Mobile Home Title in Lake Charles: Movable or Immobilized

The two title paths under Louisiana law

Louisiana treats a mobile or factory-built home as movable property by default. In that state the title is held through the Louisiana Office of Motor Vehicles (OMV), the same way a vehicle title is held. Ownership passes with an OMV title transaction and a bill of sale, not a real-estate act of sale.

The second path is immobilization. When the home owner also owns the land under it, they can record an act of immobilization in the parish conveyance records under R.S. 9:1149.6. Once that act is recorded, the home is treated as part of the land. From that point it transfers with the property, like any other immovable, through the Calcasieu Parish conveyance records.

Why a home on a leased or park lot stays movable

Immobilization only works when the person who owns the home and the person who owns the land are the same. That is the whole point of it: you are declaring your home to be part of your land.

In a park or on any leased lot, the home owner and the land owner are different people. That difference means a park home cannot be immobilized, so it stays movable and OMV-titled no matter how long it has sat on the lot. If you rent your lot in Calcasieu or Cameron Parish, you almost certainly hold a movable, OMV-titled home.

How to tell which one you have

Start with two facts: do you own the land under the home, and has anything ever been recorded to tie the home to that land? If you lease the lot, the answer is settled and the home is movable.

If you own the land, the home may still be movable unless an act of immobilization was actually recorded. The Louisiana OMV offers a Mobile Home Immobilization Inquiry using the home's VIN, and the Calcasieu Clerk of Court holds the parish conveyance records where any act of immobilization would appear. Checking both confirms your status.

• You lease the lot: the home is movable and OMV-titled.
• You own the land but nothing was recorded: still movable.
• You own the land and an act of immobilization was recorded: immobilized, transfers with the land.

How the sale works for each title type

For a movable home, the main documents are the OMV title and a bill of sale. You endorse the title to the buyer, the buyer registers with the OMV, and any lot lease is handled separately with the park. It looks more like selling a vehicle than selling a house.

For an immobilized home, the home moves with the land through a standard closing recorded in the Calcasieu conveyance records. The same documents that transfer the land transfer the home, because in the eyes of the law they are now one thing.

Common title snags we work through

Most title questions on a mobile home come down to paperwork that never caught up with reality. None of these stops a sale on its own, and we are comfortable working through them before anything moves forward.

• A lost or misplaced OMV title that has to be replaced before transfer.
• A prior owner who never transferred the title into your name.
• A home that was immobilized years ago, where the conveyance records are unclear about whether it was ever deimmobilized.
• A lien from an old loan that still shows on the OMV title and needs to be released.

This is general information, not legal advice. Talk with a Louisiana real estate attorney, or the OMV, about the specific title on your home.

Frequently asked questions