Our factories will be happy to accommodate any concerns that the local building department has, and we often encounter building department officials that have no idea what the law is. A Cutting Edge Homes representative will contact the building department to clear up any concerns, and if there are any misunderstandings we will have the California Department of Housing and Community Development contact your local building department to inform them of their responsibilities. Regardless of what an individual at the building or planning department may say, the stringent California state law preempts local building department permitting requirements. You will not be required to go through a complete engineering “Plan-Check” that similar site-built homes must go through or pay engineering “Plan-Check” fees, because the state of California has already performed the “Plan-Check” function during the approval process for your home. The local building department plan checks portions of the project that are done at the job site only.
The tool that we use to get our homes permitted quickly is the “California Factory Built Housing Guide for City/County Building Departments.” Check out this document if you want greater insight into why our homes are just regular homes.
Important Notes *** When building a modular home there is a required state-level review of the engineered plans representing what is built in the factory. Each model requires plans specific to the design and location it will be installed. This process coupled with the local plan check of the entire project negates any time efficiency in the permitting process versus stick-built construction. You can gain major efficiency in the construction process. However, our experience has been that the overall modular home permitting time frame is not shortened vs. site-built construction permitting. There is still a benefit to the modular home engineering process because it does minimize local plan check comments & revisions for the modular home itself. This takes out a lot of the guesswork and stress associated with the typical local review of plans of a site-built home.
