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Home My WebLink About1998 06 22 Informational Item G 'COMMISSION AGENDA ITEM G REGULAR CONSENT INFORMA TIONA! X June 22, 1998 Meeting MORt ~EPT. Authorization REQUEST: The Community Development Department, Building Division informing the City Commission of its response to the Commissions directive relative to tie down inspection for new and existing mobile homes.. PURPOSE: The purpose of this Board item is to inform the Commission that the Building Division has formulated a procedure to assist citizens in existing mobile homes to obtain a professional inspection of the tie downs for their homes. APPLICABLE LAW: There is no State Statute or Building Code requirement to inspect existing mobile tie downs. State Statute Section 320.8285 requires each county or municipality to provide for onsite inspection of installations. No person shall be designated to perform onsite inspections unless such person is competent in the areas of mobile home setup procedures and requirements. CONSIDERATIONS: · In the wake of recent storms that have caused extensive damage to mobile homes in the area the City Commission, at the June8,1998 meeting, requested the City staff to consider the feasibility of the City performing tie down inspections for existing mobile homes in the City of Winter Springs · The City of Ocoee offered to perform tie downs for existing mobile homes. As of Friday June 12 two owners had requested inspections and no problems requiring replacement were found. The Building Official did express a concern as to the ramifications if violations were found and the corrections were not made. · The Winter Springs Building Division has contacted the management of Hacienda Village and Tuscawilla Trails to see if they had initiated any type of an inspection program. Hacienda Village said they were not interested in the responsibility of coordinating something like that with contractors. ill Tuscawilla Trails one of the residents arranged to have a contractor present March 21 of this year to inspect tie downs for any residents that were interested. There were six or seven tenants that were interested at the time but we do not know how many actually followed up and had the inspections performed. If the City were to offer to perform tie down inspections for existing mobile homes a number of issues would need to be reviewed in making that decision. For example; · If problems were discovered during an inspection this would constitute a code violation and corrections would have to be performed by State licensed mobile home installers. If the owner either failed to do so or refused to make the corrections for economic reasons or whatever the City would be obligated to pursue enforcement action, possibly leading to declaring the home unsafe and requiring the resident leave the structure. · There may be some liability issues or at best significant fmger pointing if after our inspection a home was damaged as a result of tie down failure during a storm. · A proper inspection of the home would require crawling underneath and visually inspecting each anchor location to determine if there was standing water, loose or corroded tie downs, or if the anchors were in the ground to the proper level. Because of the conditions under a mobile home it is not reasonable to request an inspector or a fireman to perform this type of inspection in the course of their regular duties. A person would need to be assigned specifically for this function. Philip Bergelt, Program Manager for the Florida Bureau of Mobile Home and Recreational Vehicles Construction felt the better course of action would be to provide the residents of mobile home communities with the list of State licensed mobile home installers and have the homeowners contract with them for an inspection. That way the inspection is done by a professional in that field and the City of Winter Springs is not held liable in any way. The Building Division is preparing a brochure that would be placed in the community center of each of the mobile home communities in the City. This brochure would provide information regarding tie down requirements and other recommendations for mobile home storm preparedness. We would also provide a list of State licensed mobile home installers that could provide the inspections and make the necessary repairs. FUNDING: None required COMMISSION ACTION: