Checking a Mobile Home Installer's License in Florida

Florida licenses mobile home installers through the Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles, specifically its Bureau of Mobile Home and Recreational Vehicle Construction. Verifying that license takes one phone call, costs nothing, and is the single most useful thing you can do before letting anyone put a jack under your home.

This page explains what the license means, how to check it, and what else to ask for. It applies to whoever you hire, including us.

What the license covers

Section 320.822 of the Florida Statutes defines setup, or installation, as “the operations performed at the occupancy site which render a mobile home or park trailer fit for habitation.” FLHSMV’s own FAQ spells out what that includes: transporting, positioning, blocking, leveling, supporting, tying down, connecting utility systems, and assembling the sections of a multi-section home.

That last point catches people out. It is easy to assume the license is about hauling homes down the road and that a relevel is handyman work. It is not. The frame someone is asking to lift carries the entire structure, and the state treats the people doing it accordingly. The department’s FAQ answers the do-it-yourself question in one word: “No.”

What a licensee has to do

Section 320.8249 sets the bar. An installer has to be at least 18, complete a department-approved training course of at least eight hours, pass a department-approved exam, post a performance bond, carry liability insurance, and renew the license every year. Installing without a license is a first-degree misdemeanor.

Florida also sets the technical standards the work has to meet, in Chapter 15C-1 of the Florida Administrative Code. That is where pier spacing, footing size, blocking and the anchoring requirements come from, and the anchoring side is set out in detail on our Florida tie-down requirements page. Anchoring is tied to the HUD wind zone, and Sumter County, along with Lake and Marion, sits in Wind Zone II.

How Sumter County layers on top of it

Sumter County Building Services, at the Villages Sumter County Service Center on Powell Road in Wildwood, is the permitting office for the unincorporated county. Its mobile home permit page says the permit “must be issued to an IH licensed contractor,” which is the county’s shorthand for a state-licensed installer, and an owner who wants to pull the permit for an installer “must appear in person before issuance” with a notarized affidavit. The submittal wants the foundation and blocking diagram with the manufacturer’s tie-down schematic, a floor plan, a skirting diagram, stair and deck details, the electrical service, and the title or purchase agreement showing the home’s size and age. A home fifteen years or older than the permit year needs a pre-permit inspection first, $91 on the county fee schedule, and the setup permit itself is $365.

Across the line, the Town of Lady Lake runs its own permits and says the same thing in its own words: “Licensed mobile home installers must obtain this permit to set up a mobile, manufactured home, or park model,” and a home in a rental park needs the park’s written permission before the permit is released. Unincorporated Lake County goes through Lake County Building Services in Tavares.

The pattern is the same everywhere: the county will not issue the paper to an unlicensed person, so the crew that tells you no permit is needed is often the crew that could not pull one.

How to check, in order

1. Ask for the number in writing. Text, email, or on the quote. Not a photograph of a wallet card and not a verbal recital.
2. Confirm it with the state. Look it up or call the Bureau of Mobile Home and Recreational Vehicle Construction through flhsmv.gov. Ask specifically whether the license is current.
3. Ask for the insurance certificate. The license and the liability insurance are different things and neither substitutes for the other. Ask for the certificate itself, with the policy dates on it.
4. Ask what happens if a pier cracks a wall. A serious contractor has an answer involving their insurer. An unserious one changes the subject.
5. Ask for the readings. A level check should produce pier-by-pier numbers in writing. A contractor who will not write down what they measured is asking you to take the diagnosis on faith.

Why we put this page up

We are a lead-generation site for local mobile home work in Wildwood and Sumter County, and the work itself is performed by licensed, insured local mobile home installers. Publishing the verification steps is not against our interest.

A homeowner who checks a license ends up with work that holds, and the fastest way for this trade to lose a customer for good is one bad job done cheaply by somebody who could not be found afterward.

If you want the price side of the conversation before the credentials side, the pricing page publishes the full tables and the cost calculator will put a range on your home without asking for an email.

Get the free level check

Pier-by-pier readings in writing, no obligation, and an honest answer including the answer that nothing is wrong. We cover Wildwood, Oxford, Lady Lake, Bushnell, Coleman, Webster, and Leesburg.