MH decal or RP decal — find out first
Every occupied manufactured home in Florida carries one of two decals. An MH decal means the home is titled personal property, typically on a rented lot, and is registered annually through the county tax collector. An RP decal means the owner also owns the land, filed a declaration with the county property appraiser, and the home is now taxed and conveyed as real property along with the land. The decal on your window determines the entire sale mechanism.
- MH decal: the sale is a title transfer through the tax collector's office.
- RP decal: the sale is a real estate closing with a deed, and there is no title to sign.
- A home with an RP decal generally cannot be moved until the declaration is reversed and the title reinstated.
Titles, duplicates and liens
Florida titles are issued by FLHSMV and handled locally by the county tax collector or a licensed tag agency. Each section of a multi-section home has its own title and its own decal. A duplicate title is applied for by the owner of record, and any lien on the record has to be satisfied and released electronically or on paper before the transfer will process.
- Have the VIN, year, make and length ready — Florida VINs on older homes are often only on the tongue or the data plate.
- Both titles of a doublewide must be signed; one signed title stalls the whole transfer.
- Florida requires the buyer to apply for transfer within 30 days of the sale.
Park approval and Chapter 723 rights
Florida's Mobile Home Act, Chapter 723, governs communities with ten or more lots and gives homeowners real, enumerated rights — including notice requirements around lot rent increases and around a park's change of use. It also allows the park owner to approve a purchaser who intends to keep the home on the lot, based on the park's written, uniformly applied criteria.
- Ask for the prospectus and the current rules — in a Chapter 723 community these are documents you are entitled to.
- Approval criteria must be applied consistently, but a park can still refuse a buyer who does not meet them.
- If the park is closing or changing use, homeowners have statutory notice rights — get the dates in writing.
Lot rent, taxes and payoffs
Florida park lot rent is billed monthly and arrears are common in a distressed sale. On the tax side, an MH-decal home owes annual registration, while an RP-decal home appears on the county tax bill with the land. Either way, get a written payoff figure from the park and from the tax collector before you agree to any number.
Wind zones, hurricanes and insurance
Florida is the strictest wind-zone state in the country. Most of the peninsula and the entire coast is HUD Wind Zone III, with Wind Zone II inland in parts of north Florida, and a home built to a lower zone cannot legally be installed in a higher zone. Homes built before the 1994 HUD standards update are meaningfully weaker in high wind and are frequently uninsurable or refused by communities.
- Check the HUD data plate for the wind zone the home was built to before planning any move.
- Anchoring and tie-down systems must meet current Florida installation standards at any new site.
- Unrepaired hurricane damage, prior claims and roof age all affect what a buyer can insure.
Flood zones and elevation
Large parts of Florida's manufactured housing stock sit in FEMA-mapped special flood hazard areas. Flood zone affects insurance cost, what a lender will accept, whether substantial improvement rules apply after damage, and in some counties whether a replacement home can be placed at the same elevation. Look the address up before you assume the home can simply be replaced.
Inherited homes, estates and life estates
A Florida title cannot be transferred by an heir who has not been appointed. Formal administration through the circuit court's probate division produces letters of administration; smaller estates may qualify for summary administration, which is considerably faster. Homestead property has its own Florida-specific rules that can override a will, so an inherited home is worth one call to a probate attorney before anything is signed.
- Multiple heirs generally must all join in the sale.
- Lot rent continues to accrue during probate and is a common source of loss.
- If the home is titled jointly with rights of survivorship, the path may be much shorter.
Rural versus metro Florida
In Tampa Bay, Orlando, Fort Myers, Jacksonville and the southeast coast, well-kept homes in 55+ communities have a genuine retail market, and park approval is usually the binding constraint rather than demand. In the Panhandle, the Big Bend and inland agricultural counties, homes are more often on owned acreage, buyers are fewer, and the cost of removing an unsalvageable home is a real part of the math.
