Occupations Code Sec. 1201.217 is the abandonment route to title for a home someone left on your land: the home must be continuously unoccupied for at least four months with a delinquent debt secured by it or related to your lease with its owner, notices go by certified mail, and after 45 days you can apply to TDHCA.
A tenant moves out and leaves the trailer. A relative dies and the single-wide sits empty. You buy a rural tract and the seller's old mobile home is still on it. In each case the dirt is yours, but in Texas the home on it usually is not. This guide covers what a landowner can lawfully do about it. It is general information, not legal advice.
If someone is living in the home, it is not abandoned. Start with our guides to removing an unauthorized occupant and Texas squatter law. If you already own the home and want to sell it, see selling a mobile home in Texas.
Why the home is not yours yet
Texas tracks manufactured homes through a statement of ownership issued by the Texas Department of Housing and Community Affairs (TDHCA). Under Occupations Code Sec. 1201.003, a "manufactured home" is either a HUD-code home or a mobile home built before June 15, 1976, so the same rules cover both.
By default the home is personal property, like a car parked on your lot. Under Sec. 1201.222, a home counts as real property only if its owner elected that treatment and a copy of the statement of ownership was filed in the county real property records. Sec. 1201.2055 allows the election only when the home is attached to land its owner owns or holds under a long-term lease. Once the election is perfected, the home is real property for all purposes. If a past owner of your land made that election, ask a title company or real estate attorney whether the home passed to you with the deed.
Find out who owns the home
Start with the home's numbers. TDHCA Form 1127 says HUD-code homes built after June 15, 1976 carry a metal HUD label on the outside, one on each section of a double-wide. A data plate inside, often in the master bedroom closet, under the kitchen sink or in the water heater closet, lists the manufacturer, label and serial numbers, wind zone and date of manufacture.
With a serial or label number, you can search TDHCA's ownership records online from its statement of ownership instructions page. The record shows the owner, mortgage liens and tax liens. Under Sec. 1201.221, TDHCA must also answer a written request for a home's current owner, location and recorded tax liens.
The Texas abandonment process
Occupations Code Sec. 1201.217 is the statute's abandonment route for a landowner to take title to a home someone else owns. Other routes, covered below, run through the owner, a chain-of-title affidavit or, if you are an heir, Sec. 1201.212. That section also covers judicial sales and foreclosed liens (ask a Texas attorney). Sec. 1201.217 has two conditions, a notice, a waiting period and an application.
- Check both conditions. The home must have been continuously unoccupied for at least four months. And a debt secured by the home, or related to a lease between you and the home's owner, must be delinquent, such as unpaid lot rent under that lease. TDHCA's Form 1037 instructions say there must be an outstanding debt and the notice must mention it.
- Send the notice of intent. It goes to the record owner, every lienholder at the addresses on the statement of ownership, the tax collector for each taxing unit that taxes your land, and any intervening owners of liens or equitable interests. It must give the home's address. If you know someone no longer gets mail at the known address, you must make a reasonable effort to find a current one. Certified mail, return receipt requested, is conclusive proof of compliance. TDHCA's notice is Form 1072.
- Allow access. Anyone who got the notice may come onto your land to remove the home. You must tell them where it is and give reasonable access, and whoever removes it is responsible to you for damage to your land.
- Wait at least 45 days after the postmark. If the home is still there, all liens on it are extinguished, and you may declare it abandoned and apply for a statement of ownership in your name. Form 1037 says to sign and submit the application and the abandonment affidavit no sooner than the 46th day after the last notice is mailed.
- Apply to TDHCA. Sec. 1201.217(d-1) requires an affidavit that you own the land and that your name matches the real property or tax records. TDHCA's rule at 10 TAC Sec. 80.90(h) says the application should include an affidavit of fact, on the prescribed form, that every required notice went out, including the one to the county tax assessor-collector, and proof that all of it went by certified mail. TDHCA's forms page lists that affidavit as Form 1073, or Form 1102 only when there is no ownership history. Form 1037 adds the original envelopes, the signed green cards and the $55 fee.
Under Sec. 1201.217(e), the new statement of ownership transfers title to you free of liens if you have postal return receipts from all lienholders.
If your land is a mobile home park. Land with four or more lots offered for lease for installing and occupying manufactured homes is a manufactured home community under Property Code Chapter 94, and if the lot is leased to place the home, both laws apply. Chapter 94 controls lockout, eviction and removal: under Sec. 94.203(a), a landlord may keep a tenant off the lot, evict the tenant or require removal of the home only after obtaining a writ of possession under Chapter 24. Sec. 1201.217 does not exclude parks, and its debt condition covers a debt related to a lease between you and the home's owner, so it remains a route to title once its conditions are met. If the tenant's lease is still running, talk to a Texas attorney before you start.
When the abandonment route does not fit
- You or a relative owned it. Sec. 1201.217(f) bars the process if you, or anyone related to or affiliated with you, owns, or has ever owned, an interest in the home. Subsection (g) makes a narrow exception for a home that was declared abandoned before, resold and abandoned again.
- You are one of the owner's heirs. Ownership passes by operation of law. Under Sec. 1201.212, TDHCA issues a new statement of ownership on probate papers, letters testamentary or of administration, or, if no administration is needed, an affidavit by all the heirs at law. Our guide to an inherited mobile home in Texas covers that paperwork, and getting heir property in your name covers the land side.
- No debt is delinquent. Condition two fails, so ask the owner to sign the home over instead. After a sale or transfer of a personal property home, Sec. 1201.206(c) requires the seller or transferor to apply for a new statement of ownership within 60 days, and under Sec. 1201.206(e) ownership does not pass until it is filed.
- You got the home but the owner of record has vanished. Sec. 1201.206(k) lets TDHCA issue a statement of ownership on an affidavit describing the chain of title, plus reasonable proof the director requires.
Taxes on the home and on the land
A home that is personal property is taxed apart from your land. Sec. 1201.205 requires every statement of ownership to warn that a new tax lien comes into existence on the home each January 1 for each taxing unit where it sits that day, and that the lien must be recorded with TDHCA to be enforced.
Tax Code Sec. 32.014 keeps that lien off your land unless the home's owner elected real property treatment. If the owner did, the lien attaches to the land. TDHCA's tax lien page adds that tax liens more than four years delinquent are deleted if no lawsuit has been filed, excluding liens on a payment plan, deferred, or in bankruptcy.
Check TDHCA's record for tax liens before you start, and ask the county tax office what is owed. If you later sell the home, Tax Code Sec. 32.03(a-2) bars the transfer until recorded tax liens are released and the taxes for each January 1 in the 18 months before the sale are paid.
Once the home is yours: keep, move or scrap it
- Keep it where it sits. Sec. 1201.255 requires installation under TDHCA's standards and says an uninstalled home may not be occupied. TDHCA's statement of ownership FAQ says only a licensed installer may install, relevel or modify any part of the foundation. If the home is not habitable, TDHCA says it does not recommend selling it unless that is fully disclosed.
- Move it. The same FAQ says the mover needs a Texas Department of Motor Vehicles permit, and a copy goes with your application for a new statement of ownership. Sec. 1201.206(f) gives the owner 60 days after a relocation to apply, but TDHCA's Form 1037 instructions say a change of location for a personal property home must be recorded within 30 days, so get the application to TDHCA within 30 days. Our guide to moving a mobile home in Texas covers the permit and the installer.
- Scrap it. Under Sec. 1201.461, a home that is scrapped, dismantled or destroyed is salvaged. Its owner must apply for a statement of ownership that says so, and a salvaged home may be sold only to a licensed retailer. A county or city may also impose its own inspection and correction rules on a salvaged home.
Selling the land with the home settled
Before you list land with a home on it, make sure TDHCA's record names you as the home's owner, or that the home is gone. Otherwise a buyer is being asked to buy land with someone else's property on it.
After that, the land sells like any other tract. Our guides cover selling vacant land in Texas, including the notices a land seller gives, and selling land by owner. If the home stays and you want to sell it too, selling a mobile home in Texas walks through the ownership paperwork.
If you would rather sell
Cash Home Advisors buys houses in Dallas–Fort Worth, Houston, San Antonio and Austin. We pay all closing costs and can close in 7–14 days once title is clear. Get a free cash offer, read how it works, or see selling land for cash in Texas and our land guides.
The state index is the Texas hub.
Frequently asked questions
Can I keep a mobile home someone left on my land in Texas?
Not just by waiting. Under Occupations Code Sec. 1201.217, you may declare the home abandoned only if it has been continuously unoccupied for at least four months and a debt secured by the home, or related to a lease between you and the home's owner, is delinquent. You then mail the required notices and wait at least 45 days after the postmark before applying to TDHCA for a statement of ownership in your name.
Who must get the notice of intent to declare a mobile home abandoned?
Sec. 1201.217(b) requires notice to the record owner, every lienholder at the addresses on the home's statement of ownership, the tax collector for each taxing unit that taxes your land, and any intervening owners of liens or equitable interests. Mailing it by certified mail, return receipt requested, is conclusive proof that you complied.
Can I use the abandonment process for a home my relative owned?
Generally no. Sec. 1201.217(f) says the process does not apply if the landowner, or anyone related to or affiliated with the landowner, owns, or has ever owned, an interest in the home. Sec. 1201.217(g) makes an exception for a home that was declared abandoned before, resold and abandoned again. An inherited home goes through Sec. 1201.212 instead, which accepts probate papers or, when no administration is needed, an affidavit signed by all the heirs at law.
Do unpaid taxes on a mobile home become a lien on my land?
Not unless the home's owner elected to treat it as real property. Tax Code Sec. 32.014(b) says that if the owner does not elect to treat the home as real property with the land, the tax lien on the home does not attach to the land. If the owner made that election, Sec. 32.014(a) attaches the tax lien to the land on which the home is located.
Can I scrap an abandoned mobile home once it is mine?
Under Occupations Code Sec. 1201.461, a home that is scrapped, dismantled or destroyed is salvaged, and its owner must apply to TDHCA for a statement of ownership that shows it is salvaged. A salvaged home may be sold only to a licensed retailer, not to a consumer.
Sources
- Texas Occupations Code, Chapter 1201 (Secs. 1201.003, 1201.205, 1201.2055, 1201.206, 1201.212, 1201.217, 1201.221, 1201.222, 1201.255, 1201.461)
- Texas Tax Code, Chapter 32 (Secs. 32.014 and 32.03)
- Texas Property Code, Chapter 94 (manufactured home tenancies)
- TDHCA, 10 TAC Chapter 80 Manufactured Housing Rules, effective December 21, 2025 (Sec. 80.90(h))
- TDHCA Form 1037, Statement of Ownership application instructions (home abandoned on real property)
- TDHCA, Forms and Affidavits for Statement of Ownership Applications (Forms 1072, 1073, 1102)
- TDHCA Form 1127, HUD label and Texas Seal information
- TDHCA, Instructions and Information for Applying for a Statement of Ownership
- TDHCA, Tax Lien Information for Manufactured Housing
- TDHCA, Statement of Ownership frequently asked questions
General information, not legal or tax advice. Talk to a Texas attorney or CPA about your situation.