There’s something that’s both romantic and whimsical about the dream of traveling around the country with your whole house following along behind you.
That dream can be a reality, thanks to the tiny house movement and all of the great companies out there that build these special homes. Some tiny houses aren’t meant to move, though, and that means there’s often an important wrinkle that needs to be ironed out before you try to hit the road: certification.
Is your dream tiny house certified as a safe and roadworthy Park Model recreational vehicle by the Recreational Vehicle Industry Association? If not, then how do you get such a tiny house RVIA certified? If you’re not sure, then read on!
How to Get a Tiny House RVIA Certified?
Here’s the thing: unless your goal is to become one of the leading high-volume manufacturers of mobile tiny houses, or you are one already, you should not expect to be able to get your new tiny house certified by the RVIA.
Getting an RVIA certification for a tiny house involves being subject to the RVIA’s authority and its practice of conducting random, unannounced inspections of a full-scale factory floor. If you don’t have a factory floor, and are just planning on building your tiny house in your or a friend’s backyard, therein lies the problem.
If you do decide to go the tiny house entrepreneurial route, though, you’ll need to start the process of working with the RVIA to fine-tune your factory procedures, including the materials you can use and how you’ll assemble them. We’ll go over why this matters, and what it costs to get inspections performed and certifications made visible.
If you aren’t interested in becoming a major player in the mobile tiny house industry, we’ll explain why you need to consider either building a stationary tiny house on a foundation, or evaluating whether your dreams of travel would be better served by choosing between either a regular RV or a Park Model tiny house RV.
The RVIA is an important organization, but that doesn’t mean that it would have the resources necessary to oversee every individual tiny house construction project that sought their seal of approval. The result is that they focus on manufacturers who are dedicated to building mobile tiny houses that conform to the roadworthiness standards that traditional recreational vehicle builders have long been subject to.
To understand why this is so, we’ll first need to take a closer look at what the RVIA is, and how it does what it does.
What is the RVIA?
The RVIA, which stands for the Recreational Vehicle Industry Association, is the leading organization that enforces both generally agreed-upon and legally mandated standards for the RV industry. They’re an industrial advocacy group, not a government agency, but they’re a powerful force within the recreational vehicle industry.
As they say on their website,
“The RV Industry Association represents the RV industry with the American National Standards Institute and the National Fire Protection Association to develop standards specifically related to the construction of RVs and Park Model RVs. The association administers an inspection program to educate members on these standards and to monitor compliance. This program has created a self-regulated RV industry with uniform standards across the United States.”
To this end, the RVIA employs inspectors who make over 2,000 random and unannounced factory floor visits every year. That sounds like a large number, until you consider that those 2,000+ inspections involve overseeing the building of the more than 400,000 RV’s that American manufacturers deliver each year. That’s a lot of work for each inspector, and a lot to look at during each visit!
The RVIA officials do this work to ensure that RV manufacturers conform to the best accepted standards for safety and good workmanship as they build those hundreds of thousands of recreational vehicles to sell to the traveling public.
Although the RVIA is not a government agency, they do work very closely with both federal and state authorities throughout the United States to ensure that the industry has a say in the laws that regulate it, as well as with industrial standards groups like ANSI.
There’s a lot more work that they do too, such as providing market research and industry marketing and promotional programs, which greatly benefits RV manufacturers.
Why is an RVIA Certification so Important?
RVIA certification matters because without it, many RV parks will not allow a mobile tiny house to enter the park and use its facilities. That’s because their insurance will not cover any costly issues that may arise due to faulty equipment in an uncertified home.
Having the certification is proof that the vehicle in question has been built according to the best standards. That means it ought to be safe to drive on public roads and to live in temporarily.
“As a condition of membership in the RV Industry Association, every RV and Park Model RV produced by a member manufacturer must display the Association’s seal. This seal communicates the manufacturers’ certification that it complies with the RV standards adopted by the Association. Further, it represents the manufacturers’ pledge to meet the Association’s membership conditions, which include being subject to regular, periodic compliance audits by RVIA standards inspectors, who monitor and provide education on thousands of requirements impacting electrical, plumbing, heating, fire & life safety systems and construction.
“RV dealers and RV consumers look for the RV Industry Association seal on their units, as a visible indication of the manufacturers’ commitment to the industry. Moreover, most public and private campgrounds in the United States require that RVs and Park Model RVs have an affixed standard seal to obtain entry.”
That last point is the kicker. That’s the reason all of this matters to the average person buying or wanting to build a tiny house. Many tiny house owners want to be able to use those facilities so they can have a place to park their tiny home and connect it to grid utilities while traveling.
Unfortunately, the lack of an RVIA seal has often resulted in the owners of custom-built mobile tiny homes being turned away, especially from private facilities, because of the insurance concerns mentioned earlier.
The matter of insurance also applies to the tiny house owner. It’s much simpler to get insurance, financing, and parking, and it makes resale easier, too, when the house has its RVIA seal.
How do You Get Started on RVIA Membership and Certification?
Joining the RVIA is a four-step process.
First, a company that wants to join needs to be aware of what type of membership they qualify for. Park Model RV Manufacturer Memberships are what a mobile tiny home builder would qualify for.
Second, you’ll need to create an account for your company, which can be managed online.
Third, you’ll fill out an online membership application.
Fourth, you’ll provide the RVIA with additional supporting documentation. In the case of a Park Model RV tiny house manufacturer, that includes the following four items:
- Commitment Pledge Form
- References
- Product floor plan images or two to three image of final unit (this can be your product brochure)
- Passed Inspection
Importantly, the commitment pledge form includes the stipulation that the manufacturer “will build units in conformance with the adopted industry standards (ANSI 119.5), and agree to be subject to unannounced inspections of its manufacturing facilities on average every eight weeks to ‘monitor’ compliance.”
And that’s the main reason it’s almost impossible for individual, one-time builders to get certified. It takes a lot of time and planning to build up an industrial operation that can conform to the ANSI standards.
How Much Does RVIA Membership and Certification Cost?
According to the most recent available information, joining the RVIA requires that you first pay a $500 initiation fee. After that, you’ll owe dues of $2,040 each year that you intend to continue building certified Park Model RVs. In addition, each RVIA seal currently costs $27, and they usually need to be purchased in batches of 10.
These costs are not nearly as big of an issue as the matter of compliance itself, which can be very difficult for an individual one-time builder.
To Certify, or Not to Certify?
Some of the tiny house builders out there make it a key point of their business model to get RVIA certification, because they know that what they’re producing is meant to be on the road often, just like a standard model RV. It’s a vehicle, not a permanent residence with an address.
Other builders explicitly refuse to pursue RVIA certification, because their homes are designed to serve as permanent residences, even though they’re built on a trailer. In that case, mobility is not meant to be an everyday event. Rather, it’s a means to an end, that end being a permanent or semi-permanent location where the house is subject to local, state, and national building codes, rather than vehicle requirements.
That’s the crux of the matter. If your tiny home is going to be built on or towed to a permanent address, with a foundation, there’s no reason to attempt to go through the process of RVIA certification.
If, on the other hand, you plan to travel often with your house at your back, you should get an RVIA-certified Park Model RV for your tiny house.
Any options other than these two tend to put tiny home dwellers in a difficult and sometimes unpleasant legal gray area. It’s much simpler to avoid that kind of trouble!