BILL REQ. #:  H-5169.2 

READ FIRST TIME 02/05/08.   

     AN ACT Relating to making changes to the factory assembled structures laws administered and enforced by the department of labor and industries; and amending RCW 43.22.340, 43.22.434, and 43.22.480.

BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF WASHINGTON:

Sec. 1   RCW 43.22.340 and 2005 c 399 s 2 are each amended to read as follows:
     (1) The director shall adopt specific rules for conversion vending units and medical units. The rules for conversion vending units and medical units shall be established to protect the occupants from fire; to address other life safety issues; and to ensure that the design and construction are capable of supporting any concentrated load of five hundred pounds or more. Also, the director shall adopt specific rules concerning safety standards as necessary to implement subsection (3) of this section by January 1, 2006.
     (2) The director of labor and industries shall adopt rules governing safety of body and frame design, and the installation of plumbing, heating, and electrical equipment in mobile homes, commercial coaches, recreational vehicles, and/or park trailers: PROVIDED, That the director shall not prescribe or enforce rules governing the body and frame design of recreational vehicles and park trailers until after the American National Standards Institute shall have published standards and specifications upon this subject. The rules shall be reasonably consistent with recognized and accepted principles of safety for body and frame design and plumbing, heating, and electrical installations, in order to protect the health and safety of the people of this state from dangers inherent in the use of substandard and unsafe body and frame design, construction, plumbing, heating, electrical, and other equipment and shall correlate with and, so far as practicable, conform to the then current standards and specifications of the American National Standards Institute standards A119.1 for mobile homes and commercial coaches((, A119.2 for recreational vehicles,)) and A119.5 for recreational park trailers, and national fire protection association standard 1192 for recreational vehicles.
     (3) Except as provided in RCW 43.22.436, it shall be unlawful for any person to lease, sell or offer for sale, within this state, any mobile homes, commercial coaches, conversion vending units, medical units, recreational vehicles, and/or park trailers manufactured after January 1, 1968, containing plumbing, heating, electrical, or other equipment, and after July 1, 1970, body and frame design or construction, unless such equipment, design, or construction meets the requirements of the rules provided for in this section.
     (4) Any person violating this section is guilty of a misdemeanor. Each day upon which a violation occurs shall constitute a separate violation.

Sec. 2   RCW 43.22.434 and 2005 c 274 s 296 are each amended to read as follows:
     (1) The director or the director's authorized representative may conduct such inspections, investigations, and audits as may be necessary to adopt or enforce manufactured and mobile home, commercial coach, conversion vending units, medical units, recreational vehicle, park trailer, factory built housing, and factory built commercial structure rules adopted under the authority of this chapter or to carry out the director's duties under this chapter.
     (2) For purposes of enforcement of this chapter, persons duly designated by the director upon presenting appropriate credentials to the owner, operator, or agent in charge may:
     (a) At reasonable times and without advance notice enter any factory, warehouse, or establishment in which manufactured and mobile homes, commercial coaches, conversion vending units, medical units, recreational vehicles, park trailers, factory built housing, and factory built commercial structures are manufactured, stored, or held for sale;
     (b) At reasonable times, within reasonable limits, and in a reasonable manner inspect any factory, warehouse, or establishment as required to comply with the standards adopted by the secretary of housing and urban development under the national manufactured home construction and safety standards act of 1974. Each inspection shall be commenced and completed with reasonable promptness; and
     (c) As requested by an owner of a conversion vending unit or medical unit, inspect an alteration.
     (3) For purposes of determining compliance with this chapter's permitting requirements for alterations of mobile and manufactured homes, the department may audit the records of a contractor as defined in chapter 18.27 RCW or RCW 18.106.020(1) or an electrical contractor as defined in RCW 19.28.006 when the department has reason to believe that a violation of the permitting requirements has occurred. The department shall adopt rules implementing the auditing procedures. Information obtained from a contractor through an audit authorized by this subsection is confidential and not open to public inspection under chapter 42.56 RCW.
     (4)(((a))) The department shall set a schedule of fees by rule which will cover the costs incurred by the department in the administration of RCW 43.22.335 through 43.22.490. The department may waive mobile/manufactured home alteration permit fees for indigent permit applicants.
     (((b)(i) Until April 1, 2009, subject to (a) of this subsection, the department may adopt by rule a temporary statewide fee schedule that decreases fees for mobile/manufactured home alteration permits and increases fees for factory-built housing and commercial structures plan review and inspection services.
     (ii) Effective April 1, 2009, the department must adopt a new fee schedule that is the same as the fee schedule that was in effect immediately prior to the temporary fee schedule authorized in (b)(i) of this subsection. However, the new fee schedule must be adjusted by the fiscal growth factors not applied during the period that the temporary fee schedule was in effect.))

Sec. 3   RCW 43.22.480 and 1998 c 37 s 4 are each amended to read as follows:
     (1) The department shall adopt and enforce rules that protect the health, safety, and property of the people of this state by assuring that all factory built housing or factory built commercial structures are structurally sound and that the plumbing, heating, electrical, and other components thereof are reasonably safe. The rules shall be reasonably consistent with recognized and accepted principles of safety and structural soundness, and in adopting the rules the department shall consider, so far as practicable, the standards and specifications ((contained in the uniform building, plumbing, and mechanical codes, including the barrier free code and the Washington energy code)) as adopted by the state building code council pursuant to chapters 19.27 and 19.27A RCW, and the national electrical code, including the state rules as adopted pursuant to chapter 19.28 RCW and published by the national fire protection association or, when applicable, the temporary worker building code adopted under RCW 70.114A.081.
     (2) The department shall set a schedule of fees which will cover the costs incurred by the department in the administration and enforcement of RCW 43.22.450 through 43.22.490.
     (3) The director may adopt rules that provide for approval of a plan that is certified as meeting state requirements or the equivalent by a professional who is licensed or certified in a state whose licensure or certification requirements meet or exceed Washington requirements.