Declaratory Judgments for Unidentifiable Mobile Homes

You’ve lined up some snowbirds to buy your Florida property. They have excitedly told you how they plan to decorate the mobile home to be their tropical oasis. Suddenly, you receive a call from the closing agent asking for the original mobile home title. You think to yourself, “what mobile home title?” Neither a search of your documents nor a call to the Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles produces a title. What do you do?

You may need an Order of Declaratory Judgment from a Court in order to complete the closing.

In most cases in Florida, if you sell a mobile home or a piece of property with a mobile home on it, you will need to provide the closing agent with an original Certificate of Title. If you do not have the title and are unable to obtain a duplicate title from the DHSMV because the DHSMV cannot identify the mobile home, you will need a Court order to close.

In an action for declaratory judgment based on an unidentifiable mobile home, the mobile home owner requests that the Court issue an order awarding title to the mobile home to the owner and directing the DHSMV to assign a vehicle identification number to the mobile home and issue a Certificate of Title.

Depending on the circumstances, the lawsuit could take several months or even a year or more to resolve.

Attorney Jennifer Codding is experienced in evaluating mobile home title issues and filing declaratory actions. If you think you may be in need of a declaratory action, contact our office for a consultation.