Setting a manufactured home in Hardin County? The permit is on you, not the dealer

Manufactured homes are everywhere on the cheaper tracts outside Kountze, Lumberton, and Saratoga, where there's land to spread out and no city zoning to answer to. Before one ever lands on your lot, you owe the county a placement permit: $100 per home, paid through the courthouse at 300 West Monroe Street in Kountze.

Watch who that bill belongs to. Hardin County draws the line in plain language: it's the customer, buyer, or homeowner who has to obtain the permit, not the dealer and not the transporter. So even when the outfit that sold and moved the home is handling the pad and the haul, the property-side paperwork loops back to you. Assume the driver has it covered and you'll often learn otherwise after the home is already sitting there.

One permit rarely travels alone. Grading a pad triggers a Development Residential Permit, which runs $100 for the first 1,000 square feet and $25 for each additional 100. Cutting a new driveway off the road means a culvert permit at $50 a pipe. And low ground anywhere near a flood hazard area pulls in the Floodplain Administrator, Alex Parker, who works out of 225 Crocker Street in Kountze and takes calls at (409) 246-5250. Get the floodplain question answered before the truck rolls, because a home set in the wrong spot is a far more expensive fix than a phone call.