The call usually comes a few months after the funeral. A family has a manufactured home on some land, everyone agrees on what should happen to it, and nothing can happen, because the title says a name that belongs to a person who has died.
This is not a technicality a cooperative buyer can work around. A Florida certificate of title has an owner of record, and transfer requires that owner's signature. Somebody has to hold legal authority to sign in their place, and getting it is a court process, not a form.
Here is the order it actually has to go in, and what it costs the estate to move slowly.
This article is general information about Florida probate and titling procedure. It is not legal advice. Estate administration depends heavily on individual circumstances, and statutes and court procedures change. Consult a Florida attorney or your circuit court clerk's office.
First: find out whether the home is even separately titled
Before anything else, establish which of two situations you are in, because they lead to completely different processes.
The home is still titled personal property. There is a Florida certificate of title through the Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles, with a VIN and an owner. The home is an asset of the estate, distinct from any land, and it transfers by title.
The title was retired. Under section 319.261 of the Florida Statutes, an owner can retire the certificate of title when the home is permanently affixed to real property they own. If that was done, the home became part of the real property and, in the statute's words, may only be transferred together with the property to which it is affixed. In that case you are dealing with real estate, and the home rides along with the land.
An RP decal in the window is not the same as a retired title, and families get this wrong constantly. We lay out the difference in the RP sticker article. Check the window sticker, look for a paper title, pull the Property Appraiser card and search the county records against the parcel. Those four checks usually settle it, and title versus deed covers them in depth.
Second: establish who can legally sign
If the home is titled, somebody needs authority. In Florida that generally means going through probate in the circuit court where the decedent lived, and which path applies depends on the estate.
Formal administration. A personal representative is appointed by the court and receives letters of administration, which is the document a tag agency or a closing agent will actually want to see. This is the default path for estates of any real size.
Summary administration. A shorter path set out in section 735.201. It is available where the value of the entire estate subject to administration in Florida, less property exempt from creditors' claims, does not exceed $75,000, or where the decedent has been dead for more than two years. That second condition catches a lot of manufactured home cases, because families often leave these situations alone for years.
Disposition without administration. Section 735.301 covers a narrow set of very small estates, consisting of exempt personal property and non-exempt personal property not exceeding certain final expenses. It is not a general shortcut.
There is also a title-specific path at the tag agency in some circumstances. FLHSMV's application for certificate of title, form HSMV 82040, contains a release of heirs section used in certain cases, particularly involving a surviving spouse. Whether it fits your situation is a question for the county tag office or an attorney, not an assumption to make.
What does not work, in any version: a family agreement, however unanimous. A buyer's closing agent needs documented authority, and so does the tag office.
Third: gather the paperwork before you need it
For a titled home, you are looking for:
- The Florida certificate of title.
- Lien information and, critically, releases for anything paid off years ago.
- The current decal status. An MH decal renews annually through the Tax Collector, and a lapsed one is one more thing to clear.
- Recent tax bills, both real property on the land and any separate assessment on the home.
- The insurance policy, and whether it is still in force on a now-vacant home.
- Certified copy of the death certificate.
For a home whose title was retired, you are working with the deed and the recorded retirement documents instead.
Two very common blockers. The title cannot be found, which is solvable but adds steps. Or the name on the title does not match current records because of a marriage, a divorce, or a prior informal sale that never transferred properly. Both are fixable and both take weeks, not days, which is the argument for starting before you have a buyer.
What the estate is paying while this happens
This is the part nobody warns families about, and it is where the money actually goes.
Taxes keep accruing. On the land, and on the home if it is separately assessed.
Insurance is a problem, not a line item. A vacant manufactured home is a different risk than an occupied one, and carriers treat it that way. Some policies restrict coverage after a vacancy period. An uninsured home through a Florida storm season is the estate's exposure.
The home deteriorates faster empty than occupied. In Central Florida that is not a slow process. With the power off and no air conditioning, humidity gets into everything. Mold, swollen cabinetry, ruined flooring, and the smell that a buyer notices in the first ten seconds. Six months unoccupied through a Florida summer can move a home from "needs paint" to "needs gutting."
Small failures become big ones. A roof leak nobody sees. A slow plumbing leak under the home. Rodents in the ductwork.
The costly mistake is almost never a bad decision. It is a slow one. The family waits for the paperwork to resolve itself, and nine months later the asset is worth materially less than it was.
Fourth: decide what to actually do with it
Once authority exists and the records are straight, there are realistically three paths.
Keep it. Worth considering if an heir will live in it, or if it sits on land the family wants to hold anyway. The land is usually the part worth keeping.
List it. Reasonable for a home in decent condition, especially on owned land. Expect it to take time, and expect the buyer's financing to be the long pole, because manufactured home lending is narrower than site built lending. Our financing page explains why.
Sell it as-is. Faster, no repairs, fewer contingencies. The tradeoff is price. This tends to make sense when the home needs work, when the estate is bleeding holding costs, or when heirs live in different states and want it finished.
There is no universally correct answer. It depends on condition, whether the land is owned, and how much the estate spends every month it waits.
A note on homes that need to leave the property
One situation that comes up constantly with inherited property: the family wants the land, or wants to sell the land clean, and the old home is in the way.
If the home is still titled, it can be sold separately and taken off the property. That is a real option and most families do not know it exists. If the title was retired, the home cannot be sold separately until a new title is issued, which requires an affidavit from the land owners and all secured parties and lienholders consenting to removal, plus a title insurance certification dated within ten days. Read selling a home that has to be moved before you plan around it.
Where we come in
We buy manufactured homes on private land across Central Florida, including inherited homes, homes with title complications, and homes that need to come off the land and be moved. We have had the "the title is in dad's name" conversation many times and can usually tell you what has to be cleared before anything closes.
Send us the details and we will give you a straight read, including when we think the family would do better listing it or keeping it. You can also read more about how we work.
Sources: Florida Statutes 735.201, Summary administration; nature of proceedings; Florida Statutes Chapter 735, Probate Code: Small Estates; Florida Statutes 319.261, Retirement of mobile home certificate of title; The Florida Bar, Probate in Florida consumer pamphlet; FLHSMV procedure RS-10, Mobile Home Registrations
