Mobile Homeowners Unite

For the past year we have scoured central Floridas mobile home parks owned by Equity Lifestyle Properties to gather information from residents about their experience with the slumlords known as Equity Lifestyle Properties. What we found is a systematic breakdown of management and ownership responsibilities. Every single mobile home park owned by ELS and operated by MHvillage had the same issue.

Water billing was the central topic since its change has just taken place. Hundreds of residents have the same story. Water main valves corroded and leaking and the property owners take no responsibility in fixing them but it is a clear violation of several Florida 723 statutes. When a mobile home is brought into a mobile home park, the site has a capped sewer line usually around 4 inches coming out of the ground and then there is a water line with a shutoff valve coming out of the ground as well. These utility connections are the property owners responsibility hands down and stated clearly in the chapter. The mobile homeowners responsibility is everything after the connection to the home. So why is Equity Lifestyle Properties making homeowners pay for this repair? Because they have been getting away with it and so it becomes normal practice.

Lets talk maintenance. The second most talked about topic in 67 of the 103 mobile home parks owned and operated by MHvillage we visited was maintenance or lack of it. I can speak about this on my own behalf because its the same where I live. There is none. I dont know what dictionary ELS looks at to define a maintenance worker but the only thing ours does is pick up sticks left out by homeowners and restock toilet paper in the common bathrooms. Yes Im exaggerating a little but the point is they do not repair anything. Every day a high priced contractor is in here fixing something and that trickles down to higher rent increases. There was a day when a mobile home park had a seasoned maintenance worker who could fix anything inside the park including the HVAC. Those days are gone. There is zero maintenance going on in our mobile home park Down Yonder in Largo Florida.

We have had enough and are taking this fight to our leaders in Tallahassee. We have a commitment from local media to cover our story and we have support from FMO and another anti MHvillage organization who’s name we’re not going to mention at this time nor the date because we’re being spied on now and had to move the original date but we are going to make a scene. We have a years worth of testimony, photos, petitions and signatures from mobile homeowners across Florida who are being bullied by Equity Lifestyle Properties. See you soon