Tiny Houses On Wheels Left On The Side Of The Road- Now For The Third Time At ICC

We Have Been Spinning Our Wheels With ICC For 9 Years 

Sadly the public comment to the code proposal RB42-25 was disapproved that would have added chassis provisions to Appendix BB Tiny Houses and is now the 3rd time the chassis provisions were not approved at ICC. The proponents did an amazing job on all their testimonies and the vote was very close-6 to 4. 

The proponents have one more chance to go back to the next hearing in the spring, but they are now contemplating how much energy they have to put into this. They have yet to announce their plans. 

The Opponents Did Not Have A Clear Understanding About Motor Vehicles

It was so sad to hear the opponents that do not quite have all the facts regarding motor vehicles which include trailers and some think tiny houses on wheels are all RVs. Sadly, they might not know that RVIA will work to kill any bill on a state level if housing and RVs are associated. 

The regulatory path for tiny houses on wheels for the chassis is already in place including SAE, NHTSA, DOT, the FMVSS, FNCSA, and the Motor Carrier Safety Improvement Act Of 1999. 

Tiny Houses On Wheels have fallen in between the cracks of HUD, RVs, And ICC. HUD does not regulate the use and occupancy of tiny houses on wheels, they are NOT RVs unless they are built to RV standards, and now ICC is ignoring the regulatory path of NHTSA, FMVSS, FMCSA and does not want to recognize that trailers are motor vehicles and they are trying to override federal laws already in place. See ICC 1215 is Promoting A ‘Ghost Trailer’ For Tiny Houses.

ICC and THIA caused A ONE year delay of the approval process for an ASTM subcommittee on Tiny Houses with false claims of duplication and that standards were not needed even after we had the support of two states and initial collaboration set up with ICC. ASTM and ICC work hand in hand.

The 2024 IRC referenced over 500 ASTM standards. 

ICC even has ASTM listed in the code criteria policies for code proposals that reference standards, which they include ASTM and ANSI Standards. 

ICC tried to FORCE ICC standards as tiny house requirements even after ICC/MBI 1200 and 1205 were disapproved at the IBC hearing and all tiny house terms were deleted from the standards, with the notion that tiny houses were inclusive without mentioning them. ( That Will Blow Open The Doors! ) 

They objected to ASTM standards, and said it had to be a CODE 

For them to turn around and duplicate ASTM, to develop their OWN standard 
And then the tiny house CODE was turned down. 

Learn More And Watch The Hearing 

Janet Thome President
Tiny House Alliance USA 
janet@tinyhouseallianceusa.org