From: byronflint@cedar-rapids.net (Byron Flint)

Date: Mon, Jul 17, 2000, 12:31pm

To: redwriter@webtv.net (Red Writer)

Subject: Land of Fear

This is a story of intimidation, and why so many people are afraid. The backdrop for this story is eastern Iowa. Specifically the Cedar Rapids metropolitan area of Linn County, which is home to over 4,300 mobile home lots that reside in 24 mobile home parks. Or as many land lords now prefer to call these places, "Manufactured Housing Communities". This name is used to imply fairness and a nice place to live. However many manufactured home communities in Linn county are neither fair nor a nice place to live, which will become evident as our story unfolds.

Unfairness and fear tactics have no boundaries and are found from the smallest park with less then 20 homes up to the largest with over 500. "We are trying to prevent unfairness and fear motivation from happening anymore," says Beth Rippon employed locally as a nurse, but spends her free time as chairman of the Marion Mobile Home Court Tenants Association, also as founder and Vice President of the Linn County Mobile Home Tenants Association.  

The Marion Mobile Home Court with 487 lots is, at the time of this writing, the 2nd largest mobile home park, and is perhaps one of the largest in problems and unhappy tenants.

The Marion court has the 5th highest lot rent, and is one of the half dozen most poorly maintained parks in Linn County. They also charge extra for garbage pickup, makes tenants purchase garbage cans from them, charge extra for pets, and installed water meters at each home taking heat tape off other portions of the residents pipes to keep their meters from freezing, which are not city meters, but owned by the park.All of which the owners make profit on.

In Iowa, it is illegal to make profit on utilities such as water, and garbage pickup, but that doesn't detour park owners from doing it. Rippon says, "In order to stop illegal profits, you have to get an attorney and sue the land lord. I have shown my landlord what the law says, and he simply claimed that the law doesn't apply to him."

All attempts at mediation have to this point failed. This is how the Marion Association got started. Right after the association started numerous eviction notices went out, but the Marion Association was able to prove retaliation so the land lord backed away from his attempt of mass evictions. But he didn't stop retaliation, in fact it increased and became more subtle. Mostly in the form of targeting threats to tenants who don't know the law, and lack the means to check it out for themselve

Quite often the victims are elderly, handicapped, and in all cases, low income families. In over 98% of these incidents, the tenants will not fight for their rights. They will pay or do whatever is being asked or just move. Members of this parks staff have even been caught going through tenants garbage trying to find any thing they can use against the tenant.

Beth Rippon has been educating her neighbors that they don't have to tolerate threats, and selective enforcement of park rules. She goes on, "Even now it still happens more often then we would like, but first we need to get some fairness in our state's eviction laws. Without that we can't accomplish much." By that she refers to the fact that Iowa is one of 19 states which still does not require a reason for eviction under state mobile home residential land lord tenants laws.

There is little protection from the 60 day no cause eviction, as Patti, formerly a resident of Hilltop Manor in Northwest Cedar Rapids found out.

Patti, a handicapped young woman, bought a 36 year old mobile home. As Patti understood, her park was responsible for maintenance and trimming trees in the park. A tree in the yard behind her home had been hit by lighting causing the tree to be split nearly in two and was close to falling on Patti's home. After many attempts to convince management to have the tree removed, she began receiving notices to weed a flower bed in her yard. And still the tree remained.

At the time the temperature was in the 90's and Patti was under a doctors care for a heart and lung condition which could cause her to collapse if she did any form of work that would be strenuous or caused her to over heat. She tried to deal with management alone, stating that she had no one to help her with the weeding and giving management written instructions from her doctor to restrict her activities and to remain in an air-conditioned home. But still the complaint notices to weed the flower bed continued to pile up.

Finally in desperation she started asking her neighbors what she should do. Management caught wind of Patti's questions and issued a 60 day eviction notice against her. Due to fear of losing her home Patti ignored her doctors orders and attempted to weed the flower bed on her own. Needless to say she was found unconscious in her yard by her brother when he came over to help with the yard work. Because Patti had never requested the tree removal in writing, and all responses to the complaints where made by telephone she could not prove she had ever made any requests for the tree removal. As for the weed removal, management claimed that she had not made any attempt to weed the flower bed. She could not prove otherwise and the court granted the park's request for Patti's eviction.

What Happens To Older Homes When A Park Opens It's Own Sales Office?

Bridgett lived in the same park. After being homeless for many months Bridgett worked hard and saved up enough money to put a down payment down on a mobile home. The park owner arranged the sale of the twenty plus year old home to Bridgett. She gave her mobile home payment which included the owners sales commission to the park owner.

After nearly two years the former occupant offered Bridgett a deal to pay off the home sooner. She was to give her payments directly to her owner, bypassing the park owner and their sales commission.

That was when Bridgett's problems began. Suddenly there was a pile of complaints against her that Bridgett knew nothing about. On July 8th, 1997 Bridgett went to the manager and told her she had made her final payment on the home and had transferred the title of the home into her name. The very next day Bridgett was severed with a sixty day notice to vacate. A verbal deal was made by the park owner that Bridgett had seven days to make needed repairs and that upon the completion of these repairs the eviction notice would be withdrawn. On the sixth day when Bridgett had completed most of the repairs she received a phone call from the park manager that she had canceled the deal and Bridgett would receive notice of this by mail. Since the management didn't need a reason to evict, and the repair deal was never put into writing, Bridgett was forced to move her home to another county leaving behind family and friends to keep a roof over her child's head.

A paper trail of documents is the best defense against evictions. Keep all receipts, complaints, and notices no matter how insignificant they seem to be. And get all agreements in writing. The days of casual verbal agreements and letting management handle all matters are over.

Sue couldn't agree more. Sue was a resident of 5 Seasons Mobile Home Park until a verbal agreement went awry resulting in her and her young son being thrown out into the street. Sue, like many residents of mobile homes being a low income single mother and after having spent her meager savings on living expenses had a difficult time coming up with the full lot rent at the beginning of the month. A verbal agreement was made with management to pay the remainder of lot rent on the 20th of each month. After an incident between her son and one of the managers children, the manager reneged and issued an eviction notice for non payment of lot rent.

In court the manager claimed there never was an agreement, that Sue was always late with lot rent and they were tired of it. Sue couldn't prove otherwise and was given three days to remove her home from the park or to sell it to the sales team located in the park and from which she purchased the home from. When she was unable to relocate within the three days her personal possessions were hauled out to the road and left to be stolen.

More and more owners of older homes are finding that when their parks bring in their own homes to sell they receive sixty day notices. There has to be some place for those new homes to be placed. Although the Iowa Code states that a tenant or its home can not be evicted to make a space for another home this doesn't stop park owners from using the sixty day notice to remove a home from the park.

A landlord can simply claim that they choose not to renew a tenants rental agreement and in order to upgrade the park the older home must be removed. "That is if you can find a new park for your older home," says Donna Flint, president of the Linn County Mobile Home Tenants Association. She explained, " The main problem with finding a new place is that most parks won't accept homes more then five years old. So you are stuck with a home you can't live in, you can't move, and you can't sell because the park usually won't accept new buyers of an older home and no one will buy a home when there is no place to move it too. So what do you do with the older home?"

This was a possible situation the Flints, and their 1973 model at Cedar Terrace once faced.

Her problems started a few years ago, when the pool monitor denied her teenage son with Downs Syndrome entrance to the parks swimming pool.

The Flint children 13, and 15 at the time went to the pool. Park rules allowed any child of at least the age of twelve entrance to the pool with out adult supervision. The monitor refused to let them in stating the management had decided the boy could not enter the pool unless one of the boys parents were with him.  

The following day the manager denied making this decision claiming it was the pool monitor's call, but she backs it up for the boy's own good. A call to the parks attorney and they changed the story to being afraid of his seizure disorder. A phone call from the family doctor showed the seizures were controlled by medicine, and the story changed again to they were afraid he might not be able to understand and follow the monitor's instructions. But his older sister was there to watch him. Finally management raised the age to 14 to use the pool without adult supervision. Each summer since, the age has been raised to one year older then the boy was.

The Flints filed a civil rights complaint for discrimination. Meanwhile, an unrelated incident occurred.   The park's water system became tainted with coliform bacteria. A neighbor of Flint's attempted to organize a tenants association over the incident. Flint attended the meeting as well as the management staff of the park. The manager, in front of the local news crew who were there to cover the story , threatened to take the names of all tenants who were at the meeting and turn them over to the park's attorney.  

A week later a letter from the district manager was mailed to each of the 255 homes in the park. This letter claimed that the attempt to form a tenants association was Flint's effort for losing a discrimination lawsuit. Although to this day Flint has never filed a lawsuit against the manager or the owners of the park. And that the only changes that would be made in the park would be a change in the tenant list at the appropriate time.

Just under 6 months later, the tenants association organizer, the Flints, and a number of tenants who attended the first meeting were served with eviction notices.

Flint and the organizer talked the regional manager out of their 60 day eviction because it is against Iowa code to threaten an eviction within six months of making a complaint to a governmental agency regulating housings laws, forming or joining a tenants association. But many other families were moved out of Cedar Terrace. About a dozen new custom built homes were brought in by the parks new sales office to replace the older evicted homes. Half of which over 2 years later still sit empty.

It was due to this unfair treatment that Donna Flint became involved with the Linn County Mobile Home Tenants Association and ended up being elected the President.

Retaliation by Management is a Common Practice

Hope once lived in the same park as the Flints. One evening the young mother of a 4 year old returned home to find the teenage son of one of the park's employees, climbing out her back window. He had broken into her home. She reported this incident to the police, and filed charges against the young man, but was threatened with eviction by the employee and the manager if she did not drop the charges.

Hope dropped the charges. A couple weeks later she received an eviction notice for nonpayment of lot rent. But she paid and had a receipt to prove it. That didn't stop the manager who was determined to get rid of her. A new notice was sent out which was also botched up. A third notice was issued.   All of which could have been fought in court and won, but Hope was tired of fighting a battle which she knew she would lose in the end. So she sold her home and moved to another state.

Eric in the Marion Mobile home park is another victim of landlord retaliation. He had a large rotweiler dog which the park management gave the nod for. Eric had built a 6 foot fence, and the neighbors liked his dog. However just after he joined the Marion Mobile Home Park Tenants Association, he received a notice that his dog along with all other big dogs had to go. However the new rule was not being enforced against anyone except Eric.

Donna Flint of the Linn County Mobile Home Tenants Association mediated this problem with the park's attorney after Eric received a notice that he would be evicted if the dog was not gone by Christmas eve in 1996. She showed how Eric had a case for retaliation. After which the park attorney gave the OK to keep the dog. However the manager reneged on the deal in March 1997, which Flint mediated again. Finally in September of 1997 management again reneged on the deal and issued a new notice, but still did not enforce the rule against other tenants.

Eric got rid of the dog and waited 2 years for court to hear his case. During which time he was evicted under the 60 day eviction. The attorney for the Iowa Coalition for Housing and Homeless agreed to represent him in court but never did. When the court date came, no one saw the attorney, Eric went in to court alone and lost with the judge ruling that the property owner could conduct business on their property as they saw fit, and had a right to recover his property the rental lot. We never heard from Eric again.

Mobile Home Parks Can Refuse Government Relief Payments.

After being laid off her job, Brenda, a resident of Squaw Creek Mobile Home Park in Marion Iowa knew that in two weeks when the rent was due she wouldn't be able to pay it on her own. So Brenda when to the local General Assistance office and applied for rent assistance. She qualified and was required to have her landlord sign a statement that she owed the rent to her.

The park manager refused to sign the papers and refused to accept the general assistance payment. Brenda was told she would have to pay her rent in cash or personal check. Since she was unable to do this she was served with an eviction notice for non-payment of rent. Brenda called her manager and was told that if she paid the rent, late fees and the court costs for the eviction hearing that hadn't even been held yet, the eviction would be withdrawn.

Brenda scraped up the total sum and when she went to the office she was told that the manager had changed her mind and would not accept the money. Tenants association President Donna Flint then took Brenda to the park office in an attempt to mediate the dispute and by was told by the manager that when she filed an eviction she was consistent with following through with it and would see Brenda that week in court.

At the eviction hearing the assistant manager claimed that Brenda had become delinquent in her mortgage with whom the park had nothing to do with and that if the following week Brenda could show proof that she had caught up her mortgage they would accept her lot rent payment. Brenda had already made payment arrangements with her finance company but the manager said this was not good enough. The judge agreed that if Brenda could comply with the parks terms he would withdraw the eviction.

The following month an uninvited intoxicated former friend entered Brenda's home, beat her up and then attempted to drive his car through her home when she called the local police for help. Brenda filed charges against the man. The next day Brenda was served with a sixty day notice to vacate. Management stated that Brenda called the police to the park caused a disturbance therefore this was grounds for eviction.

Due to the repeated attempts to have her evicted Brenda chose to give up the fight to stay and therefore moved her home to another park.

Land Lords Hold the Legal Upper Hand

Most cases of unfairness on the part of management never get as far as these few described here. In fact only less then a dozen violations on the land lord's part of the Iowa Mobile Home land lord and tenant laws have ever been in court. This is because there is much more risk to the tenant then the land lord. If the tenant wins, only a small punitive damage is paid by the landlord.

Then a few months later the land lord can evict the tenant without a reason. If the land lord wins, the tenant is given only three days to get his mobile home out of the land lord's park. A nearly impossible task even if rearrangements were made for a new park and the move.

Finding legal council in Iowa, is a major task in itself. Loyd Ogle, an attorney himself and director of the Iowa Coalition for Housing and Homeless ascertains the mobile home owners dilemma. He says, "mobile home cases are not a very lucrative because of the small amounts of money which can be won verses the high probability of losing due to all the loop holes in the laws. And even if the tenant wins, he loses in the end because the land lord will relentlessly keep trying to find something wrong until he succeeds in eviction."   Ogle too admits to unevenness in the laws.

Ro Foege, State Representative of Iowa House District 50 which covers much of southern Linn County, over 2200 households in 14 parks is by far the largest mobile home population in the state, has been trying to 'level the playing field'. But has run into very heavy opposition from fellow legislators who receive large campaign contributions from mobile home park land lords.

To keep the contributions coming, the legislators in question makes sure that bills which would take more rights from tenants are passed, and the bills which would regain tenants rights are defeated. Meanwhile the landlords use their influence in marketing to keep mobile home tenants and their stories off the news media. They make sure that the papers and stations are aware that even though they may get a one time headline story, that mobile home dealers offer big bucks and steady income in the way of advertising. As the old saying goes, 'money talks'.

Tenants Occasionally Win

However, even as much power as land lords hold, victories can be and are won by the tenants when they stick together in numbers. Beth Rippon of the Marion Tenants Association and Vice president of the Linn County Association says, "There is power in numbers. A lot of power. But this only seems to happen when a lot of people are mad.

Such is the case of Hide Away Manor, where the tenants of the 34 homes formed their own in park tenants association after many complaints for many years for the owner of the park to make much needed repairs, and verbal abuse by the park owner against the tenants. Donna Flint, president of the Linn County Mobile Home Tenants Association was contacted.

Mrs. Flint wrote a letter to the park owner outlining the tenants rights, and that they did not have to tolerate verbal abuse. In fact the owner could be arrested and charged for the verbal abuse, even though he owned the property. Furthermore she informed him that the lot rent increase he recently announced was illegal. The increase was delayed by four months which saved the residents over $1200. He changed his tactics in how he dealt with his tenants. Now they are happy and have not been heard from since.

The same man also owned the Vernon Heights park which had the same problems with him. They too formed their own association and got repairs made, and delayed an illegal lot rent increase.   Their repairs by the land lord inclueded tar paved streets replaceing the gravel streets which were in the park since it opened in the early 1960s.

Donna Flint has helped tenants score a few victories. Most noteworthy, and perhaps least known is that she single-handedly is responsible for Cedar Terrace residents obtaining city water. Prior to late 1997 Cedar Terrace had it's own well water system because it is located outside of Cedar Rapids city limits. This well system was outdated, of poor quality, and limited quantity, as well as prone to frequent break downs leaving 255 homes with no water.

For many years management had been promising annexation to the city with city water. Lot rent was increased six times in seven years 'to pay for getting the new city water in'. The in park fire dept. closed in part because they believed that city water, annexation, and city fire protection was right around the corner. Four years later fire protection still came from a nearby small town.

Tired of promises with no action Flint conducted her own investigation. She contacted city officials, and the city water dept. who all concurred that there had been no contact from Cedar Terrace management regarding city water or annexation in nearly six years. There were no plans for city water, ever. But rumors, promises, and lot rent increases led residents to believe it would occur.

When confronted with this information, regional management claimed they were taking bids for the construction. However plans would still have to be submitted and approved through the city to hook up to their water lines before even bids are submitted.

It was after this confrontation that management did take steps to provide a temporary hook up to city lines with the agreement that new lines would be put in for the city water. That construction began in October of 1997.

What Are the Land Lords After To Begin With?

From the stories and conditions you have read here you may think that mobile home land lords are after world domination, but their goal is much more simple then that. Like all businesses they wish to increase their profits. This is the bottom line of what everything they do to their residents boils down to. They use any one or combination of the following.

1, Raise lot rent to unreasonable levels.

2, Refuse to provide maintenance to the park to save money.

3, Impose some condition of occupancy to require the residents purchase a certain product or type of product from which they get a kickback, such as requiring metal sheds, or vinyl skirting to be purchased from a specific dealer.

4, Open their own sales office and require tenants to purchase homes from them as entrance, or continued occupancy in their park.

5, Finally some parks add charges to be paid along with lot rent to increase their profits. These include entrance/exit fees, pet fees, garbage collection fees, water fees, prepaid lot rent, and interest from deposits.

Many of these methods are illegal, and they know it. But they need the tenants not knowing it in order to bilk more money out of them for more profits. To achieve this lack of knowledge by the tenants they need tenants to trust them and to fear them. Trust that they are doing what's legal and looking out for the tenants best interest.

Fear that they may lose their homes to land lord retaliation if they rock the boat. Both work quite well, but fear seems to achieve better results for the land lord

The only real way to become empowered is by becoming politically involved in the government process. Learn who the candidates are and what they really stand for. Then vote on election day. Not for the most familiar name but the candidate who will work best for you. If it is a difficult choice, then just choose the lesser of the evils. That is much better then living a lifetime in fear.