Retiring manufactured home titles in the state of Georgia
Topics:
- T-234 Form for manufactured homes in Georgia
- What is a Certificate of permanent location for Mobile Homes?
- Deed Book for manufactured homes
- Filling out the form to retire titles for mobile homes
- Obtaining a Certificate of Permanent Location for mobile homes
Hey everyone, I’m Brad Woodall, a real estate investor and the owner of Arbor View Properties, which includes arborviewhomebuyers.com and gamobilehomebuyers.com. I deal with a lot of mobile homes and have extensive experience in this area, whether they are situated on land or in parks.
Retiring titles for mobile homes can be a complex process. Many people haven’t handled it properly, or at all. In this episode, I’ll be delving into the topic of retiring titles and what it entails. Essentially, retiring titles involves surrendering them to the state, marking the shift from the mobile home being classified as personal property to being permanently affixed to the land.
There is a formal process in the state of Georgia for retiring or surrendering titles. You must fill out a specific form for this process. Most lenders and banks require titles to be retired when loaning money for mobile homes. This is to prevent someone from putting a lien on the mobile home and repossessing it if the debt is unpaid. When getting a mortgage for a mobile home, such as a single wide or double wide, you will need to retire the titles. In Georgia, this process is done through a form called the T-234.
T-234 Form
Let’s get started. I am going to explain the T-234 form to you. This form was revised in 2005, but it was created in 2004. In 2004, the state of Georgia passed a law that established a formal process for mobile homes and manufactured homes. Prior to that, each county and municipality handled things differently, resulting in a lot of confusion.
In 2004, the state declared that all mobile and manufactured homes are considered personal property until their titles are retired. This means that until the titles are retired, owners need to get titles and tags for their mobile homes. Even if owners think their titles are retired because they’ve applied for a homestead exemption, they may not be.
When it comes to taxes, in many counties, owners receive two tax bills, one for the mobile home and one for the land it’s on. To retire the title, owners have to follow a formal process and surrender the titles. The T-234 form is used for this process. I have filled out many T-234 forms and understand the process well. I will walk you through it.
You can download the T-234 form from the Georgia Department of Revenue’s website and print it out. You will need to fill in your name and mailing address, as well as the debtor’s name and address, which is the owner of the mobile home. If you want to send a certified copy to someone else, you can include their mailing address too.
Certificate of Permanent Location
The debtor is considered the owner of the property. If there are two owners, two spots should be filled. In case there is a lien on the property, you should provide details of the lien or lien holder’s security party, including their name and mailing address.
The certificate of permanent location covers the following collateral: the VIN and the title number. If you own a double wide, you will need two T-234 forms, one for each side, as double wides have two titles (side A and side B). This is because they are shipped separately as two distinct units or vehicles. Therefore, you need the VIN number and title number for each side.
In the section for the description of real estate to which this is permanently affixed, you should put the property address. You will also need to provide the deed book and page in the real estate records from the local clerk of courts for your county.
Deed Book
When looking for the deed book and page number, you can search for these in your local clerk of courts for your county. When you purchased the property, the deed was recorded with the county clerk of courts, and you will find a book number and a page number. Please provide the page number here and the deed book number in the real estate records in the clerk of court of your county. You will need to fill in the county in which you live, as this will contain the legal description of the property.
An address is not legally descriptive, so you will need to find the legal description in the local clerk of courts. This usually comprises surveyors’ terms and provides the actual parcel of real estate. Additionally, you should include the names of the recorded owners of the real estate.
Filling Out The Form
The following are the instructions for filling out the form:
- If you are recording the form, fill in your name as the debtor. Include the names of both title holders if there are two. Also, include the counties in which the certificate is filed, which should be the county where the property is located.
- Sign the form as the debtor. If there is a lien or security holder, they will also need to sign the form.
- After filling out the form, there are two copies. Take the form and the titles to the clerk of courts to have them recorded. This will attach the document to your property in the deed records.
- Recording the form usually involves a document recording fee, which varies from county to county, typically between $10 to $25. The clerk of courts will stamp and sign the form to indicate that it has been recorded.
- Once the form has been recorded, take the recorded document and the titles to the tax commissioner’s office of your county to file the T-234 form.
Obtaining a Certificate of Permanent Location
- When you go to the tag office, you will need to bring the document and show that you have already recorded it with the courts.
- You will need to pay a fee, which is $18 per side in the state of Georgia, so the total will be $36.
- You will also need to surrender your titles and give them these forms.
- The tax commissioner’s office will process the paperwork and submit a request to the local law enforcement agency to confirm that the mobile or manufactured home is permanently affixed to the land, meaning that it is not movable, and it’s sitting on a permanent foundation.
- The agency will check the VIN numbers and send the information back to the Georgia Department of Revenue.
- After a few weeks, you will receive all your documents back in the mail, including a certificate of permanent location, and at this point, your titles will be retired, and the mobile or manufactured home will be considered real property and an improvement on the real property.
The county tax assessor will send you one tax bill for the real estate and all improvements thereon. This could include multiple improvements such as a garage, barn, shed, outbuilding, driveway, pool, or any other additions to the land, including a mobile manufactured home or a stick-built house. You will receive a single tax bill covering all of these.
The titles have been retired and surrendered to the state, which means that no one can place a lien on the titles to the manufactured or mobile home. They can only place a lien on the property itself. From a lender’s perspective, this is important as most lenders will require you to have completed this process.
After completing the necessary steps, you should check the deed records to ensure that the T-234 form has been properly filed under the property with your local county clerk of court. It may require some searching, but it should be recorded with the clerk of courts.
Additionally, provide your VIN numbers to the county tax commissioner’s office in Georgia to check if the titles have been retired. If not, you may need to obtain replacement titles and go through the necessary process.
If you plan to sell the property and the buyer intends to get a mortgage, it’s important to retire these titles as almost all mortgage companies, including HUD, Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, VA, USDA, will require it for the loan. There are other requirements as well, which will be detailed in another video.
I hope this information is helpful. You can find more videos about selling mobile homes in Georgia on our website. Thank you for watching this video.