a houses electrical service panel? Do you think the electrical wiring in your RV meets housing building codes? Et cetera, et cetera.

Granted, we have full timers that are living full time in their RVs. But they are basically full time camping or RVing. That's not the same as sticking your RV on a vacant lot and making it a quasi-house.

Look at how most tiny houses are built. The floors have wooden joists. The walls are studded with 2 X 4s. Outside is sheathed with plywood or the same sheathing used on a house. The electrical service is built to a housing standard not that of an RV.

If you were to build a house, what do you suppose would happen if you used walls built just like Thor's laminated wall structure. Then you built a roof on it like Thor puts on an RV. Then you plumb the waste system with a stinky slinky. And the electrical service uses a WFCO converter and not a standard house electrical service panel. You never intended this house to be an RV -- you didn't put and engine or tires on it. You always intended it to be your permanent home -- you just built it like RVs are built. Would it pass the city, county, or state building code?

Building codes are designed for a purpose -- standard safe building practice. The codes for a house, modular home, manufactured home (mobile home), park home, and RV all have completely different sets of codes. You compromise safety trying to substitute one set of codes in a manner for which the object was not designed.

And I have to disagree -- an RV in no way could be construed as safer than living in a stick built home built to code. The last house we built had double 2 X 6 top and bottom plates, 2 X 6 studs, 5/8" exterior sheathing, R20 insulation in wall, 2 X 12 floor and roof joists, had a 50 year shingled roof, and walls had hurricane anchors required by the code in the area we lived. There is no way the code to which my Vegas was built could be safer than to which this house was built.

[Oneilkeys]

Originally Posted by dstankov

Actually the new HUD rules have been floating around for a year or two for comment by the RV and Manufactured housing industry.

They were requested by the industry to define a Recreational Vehicle vs a Manufactured home and to clarify the standards to which the categories must comply and reporting and paperwork requirements. Whether or not you can full time in an RV is still a local issue which local jurisdictions stating how long you can stay in campgrounds etc...

Here is the link to the RVDA article which does a better job of explaining the new rules. Escapees also sent out an email to their members a couple of months ago explaining the rules.

Why HUD's Proposed Rule Redefining RVs is Critical to RV Industry and RV Enthusiasts

Great article Dave. Thanks for sharing.

[bevedfelker]

agree with Oneilkeys -- great article Dave. Basically the change protects RVers and the RV industry. It ensures that RVs will continue to be built to the RV codes and they will not be classified as a manufactured home. It also ensures that there is no impediment to using an RV as a full timer. That is all good news for RVers.

If that 42 ft 5th wheeler with four slide outs had been designated a manufactured home -- can you imagine the weight if the walls, floor, and roof had to be built to manufactured homes standards that are more similar to stick-built homes than RVs. There would be no pickup truck anywhere capable of towing that much weight. But this ruling ensures it will remain classified an RV.