Moving a Manufactured Home in North Carolina: Permits, Movers, and Set-Up

The step most sellers have never heard of: the county moving permit

North Carolina is one of the states where you cannot simply hire a truck. Under G.S. 105-316.1, a mobile home generally may not be moved from its site without a permit issued by the tax collector of the county where the home is located, and the person moving it is expected to have that permit.

G.S. 105-316.2 spells out what you have to do to get one. An owner who is not a manufacturer or retailer must either pay all taxes the owner owes to the county and any taxing unit in it, show the tax collector that no taxes are due, or satisfy the collector that moving the home will not jeopardize collection of taxes due or about to become due.

• Your name and address as owner.
• The address or location the home is being moved from.
• The address or location it is being moved to.
• The name and address of the carrier who will transport it.

Why that permit matters to a seller who is not moving anything

Because it means unpaid county taxes are not a problem you can push down the road. If a buyer's plan depends on relocating the home, the tax balance has to be cleared before the home can legally leave the lot — so the balance becomes part of the deal math whether you intended it to or not.

It also means the county tax office, not the state, is the first phone call in any move. Procedure, forms, and fees are handled locally and vary from county to county.

Who is legally allowed to transport it

Hauling a manufactured home down a North Carolina highway is not general trucking. Professional housemovers are licensed under state law, and G.S. 20-360 requires a licensed housemover to obtain a permit from the Department of Transportation for each move on the State Highway System, subject to bonding and the Department's regulations.

Separately, a manufactured home is oversize load by definition, so the move runs through NCDOT's Oversize/Overweight Permit Unit, with route, width, height, escort, and time-of-day conditions attached to the permit.

Setting the home back up is its own licensed trade

Under G.S. 143-143.11, it is unlawful for a manufactured home manufacturer, dealer, salesperson, or set-up contractor to do business in North Carolina without a license from the Manufactured Housing Board for each place of business. Set-up — piers, footings, anchoring and tie-downs, and closing the home up — is regulated work, not a favor a handyman does over a weekend.

This is one reason a home that can stay on its current site is usually worth more than the same home that has to move. Transport, permits, a set-up crew, a new foundation, skirting, and utility reconnection stack up quickly, and they all come out of what a buyer can pay you.

Utilities, the destination, and the local layer

• Power, water, sewer or septic, and gas all have to be disconnected at the origin and re-established at the destination, each on their own provider's schedule.
• The receiving site needs to legally accept a manufactured home — zoning, minimum age or size rules in some jurisdictions, septic or sewer capacity, driveway access, and in some places a floodplain determination.
• If the home is going into a park, the community's approval and its rules on home age and condition come before anything else.
• If the home was ever converted to real property, it is legally part of the land it sits on, and that has to be unwound before it can be treated as a movable home again.

What to tell us

Two facts change our answer more than any other: can the home stay where it is, and are county taxes current. If you know the year and size of the home and whether it is a singlewide or doublewide, that is enough for a first conversation.

Requirements may vary. Confirm the current procedure with your county tax office, NCDOT, park management, a licensed housemover, a licensed set-up contractor, or an attorney.