Why is there a Title for a Trailer House?

I wonder what would happen if I was to build a cabin with wheels under it? I'm not planning to do this, but that would be a "portable cabin", meaning it could be moved. I wonder how that would qualify, regarding a title?

I have seen this done. Some guy bought some land to hunt on, and did not want to build a permanent structure. He build a rather nice cabin on the frame which I believe came from a semi-truck trailer. He had a hitch on the front, and stored it on his land, but he would also haul it and use when he went camping. It's my opinion that this would qualify as a RV camper, even though it was home built. I spoke with the guy when he was at a campsite and got to see the interior of it. He built a really nice cabin, and I was impressed. But I never bothered to ask about title or licensing at that time.

I have also seen people get a trailer home, and build it into a house. In fact I visited some people once who had what looked like a regular house from the outside, but when you got inside there was a trailer inside of it. They said that they originally lived in just the trailer and kept building around it until it became a house. It still had many of the trailer rooms inside such as the original bathroom, but the trailer was completely enclosed inside the house, including a roof over the entire building, with the original trailer roof now inside the attic.

Reply to
Farmer588
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This brings to mind what happened to me when I was 18 years old. I had a learners permit to drive. Not an actual license yet. My father would take me out to teach me to drive, but he could be really difficult to drive with since he seemed to be a nervous wreck the whole time.

A friend of mine was selling his car, and I spoke to him about it. He said that I should take it for a test drive. I told him that he would need to come along since I needed a licensed driver in the car. He did, and I bought the car, with the agreement that he would come along with me a few more times to drive. This all worked out fine.

A few months later I was driving, with another licensed friend in the car, when my car quit running. That guy went and got his car, put a chain on my car, and was pulling my car to a mechanic. I was steering my car while he pulled it. We got pulled over by the police. The cop asked for my license and I gave him my learners permit. He told me that since I did not have a licensed driver in my car, he had to give me a ticket. I explained to him that my "instructor" was the guy who was towing me, and since my car broke down, he was teaching me how to tow a car. The cop said that I really needed another licensed person in my car, but said that this was an unusual circumstance and that I needed to speak with the city attorney, who would decided if I should be ticketed or not.

The city attorney looked at the paperwork and said "this is the first time I've seen this sort of thing". Then he said "I'm really not sure if this is a violation of the law or not, since it's unusual". He then asked me if I could get my license in the next two weeks. I told him that I could do that. He told me to get my license, and call him when I did, with the license number, and then he would drop the whole thing. I got my license and it was dropped.

Reply to
Farmer588

And of course, if it burns down and somebody is killed, your insurance won't pay off.

Sorry, couldn't resist.

Reply to
TimR

If the "trailer" never left your property, then you wouldn't have to do any thing.

If you were planning on LEGALLY moving it down public highways, even just o nce, you would need to have it licensed and titled as a "home built" traile r in many states.

Either he got it titled and licensed, or he's towing it illegally. That's t he long and short of it.

Paranoid whack-jobs will claim that the cops have nothing better to do than hassle innocent people for no reason, but the truth is they do. You've got to be misbehaving something awful on the road to get pulled over.

Just cruising down the road straight and level with what appears to be a le gally-licensed trailer from 500' away, they will not bother you. All they c are is the trailer is not whipping around behind you, nothing is falling of f, and the license plate has the correct color sticker on it.

Reply to
dennisgauge

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