A “Mobile Home” is a structure manufactured prior to June 15, 1976, that was not required to be constructed in accordance with the National Manufactured Housing Construction in Safety Standards Act.
According to Minnesota Statutes, a “manufactured home” is a structure, transportable in one or more sections, which in the traveling mode, is eight body feet or more in width or 40 body feet or more in length, or, when erected on site, is 320 or more square feet, and which is built on a permanent chassis and designed to be used as a dwelling with or without a permanent foundation when connected to the required utilities.
In Minnesota, a “Modular Home” is a one- or two-family dwelling constructed in accordance with applicable standards adopted under state law and attached to a foundation designed to the State Building Code. The big difference is that a Modular Home is generally built in compliance with the site-built home standards for the regional , state, or local building code used by the government unit in which the house is to be located. Commonly, this is the IRC code.
The only definitive way to tell the difference between a HUD code or a modular is the labeling. Someone may tell you that there are tricks to the trade, such as if there is a chassis then it is a HUD code home. This is not necessarily true. Some modulars are built on a metal frame and some HUD code homes built in the 1980s do not have a metal frame. So be sure to check the labels, because looks can be deceiving.
