A manufactured or mobile home can be insured on a manufactured homeowners policy, a package written specifically for manufactured homes. It is designed to cover the home, your belongings and your liability to others. I’ll ask for the year built, the HUD label and data plate, how the home is tied down, and whether it sits in a park or on your own land. Ask early whether a quote pays replacement cost or actual cash value, because most manufactured home policies are written on an actual cash value basis. Most of these policies don’t cover flood, earthquake is often a separate policy, and moving the home calls for its own endorsement or trip coverage.
What kind of policy covers it
A manufactured homeowners policy is a package of insurance written specifically for manufactured homes. Wisconsin’s insurance regulator lists the usual pieces: coverage on the home itself, personal property, personal liability for bodily injury or property damage to others, and medical payments for other people hurt on your property. The policy can be named peril, covering only the causes of loss it lists, or comprehensive, covering direct, sudden and accidental damage from causes the policy doesn’t exclude.
HUD’s enforcement rules apply to manufactured homes that entered the first stage of production on or after June 15, 1976. HUD says homes built after that date must be certified by the manufacturer to HUD’s Manufactured Home Construction and Safety Standards, found in 24 CFR Part 3280, and every transportable section must carry a certification label, commonly called the HUD tag. Insurers set their own eligibility requirements, so I ask for the year built and the HUD label on every home before I shop it.
What underwriters ask
- Year built and HUD label. The label on each section is the manufacturer’s certification that the section was built to HUD’s construction and safety standards.
- Wind zone. The data plate posted in the home designates the wind and roof load zones it was designed for. HUD’s standards set three wind zones: Zone II covers listed counties and parishes in 11 Gulf and Atlantic coast states from Texas to Maine, Zone III includes Hawaii, the coastal regions of Alaska, U.S. territories and listed counties and parishes in Florida, Louisiana and North Carolina, and everywhere else is Zone I. HUD says a home should never be placed in a more restrictive wind, thermal or roof load zone than the one it was built for.
- Tie-downs and foundation. Federal installation standards require a home, after blocking and leveling, to be secured against wind with anchor assemblies or by connecting it to an alternative foundation system. An insurer may require approved tie-downs and ground anchors unless the home sits on a permanent foundation. Without tie-downs coverage may not be provided because of the company’s eligibility requirements.
- Park or owned land. Whether the home is on a rented lot in a community or on land you own, and whether it is titled as personal property or real estate.
Replacement cost or actual cash value
Replacement cost is what it takes to replace, rebuild or repair with materials of similar kind and quality, without deducting for depreciation, up to your policy limits. Actual cash value is the value of your property when it is damaged or destroyed, figured by taking the replacement cost and subtracting depreciation. Wisconsin’s regulator notes that most manufactured home policies are written on an actual cash value basis, so ask which basis a quote uses. How replacement cost and actual cash value differ.
Loans, lot leases and your liability
If a manufactured home is titled as personal property, the CFPB notes it generally has to be financed with a personal property loan, also called a chattel loan. Your loan agreement sets the insurance terms. HUD’s Title I program is one example: a manufactured home purchase loan isn’t eligible for Title I insurance unless the borrower carries hazard insurance on the home with the lender named as loss payee, kept for the full term of the loan in an amount at least equal to the unpaid balance (24 CFR 201.28). Send me your lender’s insurance requirements with your application.
If you live in a community, check your lot lease for any insurance it asks you to carry. The personal liability on your own manufactured home policy is designed for a claim or lawsuit over bodily injury or property damage to others.
Flood, earthquake and wind
Wisconsin’s regulator notes that most manufactured home policies do not cover flood losses. FEMA’s National Flood Insurance Program covers manufactured homes that are movable in one or more sections, built on a permanent frame and attached to a permanent foundation, and anchoring with over-the-top or frame ties to ground anchors, to the manufacturer’s standards or to your community’s floodplain management requirements is an eligibility requirement. Building coverage is available up to $250,000 and contents up to $100,000. FEMA notes that from 2014 to 2024, almost one-third of NFIP flood insurance claims came from low- to moderate-risk flood zones. Under the same Title I rule, a manufactured home loan on property in a FEMA special flood hazard area isn’t eligible unless the community takes part in the NFIP and the borrower buys flood insurance of at least the unpaid loan balance.
In California, the California Earthquake Authority says that in most cases a homeowners policy does not cover earthquake damage to a mobilehome. Its mobilehome policies are bought through participating home insurers, and only Californians insured by those companies are eligible. Wind can be split off too: the Texas Department of Insurance tells Gulf Coast residents they probably need a separate windstorm policy.
Moving the home
A manufactured home policy can prohibit moving the home. Wisconsin’s regulator describes two add-ons: a consent-to-move endorsement, which waives the policy’s prohibition against moving the home and may extend coverage for a specific number of days, and trip or transportation coverage, which provides coverage for the home and its contents against damage by collision or upset while being hauled from one location to another. Line both up before the truck arrives, and make sure the new site is in a wind zone the home was built for. More on mobile home insurance.
Common questions
Can a mobile home go on a regular homeowners policy?
Texas’s regulator frames it as homeowners insurance for your manufactured home, and Wisconsin’s regulator describes a manufactured homeowners policy, a package written specifically for manufactured homes. Which form a carrier uses, and whether it will write a given home, is its own underwriting decision.
Does my mobile home policy cover flood?
Most manufactured home policies don’t. The NFIP insures manufactured homes attached to a permanent foundation and properly anchored, with building coverage up to $250,000 and contents up to $100,000.
Do I need tie-downs to get insured?
An insurer may require approved tie-downs and ground anchors unless the home sits on a permanent foundation. Without them coverage may not be provided.
Will my policy pay replacement cost or actual cash value?
It depends on the policy. Wisconsin’s regulator notes that most manufactured home policies are written on an actual cash value basis, which takes depreciation into account at the time of a loss, so ask which basis a quote uses.
Is my home covered while it’s being moved?
Not automatically. Ask about a consent-to-move endorsement and trip or transportation coverage, which Wisconsin’s regulator describes as collision coverage against collision or upset while the home is being transported.
Sources
- Wisconsin Office of the Commissioner of Insurance: Manufactured Home Insurance (updated July 2025)
- HUD: Manufactured Housing Homeowner Resources
- 24 CFR 3282.8 (LII): applicability of HUD’s manufactured home enforcement rules
- 24 CFR 3280.305 (LII): structural design requirements and wind zones
- 24 CFR 3285.401 (LII): anchoring instructions
- 24 CFR 201.28 (LII): flood and hazard insurance for Title I loans
- CFPB press release: manufactured-housing financing findings (September 30, 2014)
- FEMA: Manufactured Homes & NFIP Coverage fact sheet (August 2025)
- California Earthquake Authority: mobilehome earthquake insurance
- Texas Department of Insurance: How to get insurance for a manufactured home (April 2025)
General information about insuring manufactured and mobile homes as of October 2026, not legal advice; your policy, your loan agreement and your state’s rules control. Coverage depends on underwriting and the terms, conditions and exclusions of the policy actually issued.