We own a mobile home in a Mobile Home Court (that won't be paid off til Dec. '08!). Late this past summer they did a test on the well water and found e. coli. Well the D.E.P. stepped in and told Landlord he has 3 options 1) tie together all 3 well systems and become his own water authority.
2) tap into the city water line
3) shut down the park

Well the landlord tried to talk local water authority to run the water line 1/4 mile up the road to tie into- that was denied. In order to become his own "water authority" costs way too much money (he heard that once you do that- they can come in a few years later and change the way you have to do things!). So he told DH that he will be shutting down the mobile home court!

So with no money set aside for a down payment on a home-even just the closing fees, our house is considered "too old" to move to a different park, owe another year on this place, have no money set aside for a deposit on even an apartment or house rental- so many different things are going on right now I truly don't know what to do. We owe around $3500 before this home is paid off- I can probably get that paid off before the year is up (we don't know the exact date of when we need to be out of here!). If we sell this place- it will have to be cheap because whoever buys it will have to move it and there is about 20 other mobile homes in our park that will either be sold so there is competition! Yet we can't really try to sell this place until we almost have a home (we can't be homeless!).

UUGGGHHH! Sorry I needed to get this off my chest! I guess I better start looking at the paper:nerv2:

Hang in there! I'm so sorry this happened to you and your husband (and everyone else at the park!).

Try not to worry too much, and try to find the blessing hidden in there!

I'll keep you in my thoughts and prayers!

Thank you! I am praying too!

The one thing I did say to my DH is that this would be a great way for me to get rid of a lot of our stuff (hopefully sell some of it and set the money aside for something!)- I really don't want to move everything we have in here!

Hope everything works out for you.

You might want to check with different organizations. The food pantry I volunteer at is sometimes able to help people with downpayments for apartments who are being evicted. I know your situation is somewhat different, however it never hurts to find out all your options.

Let us know how things are going.

could you possibly purchase a small lot of land to move your mobile to??

I don't understand why you can't move your mobile to another park?

talk to the neighbors,(owners, not renters) everyone is in the same boat - so maybe someone else has an idea - or at least you guys can bat around ideas together -

:hugz: to you

I would network-network-NETWORK meaning that I would talk to the neighbors, postman, etc. to find out what everybody is going to do. They may have discovered resources which you can also tap in to. Do not go at this alone!!! Talk to people at your church or any organizations which you are a member of because maybe someone has a house that they will rent to you. Pray+pray + pray and I will send up a prayer for you.

Good luck to you and your DH. :hugz:

I am sorry you and all the others who live there are going through this right now . Keep praying! I will pray for you all.

I am sorry you have to deal with this

I would network-network-NETWORK meaning that I would talk to the neighbors, postman, etc. to find out what everybody is going to do. They may have discovered resources which you can also tap in to. Do not go at this alone!!! Talk to people at your church or any organizations which you are a member of because maybe someone has a house that they will rent to you. Pray+pray + pray and I will send up a prayer for you.

:tay:


yes, yes, yes!! I agree!!!!

I would network-network-NETWORK meaning that I would talk to the neighbors, postman, etc. to find out what everybody is going to do. They may have discovered resources which you can also tap in to. Do not go at this alone!!! Talk to people at your church or any organizations which you are a member of because maybe someone has a house that they will rent to you. Pray+pray + pray and I will send up a prayer for you.

Amen to that one! Our situation was quite different, but about 4 yrs. ago we received notice on Friday afternoon from the fire dept. that our landlord had failed to correct a problem that was a fire hazard and we would have to be out by Sunday night. This was the first we had heard of any of this. We would not be allowed back in the building after that time because the building was unsafe. Who can find a place and get everthing out in 2 days?

The first place we went was to an attorney who was no help at all -- in fact he laughed at us. Then we went to our pastor. She didn't really have any specific ideas herself but was able to get us calmed down and helped us brainstorm.

As I said our case was different and we ended up getting the press and our Congressman involved. The landlord was embarrassed into fixing the problem at the 11th hour, passed inspection and everyone was allowed to stay.

What was horrible when it happened turned out to be the best thing that ever happened to us. For a long time we had felt trapped in that place, that we just couldn't afford to move. But we started looking that weekend and discovered that the local housing market had changed and there were very nice, newer apartments available for less than we were paying. In a few months we were out of there. When we left our circumstances changed drastically. First we started feeling much better -- our old building had been making us sick. You may find the same thing when you get away from that water. We were able to find an apt. in the county across the street from a wildlife area where we are much more comfortable and relaxed than when we were in the middle of the city. When we stopped feeling trapped and took that first step doors started opening right and left. Dh ended up with a really good job and I found serveral contracts to work on.

So, do the networking. Talk to lots of people and I hope everything works out for you.

LizaZ has a good point. Call your Senator. Call your Congressman. (Remember, they work for you. This is the kind of crisis where they are needed, and can 'show-off'.) Call the local newspaper. Call the local radio stations.

Ban together with your neighbors... multiple phone calls may become a little difficult to ignore!

Maybe this will embarrass the water co. into rethinking their decision to deny running the water lines to this property; or maybe a park can be found to move the homes onto.

In the meantime, don't drink the water! :fish:

I agree with everyone who said to network. Maybe someone will let you move your home to their land temporarily.

With the recession we're in (even though "officially" there is no recession), we all need to band together and help each other.

Thanks everyone for your advice- so many things that I totally overlooked!

I remember at the water athority place that the landlord said something about June for letting the DEP know what he is doing. I believe one of the neighbors is going to be calling the local tv stations- they are always looking for stories.

I called the other 2 mobile home courts in our area (both own by the same person)- our mobile home is an 1983 and they don't allow anything older than 1986 in their parks (he also said by time it's moved maybe have the stuff would be broken off anyways!). I don't know if there is anyone with free vacant land we can move it and the price of free land is ridiculous in our area. There is other places we can try- BUT we really like the school district and hate to make our oldest go to a different school- especially since the school is really good compared to other schools in our community.

Just in case we are going to be looking around the town to see what is available for rent, there is one house that seems pretty cheap compared to other homes with the same features, so we may run by that house (DH is a jack of all trades master of none so he can probably fix anything if that is the case!), also check out other mobile homes to see if any others are for sale. We have a long day ahead of us!

That is just awful. Can you contact the media?? Sometimes they will look into things like this.

I feel so bad for you & your family.

I am so sorry to hear all this. Why is it that it takes you so long to pay off trailers and when you do no one wants older trailers in there parks .. GRRRRRR .they just want new trailers in them. I hope every thing works out for you .

Prayers that a sweep of good fortune comes your way. :dollar:

Just a hint - Saturday and Sunday are usually slow day for the media. Talk to others in your park. If there are a few of you to film you might be able to get them to come out.

Wishing you the best of luck. This stinks as you had no control over it. Big hugs to you and your family!

keep us updated.

I'm praying for you! Sending good vibes too! :vibes: :vibes: :vibes:

We looked at the one house that is for sale- just the outside- it is really cute! Anyways, we knew that there was a possiblity of them closing down the park so we did start a little bit of research (so we could get a head start!) and on Christmas night we drove by one of the homes. The funny thing is that there is a hot tub that comes with it and my oldest told me that she had a dream about being in the hot tub. Anyways we were somehow able to see a virtual tour on one of the websites and in one of the pictures you can see my oldest intials written on the shed. That was kind of odd!

Anyways- we are going to set up a time with a realitor so we can see the inside. I know the market is really volitale right now- but it does not hurt to see what we can possibly do!

I told DH that we are buckling down right now- no unneccesary expenses and try to save as much as possible and try to pay this off ASAP and possibly sell it for some extra money towards whatever we have to do! I am also going to start going through our stuff to declutter (I refuse to move all this stuff we have!) and hopefully sell the stuff for extra money!

Right now I am seeing things in a really positive light!

Oh honey, I'm so glad you are looking for the positive. That is exactly what I'm doing in our situation as well. It's either that or crash and we have family to consider so can't do that. We gotta be strong!

I also thought about the Red Cross. It wouldn't hurt to contact them as they may even be able to house you for 2 or 3 days or give emergency help since this is not a situation of your doing and is more like a disaster situation with the e-coli, right? Anyway, give it some thought. Couldn't hurt to ask. Hugs and I do believe in dreams so maybe your daughter is on the right track. :)

Good luck with selling your stuff! Before we moved to this house I made about $600 selling furniture and other stuff. It made me some money AND we didn't have to have it moved to the new house.

I am so sorry to hear that. I believe in "things happen for a reason" and am sending good thoughts and prayers your way. Hopefully, the solution you find will be better off. :grouphug2

I would definitely look into the legalities of your situation. In my city , I live in Southern California, I know of a friend who lived in a very run down MH park and when it was sold, it was required by law that the residents receive compensation. Now, keep in mind that this MH park was 95% 5th-wheel trailers, not double-wide mobile homes, and she rec'd $30,000. I could not believe she rec'd that much, I was shocked! She now rents an apartment and has $27,000 left in the bank for which she wants to buy a home as soon as prices in our area come down more.

I also want to point out that I live in a MH park (which I absolutely love!) and we live near a university. Well, over the years there has been rumors that the university may want to buy our MH park (which has almost 300 doublewide homes!) and the reason they haven't pursued it is because they would have to compensate each resident fair market value for their MH. So I would think that in your state, there might be similar laws.

Also, our city's housing department gave us a grant about 3 years ago for $35,000 to upgrade our MH. So we sold our old single-wide and bought a brand new MH from Arizona and had it transported from the factory to here. My grandmother who live in my same MH park rec'd the same grant as did other residents here. There are many programs that the housing departments have that people are not aware of. Please call around and find out if there are any you can qualify for.

Wow. I'm so glad you are focusing on the positives! That rental house sounds cute -- and how cool is it that your dd had just dreamed of a hot tub and your ds's initials were already carved???

An idea in addition to contacting your representatives: contact HUD -- you can go to their website HUD.gov for info. This gov't agency is mandated with protecting you. From e-coli, problem or negligent landlords, closings of mh parks, discrimination, etc.

Please keep us posted -- I'll go to the HUD site in a few minutes and see what I can find for you.

It looks like HUD, in some instances, will allow the developer/builder/owner to set up an individual water purifier and treatment process for each house or mh, and that the house/mh owner must certify that they are responsible for monitoring it......

It sounds like the landlord has already decided that he doesn't want to put them in.

I would imagine the water authority would run the pipes necessary to get you all on public water if your landlord paid to have it done, but that's not likely.

My guess? that he might have someone who will buy the land from him to develop something other than a mh park. This happened to my mother.

I'm glad you're planning to sell what you can to raise cash and looking at other homes.

Too bad there isn't a vacant lot for you to park you mh on.... put the word out just in case. You never know. You sure do have alot of people praying for you right now...

keep us posted.

It looks like HUD, in some instances, will allow the developer/builder/owner to set up an individual water purifier and treatment process for each house or mh, and that the house/mh owner must certify that they are responsible for monitoring it......

It sounds like the landlord has already decided that he doesn't want to put them in.

I would imagine the water authority would run the pipes necessary to get you all on public water if your landlord paid to have it done, but that's not likely.

My guess? that he might have someone who will buy the land from him to develop something other than a mh park. This happened to my mother.

I'm glad you're planning to sell what you can to raise cash and looking at other homes.

Too bad there isn't a vacant lot for you to park you mh on.... put the word out just in case. You never know. You sure do have alot of people praying for you right now...

keep us posted.

Yes that is what happened! He looked into the cost of becoming his own water authority and the cost was pretty high. He spoke to a few other mobile court owners that had the same situation and they told him that when that happens the DEP can come back again and tell you what you have going is obsolete. The down fall with the local water authority is that they are only "development driven"- although he is considered a "developer" he is not new construction. The only thing he asked them to do is run the water line 1/4 of a mile up the road. It is a shame- I guess he tried to get some "help" from low interest government loans but he did not qualify for it (we are assuming that he makes "too much money"). I bet anything once he closes this place down- he will sell off the property- developers will come in and the water company will have no issue with installing water lines here:dis:!

We decided that we are going to go ahead and try to buy a home. We really like the one we already "fell in love" with (although we did not actually go into the house!) and looking for some other houses in the area. We did find another one that costs about $10,000 less- but the location is not too great, but the house is larger and has a big 2 door detached garage (DH could possibly work on some cars for extra money!). The downfall is that yes our money would be A LOT tighter than what it already is, but my MIL offered to watch our youngest so I can get a job (which I am nervous about and recently started looking for one!). We know we could swing buying another mobile home- BUT we don't want to get burned again and really looking forward to having our own home. If that falls through I heard of a house going up for rent in Feburaury (I think we may have an idea if we could get a mortgage loan before then- I hope- although I did hear that it takes 45-60 days to close on a house though!).

Good luck to you and your family!!

Keep us updated.