Donna

Hello, my name is Donna, and I need some advice or info on my rights as a mobile home owner.
My situation is lengthy in detail so I will only disclose the immediate issues. If you have questions then I would be glad to answer.
Anyway back in 2005 My husband and I filed a 1.7 million dollar lawsuit against the property owner, property management co, and the managers for I think 9 torts because for 10 years us tenants dealt with harassment from the managers and their two sons that the property management refused to deal with. The last and final straw was when the managers son came to my house at midnight drunk and demanded to talk to my husband. When I responded from my bed.."he's in bed come back tomorrow" , he threw his bike through the hatchback window of my car. For a few days they refused to pay for it, but then decided to use office money and bring a used window that had no warranty and the defrosters did not work. I refused the glass.. but the fortunate thing for me was that, 5 years before this we had purchased a surveillance camera for my driveway to which had captured many episodes of the managements sons, drunk fist fighting with tenants, etc. After we had hired our attorney and the managers were fired, (but still allowed to live in the park, and still here to this day) one night the elder son had been recorded on camera after starting a fight with my husband in our driveway, saying" If you just let things lie, we'll leave you alone."Anyway , the attorney we happened to hire was so new to this business that we were his first case.. we found out why it would be so important to check out credentials first before signing on the dotted line.We ended up after two months being forced into settling for thirteen thousand to which my husband and I received four thousand a piece. We were told by the attorney in the meeting that if we did not take the offer, then he would quit the case..it would be over. I have emails of this conversation as well..the one thing I have learned was nothing else matters if there's no evidence. Before I would sign the settlement contract though I made sure that one of the issues would be squashed, never to be brought up again was that issue about my dogs(which we were receiving 7 day notices on a weekly basis which was considered to be harassment). It was stipulated that nothing would be said about the dogs again. NOW..my questions..After the settlement, the brother's would continue the harassment,driving by on a daily basis flipping us off,calling us vulgar names, or being recorded stopping at my driveway sitting in their car looking around, standing in front of our house and when my husband or I would walk outside unknowing they were there, they would say things like, "what are you looking at" you want some of this. The list goes on, but every time I would go looking for someone that was in charge of the office I would find no one at any given time..day or night. Now, these people were free to do what ever they wanted with no control. We were petrified for ourselves, so when our male and female dogs had puppies we kept the runt of the litter,(she is three now) so we had some kind of protection in a park that is full of crime from - tenants harboring fugitives (this was even the local new's top story for a week) to dope being sold in the street out in daylight, to people fist fighting on a nightly basis to a gun being pulled on me and my neighbor by a man from the crime infested apartments to side of the park (coming in from the outside) to this day this stuff is an everyday occurrence but since the manager is not here during the day she doesn't see any of this. . Approx.three months after the settlement I happened to notice a lady watering the outside of the community room. One of the reasons I wanted to stop was to ask about the well that holds our drinking water, it had not had it's chemicals added to it for at least three months. So I went to her and introduced myself as a tenant and proceeded to inform her of the continued harassment by the brothers, and asked her if the drinking was safe to drink. She was standing with a look on her face as if she knew nothing of what I was talking about. She then stated that she was the property management for the new owner (new owner? No one was notified that the park was even up for sale let alone sold! but that does explain the absent authority)and she would give the brothers a notice.. and yes.. the drinking was safe to drink. (well all of the tenants received a notice about two months later saying that the drinking water was in fact contaminated..that was at the beginning of summer this past year and to this day have not received a word that it is safe to drink! ) anyway, I firmly told her about the past, who these people were and the law suite that just went down. Things got more important to her then...They have now been the managers for the past three years and things are no better than they were before. The seven day notices have continued the threats of eviction have continued now for the past four months straight,my husbands mother has been called every week up to 9pm at night, even on the day she returned home after a surgery. His mother has told the manager over and over she didn't want to be contacted anymore, for the manager to contact her son directly..to which the manager responded no I would rather not. These conversation to the mother would be about getting the mother to sell our mobile home to one of the managers friends. One of my neighbors sold the second mobile home she owned in here to "this friend"of the managers through the managers insistence.The manager met the buyer herself in the office, accepted the monies (without the agreement of the owner) from the buyer without the selling tenant even being present for the deal. The seller was called down to the office to retrieve her money..expecting to collect the 1,500.00 balance. The manager handed the tenant 900.00 the tenant looked at the buyer then at the manager, confused about the rest of the 1,500.00 the manager said to her" oh I already took out the money you owe us for late rent fees , and 900.00 is what is left. (rent fees owed on the mobile she personally lives in not the mobile she just sold) I have a notarized statement of this deal from the seller. Anyway, I have been harassed on a daily basis by my 80 yr old neighbor on the issue of my dog.(a dog that she would feed every morning by hand until I demanded that she stop if she was so afraid of him) calling the police departments division of animal control, with claims from -she is in fear that my dog is going to jump the fence and attack her.. to ..my husband and I are breeding fighting pit bull dogs and selling them..to my dog barks all night long.(wasn't my dog) (ALL allegations were investigated by animal control and concluded as unfounded claims) every time we got a visit from the animal control, I would file a written complaint against the neighbor..and yet nothing is ever said. And around two months ago, I was standing outside talking to my neighbor across the street while my dogs was doing his potti business when a stray dog come running down the street, and my dog slipped through a hole that had been cut in my chain link fence. I inspected it and went to find witnesses which would be the guy up front who knows about the harassment by the neighbor and has been deemed the parks spoke person for the meetings. After discussing this with my husband he said to me.." that's what they were doing yesterday when I interrupted them". the day before, my husband was on his day off and in the driveway when he heard something rattle the fence then a crash.. he went to investigate it and found that the two sons of the 80 year old neighbor were at our fence and when they saw my husband approaching one of the sons put something behind his back and kinda walked around the other side of their truck while the other apologized for throwing a brick in our yard. I filed a written complaint on this too, and the manager came and took her own pictures but nothing was ever said about it. My dogs are inside dogs and have never been outside animals. There has never even been food or water bowls outside because they spend there existence inside except to potti. They go out one at a time and spend approx.ten min each out there. They get a total of about one hour a day outside and that is in 10 min intervals. 85% of this park doesn't even know I have animals. There are dogs that are running the streets on a "which dog is that! basis". Dogs that chase the children down the streets nipping at their heels, dogs coming into my driveway biting at me, or by fighting with my dog through the fence while my dog is contained, I have to chase them away. this disrupts my dogs right to piece and quiet enjoyment as well..well doesn't this law apply to the resident animals as well? I have been telling the management about this for the past five months and she has agreed that it is a nuisance but nothing has changed, I just keep receiving more 7 day notices to get rid of my dogs. For the past three years my neighbor to the left has accumulated over 50 personal cats from the cats inbreeding. They were becoming a big problem for me as they were urinating all in my driveway, on my car etc. I never said anything to the neighbor because it would just cause her and I to fight, management wouldn't do anything. Then when I received my first 60 day notice, I asked this neighbor if she had received one on her cats she said yes but she argued with manager saying that they were strays that just come up for food,(the manager knows good and well that this girl owns these cats..because I told the manager that the boyfriend was stepping on the babies killing them to get rid of them to which the manager went and told her I said this) and the manager dismissed the girls 60 day. NOW...listen to this... In two separate trips the manager has taken her own time..mind you that this is time away from the tenants office time because the lady lives here as the manager but works at the property management office until 5pm. but the sign for the office hours are from 4:30 - 6pm. Anyway, the manager would bring the neighbor a cat trap and collect up what ever cats happened to be in the yard and not infringing on someone else' yard, then she personally took the animals to the shelter..as strays..so that the neighbor would not have to pay the fee for abandoning the personal pets. When all the cats that were to be taken away were gone , this left the neighbor with ownership of three personal cats..the rule book has just been revised to one large dog or two small dogs, or one cat,and one small dog. I know of at least two other tenants that were forced to send their pets to the pound because they feared the eviction.This is just the tip of the ice burg.. the manager told me on the 14 th of January (yesterday) that our rent check was "refunded" to my mother in law and the process of our eviction is underway. I said to her "refunded" "so the rent check was cashed? " (as I thought that a check would not be accepted if eviction was eminent) she said oh no it wasn't cashed because the 9th was the deadline for you to comply (about the dog) the check was sent back to bobby's mom (husbands mom). But tonight..the 15th he brings me home the copy deposited rent check ..I am waiting for them to deliver our eviction notice..my neighbor and best friend informed me today that a county vehicle stopped in front of my house today and stood at his opened car door staring at my yard and house..never leaving so much as a business card of his presents... I have lived here for 18 years now..my youngest dog has been here since birth and she is now two years old. Everything that I have stated has some kind of evidence and can be proven beyond a shadow of a doubt. We are not problem tenants and rent has always been paid on time every month never been late for 18 years, we have not given any reasons for these managers to be the way they are being..It seems as If the park wasn't really sold but merely put under someone else name so that retaliation would not seem to be an issue. These are only the issues that are the reason for this "eviction". There are many, many, more discriminatory facts and issues that take precedents on my case and gives this case it's merit. Remember..the first attorney filed a suite for 1.7 million dollars, "filed ". If he had had any type of experience I believe our case would have won. The same issues are in tact and can all be proven by way of video, notarized statements and documentations. I have a video tape of the ex managers son right after the law suite was settled, beating a tenants mobile with a baseball bat calling out the owner to a fight. this is after...the owner allowed the ex managers to continue to live here after firing them and they continue to terrorize everyone!
***Here are more issues that I did not mention in regards to this cases evidence:
* subletting - manager tried to give a tenant that was subletting 72 hours to vacate, when the person had resided here for three months..had power and mail in their names..
* after thirty days the above mobile home was sold and the manger finalized the deal with the buyer without the mobile's owner present or owner's knowledge. manager took the balance from the buyer (1,500.00) then called the owner to the office and handed the owner 900.00 telling the owner that she kept late fees that the owner had owed in back rent.(FEES THAT WERE OWED FOR OWNERS PERSONALLY LIVE IN MOBILE NOT THE SECOND ONE THAT THE MONIES WAS BEING COLLECTED FOR)
* manager lives on site as on site manager but works everyday at the property management office until 5pm..only opening our office from 4:30 to 6pm (doesn't get home from company office until 5PM though)
*manager has closed the pool and community room to tenants without notice, so that her sister (DOES NOT LIVE IN PARK)could have a party.
*property management company tried to force everyone in signing a release of liability form from any injuries when going to the pool, saying who ever does not sign may not use the pool.
* owner across from me (young boy)took a single wide (a year ago) and attempted to make a double wide out of it never getting any permits, manager turned a blind eye, now, the inspectors have caught word and say "no way" and the mobile sits half way walled where the teen kids get into it and play, do what teens do.
thank you for your time Donna Newton