Title: An act relating to retaining fees for mobile/manufactured homes and factory built housing and commercial structures.

Brief Description: Retaining fees for mobile/manufactured homes and factory built housing and commercial structures.

Sponsors: Representatives McCoy, Conway, Kessler and Condotta; by request of Department of Labor & Industries.

Brief Summary of Bill

• Deletes provisions relating to a temporary statewide fee schedule for mobile/manufactured home and factory assembled structures.

Majority Report: Do pass. Signed by 9 members: Representatives Conway, Chair; Wood, Vice Chair; McMorris, Ranking Minority Member; Condotta, Assistant Ranking Minority Member; Crouse, Holmquist, Hudgins, Kenney and McCoy.

The 2001 Legislature established the Joint Legislative Task Force on Mobile/Manufactured Home Alteration and Repair (Task Force) to review issues involving the alteration of mobile and manufactured homes. The Task Force made several recommendations to the Legislature in January 2002.

One recommendation related to the process for obtaining alteration permits. The Task Force recommended that the Department of Labor and Industries (Department) and the local building officials develop a pilot project for a coordinated system that could process mobile/manufactured home alteration permit applications in either jurisdiction. As part of implementing the pilot project, the Department was authorized to adopt a temporary statewide fee schedule. Under this schedule, fees for mobile/manufactured home alteration permits were decreased and fees for plan review and inspection services for factory-built housing and commercial structures were increased. These fee increases were allowed to exceed the fiscal growth factor as necessary to fund the cost of administering the factory assembled structures program, but the increases could not exceed 40 percent. The Department was also allowed to waive mobile/manufactured home alteration permit fees for indigent permit applicants.

The authority to adopt a temporary fee schedule expires April 1, 2004. After expiration, the Department must adopt the fee schedule that was in place prior to the temporary schedule, as adjusted by the fiscal growth factors.

The Department's authority to adopt a temporary statewide fee schedule until April 1, 2004, is deleted. The requirement for the Department to readopt the schedule in effect prior to the temporary schedule, with adjustments for the fiscal growth factor, is also deleted. The Department may continue to waive mobile/manufactured home alteration permit fees for indigent permit applicants.

Effective Date: The bill contains an emergency clause and takes effect on March 31, 2004.

Testimony For: The new fee schedule is working well. It has allowed mobile/manufactured housing alteration permit fees to be reduced and to be waived for indigent persons. While fees for the modular industry have gone up, the agency has not received any complaints. In fact, the agency has received approval from some in the industry for improving the level of service.