[kathys]

Hi everyone, am hoping some readers that reside in mobile home parks in the Macomb county area can help me out.
I moved into this particular park last December. I paid cash. I of course did not read the community guidebook as thoroughlly as I should have.If I had of I would not have moved in here, but I am sure I am not the only one who has done that.
Here is what I want to know. My boyfriend recently went to the office to pay the rent, and was talking about the weather.He mentioned the cold air blowing thru the window air conditioners. That was when they said, well you know you are not supposed to have window air conditioners, and this year they are going to start enforcing it.Is this a common thing in all parks? Are these people trying to make this some kind of exclusive non trailer trash park place? Half the place is empty now, and recently in the paper they announced a 177 % water rate increase in New Haven/ Lennox.
There are quite a few trailers in here that do have them. I drove thru the part to see how many.
My other points are when I purchased this place, they were already in the windows. The real estate agent, the previous owner never said anything. Before the previous owner sold it, she had to have the park do an inspection. They did not make her removee them. The management never said anything either. They just wanted us to move in then get us I guess.
Their other stupid rule is keeping the garbage in the shed in the summer, no cans are allowed outside. Is that also common?
I need some more info on other parks as, I am sure I will have to move this place.
One more thing, water meters. They said they read them, but I do not believe that. I have never seen a meter readed and do not know where the meters are. Should'nt I be able to see an actual reading and what I actually use. I do not believe I am paying for what I use. I know they make us pay the water for the pool. Is this legal?

[sikes0000]

did you rent or buy the home?

I have lived in a park before. Twice a year they would go around and grade everything. Is the lawn edged, is the skirting in good shape, is the shed painted etc. I never did some of the things they told us to fix. And I never had any problems with complaints from the park managers.

However, some places are nasty and will force you to make the changes. Afterall, regardless of whether you own or rent the home you are renting the property. No different then an apartment. Some apartments make you have nuetral color blinds etc. Some of our neighbors had bed sheets as blinds so I never worried about that! I never hade to hide my garbage though. Athough used to keep it in the shed but when its 90 outside its a lot hotter in there and the garbage wasn't very pleasent.

My suggestion would be to leave the air conditioners in and wait for a formal complaint. If half the place is empty they are probably struggling for cash. I doubt they would get to the point of trying to make you move the mobile home out of the park.

You are correct about them keeping everything secret. The realtor wants their 4 grand to sell the place and the owner is so under the water because the values drop fast so they just want out. I am sure the managers get a cut of that 4k too.

My other suggestion (if you are buying the home) is to pay down the mortage fast. Ours dropped in value about 1-2k a year. Top that off with 4k to sell it and its hard to move out without having to just walk away or dump a bunch of cash.

[kathys]

Hi sikes, I own it. I paid cash.I paid way, way to much. The previous owner and the real estate lady failed to mention that the psycho lady that lived here did not let her dogs outside to go to the bathroom. I guess the carpet was their place to do it. So I got roped all around. What about the water meters? Any info on that. I heard from other tenenats that in the summer, the whole park pays extra on the water for the pool..
Half the park is empty or for sale. I would think they would want to have people stay, but in the researh i have done I see that they can charge you an exiting fee if you take the trailer out, and they charge you a fee when you sell. Some states have regulations for parks, Michigan does not have these particular things covered I guess. It is all about money and the property, buiness owner.
This air conditioner one is the absolute worst one I have heard though. They will be sending out letters in the spring. The park book says after three write ups you can be evicted.

[amatrine]

That is just not rite. They expect you to live without AC? Here in AZ that would be against the law. Do they expect everyone to pay to put in central AC? That sounds like the management has a power trip or something .

Ama

[kathys]

No kidding. I can't afford to put cental in. They have a bunch of rules for that to.To top all that off our water rates may go up 177%. Yes 177% that is not a typo, and these idiots tht own this place decide that they are going to enforce this air conditioning rule.
I am so outraged, but am probably powerless to do anything about it.

[Driller1]

All city water will be going up, not all that much.

[sikes0000]

Not sure about the water meter. I doubt that they read them. We had ciy water and the bill was always small so i never paid much attention.

I would still wait until they scream about the air conditioner before i did anything. You could always buy an indoor air conditioner. They sit on the floor, are portable, and all you need is a vent to the outside usually through a window. They are more expensive then a window unit (500-700) but heck of a lot cheaper then getting central air installed I am sure. And you can move it to the bedroom at night which is nice. You wouldn't have to cool your entire place.

[kathys]

I had'nt heard of an indoor air conditioner, will have to check it out.

I know that all the water rates went up, but I think that 177% is a BIT much.. That is a lot, and this places is high to begin with. Everyone else i talk to has bills in the $298 to $40 range ours is close to %40 and there are only two of us.. So at 177% that would be close to $150 a month, and don't forget in the summer time they are swindling us by tacking on the pool. in the summer time our bill was close to $60 or $70 we did not water, and were home even less. i did about the same washing, and we only take 1 shower a day, both of us, so why such an increase in summer. If we were paying $70 in summer, it will be close to $200.

There is nothing special about New Haven either, there is nothing here, and we get socked. Supposedly the reason is the new Meijers on 26 Mile road and the drainage project that was done on Gratiot. the water use was higher, so we pay.
They are building a bunch of homes off of 27 Mile. Three story big houses. I don't know how they are able to afford them with the mortgage, taxes,and utilities. When they get there water bills once this increase goes thru they will be awfully sorry that they bought it here.

There is also a problem with natural gas being released out here, sometimes it is so bad you have to close your windows. I don't know where it comes from, but is from somewhere up by 28 or 29 Mile. I did not do very much research on this area before I moved here. I guess thst was a lesson learned to late. my next move will be a little more investigated.

[trinkit]

Kathys: What park do you live in? I ask that because I live in Hometown Novi and they do charge for water. At first I thought the cost was outrageous but I checked (online) with the water rates for the city of Novi and found that they were the same, so the park is not making anything from the resale of water to you. I had been comparing it to my house in Taylor, where the water bill was about $30-$40 every 2 months and I was getting socked with $25-$30 water/sewage a MONTH at the mobile home park. Different communities "bundle" services into the water bill: water, sewage and trash pick-up. (I'm in the process of relocating to South Carolina and down here you have to contract with a trash company separately -- $17/mo -- a practice which is TOTALLY foreign to me.)

Regarding the window air conditioner: Hometown Novi has no such regulation (if you decide to move, you might want to check out Hometown Macomb, assuming you want to stay on that side of town). We have 2 window air conditioners that were installed when we purchased the home almost 2 years ago. I never saw a "spike" in the water bill during the summer, so I'm assuming that we are not charged for filling the pool. I saw a bit of an increase due to lawn watering, but that was all.

Also, you might want to check out the lease agreement that you signed regarding window air conditioners. If it is not mentioned specifically in there, then they can't change the rules in midstream. (I'm not an attorney -- an attorney might give you another answer.)

Regarding the trash being in your shed: Hometown Novi has the same regulation. However, what we (and other neighbors) have done was to build a privacy fence between our mobile home and the shed (they are right next to each other) and kept the trash bin there. It does need to be "out of sight" and no one has complained.

I used to live in New Baltimore and I know that the water rates there are a bit higher than anywhere else. New Baltimore has its own water treatment center and I believe that New Haven buys their water from New Baltimore.

[kathys]

Trinkit, I left you a private message.