SEVERAL residents were given just days to leave their homes, some of whom had lived there for decades, after receiving eviction letters with no warning.
Six tenants in Caroline County, Virginia were left wondering where they were going to stay after a new owner told them they had to leave the property.
A Man says he’ll have to leave the mobile home park he’s called home of 20 years in just 10 daysCredit: WRGB
A bunch of tenants said they were evicted without their knowledge after a new owner bought the propertyCredit: WRGB
Each of the tenants owned a home at the Hill Mobile Home Park, which was taken over by new ownership in 2021.
Tenants said they didn’t receive any written notice of a possible change or end to their lease but were rather given a court notice, facing eviction.
“Some people came around, I don’t know who they were,” Rodney Washington, who lived at the mobile home park for more than 20 years, told CBS affiliate WTVR-TV.
“They were supposed to be bringing leases out. They never did. They said they did, but we never received them.”
The mobile home park was bought by Homes of America, according to Jimmy Benson, an associate broker who once oversaw the property.
“The LLC they are using to ‘own’ the community is the ‘Hill MHP LLC,'” Benson told the outlet.
“I have no contact information for them. I believe that is part of the challenge for the residents. There is no one that will respond to them or even talk to them.”
Washington, his mother, and other residents said they didn’t receive any information on a shutdown of the mobile home park.
The mobile home park, the plaintiff in the case, said they couldn’t say if anyone traveled to the park to confirm if all the information made it to the tenants involved.
Lawyers for the plaintiff argued that a tenant’s rights document didn’t need to be sent.
“I would have to believe that she’s lying, or the mail has a 100% failure rate,” said Judge Robert E. Reibach.
Washington and the other residents said the first notice they received from the new owners was to appear in court for the eviction case on April 15.
An attorney representing four of the tenants argued that Virginia code can give them more time to figure out their next steps, such as where to live and home to remove their trailers from the property.
The judge sided with the plaintiffs, however, giving the tenants just 10 days to leave the property.
Reibach argued that they would have known about the possibility of having to move since April 15.
“To pack up and move in 10 days, and the judge won’t even lenient about it. I mean, 10 days, wow,” said Washington.
“This ain’t no joke. It’s real.”
Washington added that it would take at least $6,000 to even begin the moving process.
“I gotta pick up my permit to move my trailer out and my mother’s. I’m going to try to help her,” he said.
“But you can only do so much in a manner of time like this.”
However, the residents say they didn’t receive any noticeCredit: WRGB
But a judge sided with the new owners, giving the tenants a deadline to leaveCredit: WRGB