Bill S.698

SENATE DOCKET, NO. 1881 FILED ON: 1/16/2015

SENATE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . No. 698

By Mr. Eldridge, a petition (accompanied by bill, Senate, No. 698) of James B. Eldridge and Marjorie C. Decker for legislation relative to the titling of certain manufactured homes. Housing.

The Commonwealth of Massachusetts

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In the One Hundred and Eighty-Ninth General Court
(2015-2016)

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An Act relative to the titling of certain manufactured homes.

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives in General Court assembled, and by the authority of the same, as follows:

SECTION 1. The General Laws are hereby amended by inserting after chapter 188 the following chapter:-

CHAPTER 188A

Section 1. Definitions.

(1) “Buyer” means a person that buys or contracts to buy a manufactured home.

(2) “Certificate of location” means a record in recordable form which includes:

(A) the homeowner’s name;

(B) the unique identifier of the manufactured home that is the subject of the certificate;

(C) a legally sufficient description of the land on which the home is located or on which the homeowner intends to locate it;

(D) the name of the record owner of the land;

(E) the homeowner’s representations that:

(i) the homeowner owns the home;

(ii) the home is or will be located on the land described in the certificate; and

(iii) the homeowner has the legal right to locate the home on the land described in the certificate;

(F) the homeowner’s signature;

(G) the date the homeowner signed the certificate;

(H) the name and mailing address of the person to which the [recorder] is to return the recorded certificate; and

(I) as an attachment to the certificate:

(i) the certificate of origin for the home, together with an official search report, issued not more than 15 days before the date of the certificate of location by the secretary of the commonwealth that lists each financing statement which lists the homeowner as a debtor and a copy of each financing statement; or

(ii) a certified copy of the most recent certificate of location for the home and of the deed, if any, by which the homeowner acquired title to the home; or a

(iii) the certificate of title for the home.

(3) “Certificate of origin” means a record created by a manufacturer or importer as the manufacturer’s or importer’s proof of identity of a manufactured home.

(4) “Certificate of relocation” means a record in recordable form which includes:

(A) the name of the person causing the manufactured home that is the subject of the certificate to be relocated;

(B) if the person causing the home to be relocated does not own the home, the homeowner’s name, if known;

(D) a legally sufficient description of the land from which the home has been or will be relocated;

(E) the name of the record owner of the land;

(F) the recording information for the most recent deed or certificate of location for the home;

(G) a statement that the home has been or will be relocated;

(H) the date that the home was or will be relocated;

(I) the signature of the person causing the home to be relocated;

(J) the date the person signed the certificate; and

(K) the name and mailing address of the person to which the [recorder] is to return the recorded certificate.

(5) “Electronic” means relating to technology having electrical, digital, magnetic, wireless, optical, electromagnetic, or similar capabilities.

(6) “Land controlled by the homeowner” means land on which the owner of a manufactured home has the legal right to locate the home.

(7) “Located”, with reference to a manufactured home, means placing the home at a site at which the home has or previously had electricity supplied from any source and having the towing hitch, wheels, and axles removed from the home.

(8) “Manufactured home” means a structure, including the plumbing, heating, air conditioning, and electrical systems contained in the structure, that is:

(A) transportable in one or more sections;

(B) in the traveling mode, eight body feet or more in width or 40 body feet or more in length;

(D) designed to be used as a dwelling with or without a permanent foundation, when connected to the required utilities; and

(E) not a self-propelled recreational vehicle.

(9) “Person” means an individual, estate, business or nonprofit entity, public corporation, government or governmental subdivision, agency, or instrumentality, or other legal entity.

(10) “Purchaser” means a person that takes an interest in property by sale, lease, discount, negotiation, mortgage, deed of trust, pledge, consensual lien, security interest, issue or reissue, gift, or any other voluntary transaction.

(11) “Record”, used as a noun, means information that is inscribed on a tangible medium or that is stored in an electronic or other medium and is retrievable in perceivable form.

(12) “Retailer” means a person that, in the ordinary course of business, sells manufactured homes to persons other than those in the business of selling or leasing manufactured homes.

(13) “Security interest” means an interest in real or personal property which secures payment or performance of an obligation. The term includes a mortgage, deed of trust, and security interest.

(14) “Sign” means, with present intent to authenticate or adopt a record:

(A) to execute or adopt a tangible symbol; or

(B) to attach to or logically associate with the record an electronic symbol, sound, or process.

(15) “State” means a state of the United States, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, the United States Virgin Islands, or any territory or insular possession subject to the jurisdiction of the United States.

(16) “Unique identifier of the manufactured home” means the name of the manufacturer of the manufactured home, the identification number placed on the home by the manufacturer, and the make, model designation, and model year of the home.

Section 2. Sale of Manufactured Home

(a) Except as otherwise provided in subsection (c), when a retailer and buyer contract for the sale of a manufactured home, the retailer shall deliver a notice in a record to the buyer and obtain a signed receipt from the buyer. The notice must include the following or substantially similar statements:

(1) Under the law of this state, the buyer shall elect whether the home will be real property or personal property if the home is to be located on land controlled by the homeowner.

(2) The buyer’s election may affect the amount of the monthly payments and costs for a loan to buy the home, the buyer’s legal rights in the home, and the taxation of the home.

(3) The buyer should consult a trusted adviser, other than the retailer, about this election.

(b) Except as otherwise provided in subsection (c), a seller may not direct or otherwise steer a buyer to classify the manufactured home as real property or personal property for purposes of financing or otherwise.

(d) If a sale of a manufactured home by a retailer is not governed by the warranty provisions that apply to a sale of goods apply to the sale of the manufactured home, and any rights arising from breach of warranty.

(e) When a manufactured home is sold, the seller shall deliver to the buyer at the time of sale the certificate of title for the home. If the seller does not have a certificate of title because the home is real property at the time of sale, the seller shall deliver a certified copy of the most recent certificate of location for the home and of the deed, if any, by which the seller acquired title to the home.

(f) If, not later than 10 days after buying a new manufactured home, a buyer files a certificate of location for recording in accordance with Section 4, the buyer need not obtain a certificate of title for the home.

Section 3. Conversion of Home to Real Property

(a) In this section, “affidavit of lost document” means a record in recordable form which includes:

(1) the name of the owner of the manufactured home that is the subject of the affidavit;

(2) the unique identifier of the manufactured home;

(3) the homeowner’s representations that the homeowner:

(A) owns the home; and

(B) cannot reasonably obtain possession of the certificate of title because the certificate was destroyed, its whereabouts cannot be determined, or it is in the wrongful possession of a person who will not surrender it, an unknown person, or a person that cannot be found;

(4) the name and, if known, address of the person from which the homeowner acquired the home;

(5) the homeowner’s signature; and

(6) the date the homeowner signed the affidavit.

(b) If a manufactured home is or will be located on land controlled by the homeowner, the homeowner may elect to file a certificate of location for recording in the land records of the county in which the home is or will be located.

(c) Subject to Section 8(a) and (b), if a certificate of location substantially conforms to Section 2(2), the manufactured home is real property for all purposes when the home is located and the certificate is filed.

(d) If a certificate of title must be attached to the certificate of location but the homeowner cannot locate or obtain the certificate of title the homeowner may attach an affidavit of lost document to the certificate of location instead of the certificate of title.

(e) If a manufactured home is moved to this state from another state or from land in this state for which a certificate of location was filed for recording, the homeowner shall obtain a certificate of title for the home, unless the homeowner files a certificate of location for recording in the land records of the county to which the home is moved not later than the time period provided under law after the home is moved. The homeowner may file a certificate of location only if the home is or will be located on land controlled by the homeowner

Section 4. Relocation of Manufactured Home

If a manufactured home is moved from land in this state for which a certificate of location has been filed for recording, the person causing the home to be relocated shall file a certificate of relocation for recording in the land records of the jurisdiction from which the home has been or will be relocated not later than ten days after it is relocated. If the person causing the home to be relocated does not own the home, that person also shall file, with the certificate of relocation, an affidavit that it has the right to relocate the home and a certified copy of any required judgment or order authorizing it to do so.

Section 5. Recording

(a) If a certificate of location or certificate of relocation is filed for recording, the registrar shall record it, together with any attachments, index it, and return it to the person that requested the return.

(b) If a certificate of title is filed for recording as an attachment to a certificate of location, the registrar shall stamp or make a notation on the certificate of title that it is no longer valid.

Section 6. Buyer in ordinary course of business; Free from Security Interests Created by Seller

(a) In this section, “buyer in ordinary course of business” means a person that buys a manufactured home that is real property in good faith, without knowledge that the sale violates the rights of another person in the home, and in the ordinary course from a person in the business of selling manufactured homes. A person buys a manufactured home in ordinary course if the sale comports with the usual or customary practices in manufactured home sales or with the seller’s own usual or customary practices. A buyer in ordinary course of business may buy for cash, by exchange of other property, or on secured or unsecured credit, and may acquire a home under a preexisting contract for sale. Only a buyer that takes possession of the home or has a right to recover the home from the seller under the law of this state may be a buyer in ordinary course of business. A person that acquires homes in a transfer in bulk or as security for or in total or partial satisfaction of a money debt is not a buyer in ordinary course of business.

(b) A buyer in ordinary course of business takes free of a security interest in the manufactured home created by the buyer’s seller, even if the security interest is perfected and the buyer knows of its existence.

Section 7. Effects of Conversion.

(a) The following rules apply to a manufactured home that is converted to real property under Section 4:

(1) Except as provided in paragraph (2), the rules that determine the rights and remedies of a person that, before conversion of the manufactured home to real property under Section 4, had a security interest in the manufactured home, and the effectiveness and priority of the security interest under this act against a purchaser and a creditor, are those that would apply, on conversion to real property, the manufactured home became a fixture as that term is used.

(2) If the manufactured home became a fixture, as that term is used before conversion to real property under Section 4, for purposes of paragraph (1) the home must be treated as having become a fixture at the earlier time.

(3) A copy of a financing statement or certificate of title that is attached to a certificate of location and that was sufficient to perfect a security interest in the manufactured home immediately before conversion to real property constitutes a fixture filing under covering the manufactured home and provides sufficient notice so that a subsequent bona fide purchaser of the manufactured home takes subject to the security interest.

(b) The following rules apply to a manufactured home that is real property under Section 4 and is subsequently detached from the land on which it is located:

(1) The manufactured home becomes personal property.

(2) Except as provided in paragraph (3), the rules that determine the rights of a person that, immediately before detachment, had a security interest in the manufactured home arising under real property law, and the effectiveness and priority of the security interest against a purchaser and a creditor, are those that apply.

(3) On default a person that, immediately before detachment, had a security interest in the manufactured home arising under real property law may proceed under real property law. The remedies under are subject to laws.

(c) Each transfer of a right, title, or interest in a manufactured home that is real property must be made in accordance with real property law and must include a legally sufficient description of the land on which the home is located. If the manufactured home is sold separately from the land, the conveyance document for the home must include the unique identifier of the manufactured home.

(d) Title to a manufactured home remains separate from the title to the land on which it is located though the home has become real property. Title to the home is not encumbered by a security interest in or other encumbrance in or on the title to the land. Title to the land is not encumbered by a security interest in or other encumbrance in or on the title to the home.

(e) If a manufactured home is located on land that the homeowner does not own, the terms of a land lease and the landlord’s and homeowner’s rights and duties under the lease are not affected by conversion of the home to or from real property.

Section 8. Relation to other law

(a) If a manufactured home becomes real property it is not a fixture and, except as otherwise provided in Section 8, is not subject to the law of fixtures.

(b) Unless displaced by provisions of this chapter principles of law and equity supplement its provisions.

Section 9. Home Warranty

A warranty that applies to a manufactured home when it is sold and rights arising from a breach of the warranty are not affected by a subsequent change in the home’s classification as real or personal property. No additional warranty applies to a manufactured home solely because of a subsequent change in the home’s classification as real or personal property.

Section 10. Remedy for Noncompliance

(a) A person injured by another person’s failure to comply with this chapter may be awarded damages and obtain other relief.

(b) If a retailer violates Section 3(a) or if a seller, including a retailer, violates Section 3(b) or (e), it is subject to the remedies and penalties available to a consumer and to the Attorney General under the consumer protection act

(d) This section does not limit other remedies of an injured person.

Section 11. Uniformity of Application and Construction

In applying and construing this uniform act, consideration must be given to the need to promote uniformity of the law with respect to its subject matter among states that enact it.

Section 12. Relation to Electronic Signatures in Global and National Commerce Act

This chapter modifies, limits, or supersedes the Electronic Signatures in Global and National Commerce Act, 15 U.S.C. Section 7001 et seq., but does not modify, limit, or supersede Section 101(c) of that act, 15 U.S.C. Section 7001(c), or authorize electronic delivery of any of the notices described in Section 103(b) of that act, 15 U.S.C. Section 7003(b).

Section 13. Savings Clause

This chapter does not affect an action or proceeding commenced before the effective date of this act.

Name:	District/Address:
James B. Eldridge	Middlesex and Worcester
Marjorie C. Decker	25th Middlesex