Last week, we talked about what can happen with your car after your death. But what if you own a mobile home? How does it get to your loved ones after you are gone? Prior to 1978, mobile homes were considered trailer coaches, and were transferred just like vehicles. However since 1978, mobile homes are not considered vehicles. Transferring mobile home titles is done similarly to vehicle titles, but there are some differences
If your mobile home is in your sole name, the total value of all titled mobile homes you own at the time of your death is less than $10,000 and you have no other real or personal property that needs to be probated through the probate court process, your heirs can just transfer your mobile home into their name(s) just like a vehicle. All they would need to do is go to the Secretary of State with your death certificate, the mobile home title, identification and proof of heirship and fill out the form TR-29, Certification From the Heir to a Vehicle. The form is at the Secretary of State office or it can be found online at http://www.michigan.gov/documents/tr-29_16195_7.pdf.
When this procedure is used and you left a surviving spouse, he or she would be your sole heir and the only one that needs to sign off to transfer the mobile home into his or her sole name. If you have no surviving spouse and just children, then typically all of the children must go to the Secretary of State office to sign off to transfer the home out of your name.
Your loved ones can still avoid probate court proceedings even if your titled mobile home is worth more than $10,000. Your heirs can transfer your titled mobile home by affidavit if the total value of your net estate in your sole name, including the mobile home is less than $21,000 (in 2012) and does not include any real estate. As I write this, the 2013 amounts have not been posted on the State of Michigan website.
In such cases, to transfer your titled mobile home, all your loved ones need to do is go to their local Secretary of State’s office with your mobile home title, a certified copy of your death certificate and a sworn statement which complies with Michigan statute. The form for the sworn statement is called an Affidavit of Decedent’s Successor for Delivery of Certain Assets Owned by Decedent and is Michigan court form PC 598. The form can be found on the state website at: http://courts.mi.gov/Administration/SCAO/Forms/courtforms/estatestrusts/pc598.pdf.
When your titled mobile home is in joint names with rights of survivorship, there would also be no probate. Your surviving joint owner(s) would need to go to the Secretary of State office with the title, your death certificate and their identification to transfer the your home out of your name and into their name(s).
In the instance that there is a loan on your titled mobile home, the loan may have to be paid off upon your death. In that instance, before the home can be transferred out of your name, a release or discharge of that loan would need to be issued by the lender after the loan is paid off. If your loan’s terms are such that it does not need to be paid off upon death, then the home may be able to be transferred out of your name with the lienholder’s name remaining on the new title.
If you owned real estate at the time of your death and the value of your net estate does not exceed the $21,000 (in 2012), your survivors still can avoid the full blown probate proceeding. There is an abbreviated procedure requiring the completion of one form called Petition and Order for Assignment, court form PC 556. The form is filed with the probate court along with the death certificate, the paid funeral bill and appropriate filing fee. Based upon the representations in the petition, the court would enter an order assigning your mobile home and other assets to the person who paid the funeral bill, your surviving spouse or other heirs. The form can be found at: http://courts.mi.gov/Administration/SCAO/Forms/courtforms/estatestrusts/pc556.pdf.
If your titled mobile home cannot be transferred using the non-probate or abbreviated probate procedures, it will need to be probated through the general probate court process with the rest of your real and personal property. Your probate court appointed personal representative (used to be called executor) would take his or her letters of authority issued by the court to a Secretary of State office and then transfer the home in accordance with your will.
When your estate has to be probated and you left no will, your personal representative would transfer the titled mobile home to your survivors in accordance to the rules of intestate succession. As we stated last week, the rules of intestate succession are just fancy words for who will get your stuff if you died without a will. These persons would be your next of kin: spouse, kids, grandkids, etc.
But it may be that you affixed your mobile home to real estate you owned and cancelled the mobile home title by filing form BCC-961 Affidavit of Affixture of Manufactured Home with the Michigan Department of Licensing and Regulatory Affairs and recorded the form at the register of deeds office in the county where the property is located. In such instance, your mobile home no longer has a title and is considered part of your real estate. When you have done this, the mobile home can only be transferred to your loved ones through the abbreviated or full-blown probate court procedures.
In such instance, because your mobile home no longer has a title, it is transferred with the real estate by deed or otherwise. If your survivors wanted to sell the mobile home separate from your real estate, they could reinstate the title to your mobile home by filing form BCC-995 Affidavit of Detachment of Manufactured Home with the Michigan Department of Licensing and Regulatory Affairs and recording the form at the register of deeds office in the county where the property is located. Form BCC-995 Affidavit of Detachment of Manufactured Home can be found at http://www.michigan.gov/documents/dleg/dleg_bcc_mhaffidavit_detachment_275168_7.pdf.
Your survivors would then take the filed/recorded detachment form with the appropriate probate court documents to their local Secretary of State office and apply for a replacement title in the name of the new owner. Your real estate could then be transferred separately.
The best thing your heirs can do is to consult with an estate settlement attorney after your death. The attorney should be able to review your mobile home title, loan agreement and other real and personal property, and then make a determination of what needs to be done.
By: Matthew M. Wallace, CPA, JD
Published edited January 6, 2013 in The Times Herald newspaper, Port Huron, Michigan as: What do we do with the mobile home?