Data plate
Also called: compliance certificate
A paper label inside the home listing its manufacturer, serial number, wind and thermal zones, and appliance details.
The data plate is a paper or mylar label fixed inside the home, commonly in a kitchen cabinet, a bedroom closet, or on the electrical panel. It records the manufacturer, the plant, the date of manufacture, the serial number, the wind zone, the roof-load zone, the thermal zone, and the appliances the home was built with.
It is the most useful single document about a manufactured home, and it is the fastest way to answer questions that otherwise take weeks: whether the home was engineered for the wind zone it now sits in, what its original insulation package was, and what the true manufacture date is.
Ask to see the data plate before you make an offer. If it is missing, that is not fatal, but it does mean the home's specifications have to be reconstructed from other records.
See also
- HUD label, A red metal plate riveted to the outside of each section of a manufactured home, certifying it was built to the HUD Code.
- Serial number, The manufacturer's unique identifier for a manufactured home section, used on titles, loans, and insurance.
- Manufactured home, A home built entirely in a factory to the federal HUD Code, transported to its site on a permanent steel chassis.