Duplicate titles
Kentucky allows the owner of record — or their legal representative — to apply for a duplicate certificate of title through the county clerk. You will need the home's VIN or serial number and identification, and the application is the same TC 96-182 form used for other title work.
The catch is the phrase "owner of record." If the home changed hands informally years ago and the transfer was never recorded, the state still shows the earlier owner, and you cannot simply request a duplicate in your own name. That is a chain-of-title problem, and it needs the previous owner, their estate, or a legal remedy.
Old liens
A lien stays on the Kentucky title record until it is released. When the original lender still exists, this is a phone call and a form. When it doesn't, you are tracing corporate history — which bank absorbed which, and who holds the records now. Finance companies that specialized in manufactured home lending in the 1990s were bought, merged and dissolved repeatedly, which is why these liens linger.
Kentucky law does provide mechanisms for addressing stale liens, and the clerk can tell you what they will accept. Expect weeks, not days.
Before you spend money
Confirm the home is worth the effort. Resolving a chain-of-title problem or an abandoned lien on a 1978 single-wide with a failing roof can cost more than the home will ever sell for. Sometimes the right answer is to price the home to a buyer who will absorb that work and that risk — and sometimes the right answer is to do the paperwork yourself and keep the difference.