SB 119: Manufactured or Mobile Homes; limited exceptions to circumstances under which a manufactured home shall become real property; provide

Under current Georgia law, a manufactured home can become part of the real property it sits on once the owner and all lienholders file a Certificate of Permanent Location and surrender the vehicle title. This bill changes that process. It removes the requirement that lienholders sign the certificate, leaving only the homeowner responsible for filing it, but adds a new requirement that the state revenue commissioner notify all lienholders in writing once the certificate is filed and the title surrendered. The bill also adds new protections for lenders who held a lien on the home before it became real property. Those lenders keep all the rights and remedies they had when the home was personal property, including the ability to repossess the home without the consent of the landowner, even after the home has legally become part of the real estate. Lenders and buyers who take the home back this way can apply for a new personal property title. The law would take effect July 1, 2025, and apply to contracts signed on or after that date.

• Removes the requirement that all lienholders sign the Certificate of Permanent Location; now only the homeowner must file it.
• Requires the state revenue commissioner to notify every lienholder in writing once a Certificate of Permanent Location is filed and the vehicle title is surrendered.
• Preserves a prior lienholder's right to repossess a manufactured home as personal property even after it legally becomes part of the real estate, without needing the landowner's consent.
• Allows a lienholder or a buyer who acquires the home through repossession to apply for a new personal property certificate of title.
• Bars the new filing process from imposing extra licensing rules or new obligations on lienholders or their agents.
• Sets the effective date as July 1, 2025, applying only to contracts entered into on or after that date.

Owners of manufactured or mobile homes, lenders and other lienholders who finance them, landowners where these homes sit, clerks of superior court who record the certificates, county tax assessors, and the state revenue commissioner's office that processes titles.

Lenders financing manufactured homes would keep the ability to repossess a home even after it becomes part of someone's real estate, which affects how much risk lenders take on and how easily a landowner or new property owner could lose the home to a lien dispute. Lienholders also gain a guaranteed notice when a home converts to real property.

• Section 1 rewrites O.C.G.A. § 8-2-181 so only the homeowner, not lienholders, must file the Certificate of Permanent Location, and references new exceptions in Code Sections 8-2-183 and 8-2-183.1.
• Section 2 amends O.C.G.A. § 8-2-182 to require the commissioner to notify all holders of security interests in writing once a Certificate of Permanent Location is filed and the title surrendered.
• Section 3 adds new subsections (c) through (f) to O.C.G.A. § 8-2-183 protecting prior lienholders' rights to repossess a home as personal property despite its conversion to real property.
• New subsection (d) lets a lienholder exercising these personal property remedies apply for a new certificate of title without needing the last title.
• New subsection (e) extends the same title application process to a buyer who acquires the home from a lienholder exercising these remedies.
• New subsection (f) states the new filing rules cannot impose additional licensing or conduct requirements on lienholders or their agents.
• Section 4 sets the effective date as July 1, 2025, applying to contracts entered into on or after that date.

1. 2025-05-14Effective Date 2025-07-01
2. 2025-05-14Act 286
3. 2025-05-14Senate Date Signed by Governor (Senado)
4. 2025-04-07Senate Sent to Governor (Senado)
5. 2025-03-25House Passed/Adopted (Cámara de Representantes)
6. 2025-03-25House Third Readers (Cámara de Representantes)
7. 2025-03-20House Committee Favorably Reported (Cámara de Representantes)
8. 2025-03-11House Second Readers (Cámara de Representantes)

• Russ Goodman (R, SD-008)Patrocinador principal
• Sam Watson (R, SD-011)
• Bo Hatchett (R, SD-050)
• Harold Jones (D, SD-022)
• Carden Summers (R, SD-013)
• Freddie Sims (D, SD-012)
• Nikki Merritt (D, SD-009)
• Rob Leverett (R, HD-123)

1. AprobadaVotación: Senado6 de marzo de 2025

   53 a favor, 0 en contra (3 sin votar, 0 ausentes)

   Passage: Senate Vote #204

2. AprobadaVotación: Cámara de Representantes25 de marzo de 2025

   168 a favor, 0 en contra (5 sin votar, 7 ausentes)

   Passage: House Vote #311

• manufactured homes
• mobile homes
• property law
• liens and security interests
• real estate titles