Hello World! Welcome Friends! To many Americans, living in a tiny home sounds like a dream come true. Tiny-home dwellers say that this lifestyle increases your freedom and simplifies your life. While that may be true to some extent, there are a lot of challenges that come with living in a tiny home.
Storage can be difficult for people living in such a small space. However, the most challenging aspects of living in a tiny home have to do with legal and financial requirements. Here are four things you need to know about your tiny house.
Meeting Code
Tiny homes don’t fit neatly into any legal category, which can make it challenging to construct them according to official building codes. Construction codes and regulations are used to ensure new structures are safe for people to live in. Unfortunately, tiny homes present a number of challenges that break codes for spacious homes.
For example, some regulations set minimum spacing for lofts that can’t be followed in a typical tiny house. If tiny homes use sliding instead of hinged doors as their primary means of exit, they could be breaking official codes. Many tiny homes also use moveable ladders to reach upper spaces, which some building codes prohibit.
Although tiny homes can be planned so that they meet code requirements, satisfying these regulations can be tricky. Until tiny homes have their own set of code regulations, building them will take research and care. The last thing you want to do is move into an illegal dwelling.
Obeying Zoning
Another issue you may face with a tiny home is where to put it. If your tiny home is built on wheels, it will be treated like an RV by the law. You can park it in your yard or driveway or stay at camping grounds if you’re on the move. However, there are restrictions for how long you can park at camping sites and RV parks.
If your home has a foundation, it’ll be legally treated as a house. Each city has its own set of zoning laws, or rules about how new homes can be built. Many zoning laws don’t allow for tiny homes to stand alone on land, and others may even restrict adding a tiny home to personal property that already has a large house.
Because zoning laws can be so restrictive, you should always contact the local zoning department to ensure your plans are legally allowed in your area. Although learning about these rules may be frustrating, it’s better to understand the situation before you’ve invested in a tiny home.
Finding Mortgages
Since tiny homes don’t have official legal status, it can also be challenging to find an appropriate mortgage for these homes. For example, FHA mortgages are only for homes that are over 400 square feet. However, as the tiny house Ottawa movement has grown, some options for financing tiny homes have become available.
If you plan to build a tiny home on wheels, you may be able to find an RV loan to help you pay for your home. More traditional mortgages will require that your tiny home has a foundation and is built on land. Depending on your circumstances, you may be able to get a construction or land loan to help cover building costs.
The best plan of action for building a tiny home is to save and put as much money down initially as you can. Because tiny homes are so small, loans for them have short financing periods and may have higher interest rates than usual. Although you can save money with a tiny home, you’ll need to carefully consider building costs.
Choosing Insurance
Another legal issue to consider before you build a tiny home is insurance. Again, insuring this type of home can be tricky because tiny homes don’t have their own legal definition or regulations. Your options for insurance will depend on whether your tiny home is built to be mobile or to stay in one location.
Mobile tiny homes are best covered under RV insurance. RV insurance will include coverage for car accidents, which you may need if you’re living on the road. Some types of RV insurance don’t cover loss of personal property, so you could consider getting some other kind of insurance to protect your possessions.
If your tiny home has a foundation, you may be able to use mobile home insurance, tiny home insurance, or a more traditional form of insurance. Mobile home policies may cover stationary tiny homes, while tiny home insurance specialists can tailor a plan to specifically suit your needs.
Living Small Legally
Moving into a tiny home is more than just downsizing – it’s a lifestyle choice. It will impact not only how much you own but where you can stay, how you can build, and whether or not you can insure your possessions.
Although living in a tiny home will definitely bring adventure, part of the adventure includes navigating some pretty murky legal waters. As tiny homes become more popular, these legal issues will hopefully streamline into a simpler process.
Until then, it’s your responsibility as the homeowner to understand the legal challenges that come with constructing a tiny home. With careful research and planning, you can build a tiny home that fulfills your dreams and the law.
Click the links below for any posts you have missed:
Why You Should Have Plants in Your Home
The Springtime Homeowner Checklist
Creating the Perfect Home Office
Automatic Toilet Paper Dispensers
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Toodles,
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