Have you ever had the county condemn a home

mobile home university
1

We have had some pretty sketchy homes in our parks that we have had to take possession of and tear down, but this is the first time we have had the county come in an just remove a tenant from a home as being uninhabitable. This is the first time the county family services has had to do this as well

Apparently a woman in her 60’s who inherited this home and has lived in it since it was new in 1969 had some health issues that required paramedics. Upon leaving the home ( and reportedly falling thru the floor a few times) they made a report of a welfare check on a senior.

County got involved and transferred her from the hospital to a nursing/assisted care facility which she fought, and lost, in court.

The county basically condemned the home, leaving her with no choice but to stay in the assisted living because she had no means to make repairs

From the outside you would not have known that there was anything amiss…surely it is an older home, but the lawn was kept up, the skirting is in good repair and there is nothing cluttering the yard.

but I know that neither her mother, nor anyone else in her family has done anything to this home since 1969…I guess you could call it “factory original”

the woman is paying rent for the time being, until a 55 and older rent controlled apartment comes available where she can move her personal belongings but that won’t go on forever, in fact she is late this month.

her attorney says it will be my problem to remove the home, the county says they will remove the home, but have never done anything like this is the past and now I have been mowing the yard sincwe spring and cleaning up to minimize the abandoned look

faced with this, what would you do?

do you ask for the home to be removed or the obsolete concrete as well? Do you serve the county with a notice?

since the tenant has been evicted from the property by the county, who do you go after for unpaid rent and damages

2

Whoa. I’d get an attorney and become advised of my rights.

That sounds like massive and illegal government interference to me. They’ve really forced a senior from her home and are tearing it down? I’ve never heard of such a thing. I have heard of homes being required to be fixed up for safety reasons (front steps, smoke detectors), but it does not sound like they even gave that option. They really just forced a senior from her own home and are condemning it?

What City/County is this?

Please let us know how this turns out.

-jl-

3

well she did get an public defender attorney and they lost the case apparently. The tenant in question does not have the funds to do anything with the home. I advised her of a home reno organization that does pro bono work but they are short on funds and seem to focus their work on heating and ac issues as well as anything energy related…windows, insulation etc She has no family left and few friends and has lived most of her adult life as a recluse of sorts …never worked due to disability etc

Prior to being removed from the home she would not let me come visit her to see what the home issues are so that tells me something

yep, they went to court and removed this lady from her home. Even the county (Ottawa Ohio) said this was the first time they had done anything like this

The tenant was livid and kept telling me " this is still America, isn’t it?" Not only will she have to give up her home of 40 plus years, she will have to give up a large amount of personal possessions which will not fit into her new place

so I guess my issue is where do I stand in terms of damages. Her lease is up for renewal and I don’t know if I can in good conscience have her sign a new lease. It’s nuts

and of course my attorney is on vacation for three weeks!

4

I hate to say this – since this home has been nothing but a nightmare for you – but I think you need to hire an attorney to force action on either the removal or taking possession as abandoned property, repairing or removing the home yourself, and either getting it back in service or out of the park. Nothing is worse for a park than an abandoned home, and nothing is worse than waiting for some government agency to take action. Unless you get aggressive with them, this could go on for years.

5

Interesting and frustrating development. The county social worker had initially told me that given that the county was removing this woman from her home, it was part of their responsibility to her to dispose of her property ( the mobile home) and that after helping her move her personal belongings to an assisted living apartment, the county would remove the home.

I contacted them recently to tell them that if their plans to remove the home didn’t materialize soon, winter weather would require them to either maintain heat to the empty home or at least winterize the home in order to protect the other tenants of the park from loss of water due to water main freezing/breaking, and got the run around. After demanding to speak to someone in a supervisory position, I was told by that supervisor that given that I was in the rental business, I obviously knew that there were legal mechanisms in place to remove the home from the park…ie eviction and abandonment laws…at my expense of course

I explained to the social worker that if her goal was to protect her client ( who was not asking to be protected in the first place) that deliberately putting that client into the position of being sued for eviction and financial judgment could NOT be considered as protecting her client. I also asked if the county was willing to undergo a trial in which this woman would be taken into court and have to testify publicly about how she was forcibly removed from her home by a government agency that obviously had no plan in place to see the action thru to it’s predictable end.

County is supposed to research and call me back…but it’s been over a month now. Crazy

6

Dawn,

I suggest you contact the Ohio Mobile Homes Association. Ask to speak to Elizabeth Birch, the association legal counsel. She may be able to help you

Marv