Old mobile home as "storage barn"?
Posted: Wed May 30, 2012 4:47 pm
We are buying an empty lot to put a mobile home on. It looks possible that a used mobile home within our price range will be kinda small for us. We can't afford to install two mobile homes up to code, so I was thinking about buying a storage barn to put whatever we can into it instead of in our house. In this township there's very few restrictions on putting a storage building on your property as long as it is less than 1000 sq. ft., you can seriously just dump a pile of shale and smooth it out and set the building on that if you like.
Trouble is, a new storage barn gets rather pricey rather fast; the biggest one we can afford would not hold everything I'd like to put into it. I had the idea today that if it doesn't matter to the authorities, it would probably be cheaper for me to buy another trailer to set on a bed of shale and use that as storage, with the additional advantage of having all the storage space I need.
I called the code officer for this township and asked if there are any restrictions on what building I may buy to use as a storage building; could I buy an old mobile home to use as a storage building? He said I could (if I understood him correctly) but there might be a nominal tax for bringing a trailer into the township. I did not tell him we would be buying and installing up to code another mobile home to live in.
Does this make sense? Is it likely that the authorities would let us call one trailer "home" and the other one "storage" and just have the "home" one up to code? It would seriously help us if this is true but it sounds almost to good to be true! I am reluctant to callhim back to double check, so I decided to ask here. Thanks!
Trouble is, a new storage barn gets rather pricey rather fast; the biggest one we can afford would not hold everything I'd like to put into it. I had the idea today that if it doesn't matter to the authorities, it would probably be cheaper for me to buy another trailer to set on a bed of shale and use that as storage, with the additional advantage of having all the storage space I need.
I called the code officer for this township and asked if there are any restrictions on what building I may buy to use as a storage building; could I buy an old mobile home to use as a storage building? He said I could (if I understood him correctly) but there might be a nominal tax for bringing a trailer into the township. I did not tell him we would be buying and installing up to code another mobile home to live in.
Does this make sense? Is it likely that the authorities would let us call one trailer "home" and the other one "storage" and just have the "home" one up to code? It would seriously help us if this is true but it sounds almost to good to be true! I am reluctant to callhim back to double check, so I decided to ask here. Thanks!