PEORIA - Five residents of a mobile home park face eviction after an oral agreement with park management on a rent freeze fell through. After negotiating an agreement that would freeze lot rents at Kingspark Estates for 18 months, resident association members returned to picketing after learning the deal was off.
"As far as I'm concerned, we were made asses of," association President V.R. "Mike" Mitchell said Tuesday night at an emergency association meeting. "They have lied to us, totally and completely lied to us."
The deal, worked out with Tom Foresta, incoming regional property supervisor for the park's owner, Colorado Real Estate and Investment Co., stipulated the freeze on lot rents until January 2001 and justification of future rent increases. Other provisions of the agreement included a 90-day notice before a rent increase, the return of laundry facilities to the park and increased security. Residents wanted a rent reduction because they began paying for metered water in January. Before this year, the cost of water was included in their rent. Foresta said he lobbied the CREICO board and got approval for all other portions of the agreement except the financial aspect.
"Basically, I don't own the park. I didn't have the authority to say 'rent freeze.' We've done everything they've wanted except guarantee a rent freeze," he said.
The company does its budgets in October, Foresta said, and will decide then whether to raise the rents.
"They will evaluate how the property is doing, how expenditures are, and if they can freeze the rents, they will," Foresta said. "I did what I said I was going to do. We're putting in a laundry facility now. We can't let a handful of people hold us hostage."
So Mitchell and a handful of other residents returned to picket duty Monday. Those people received eviction notices later the same day.
"This is strictly a scare tactic," Mitchell told the 19 other residents who attended Tuesday's meeting. "There is no way they can enforce an eviction."
Foresta disagrees. Since other residents of the park called to complain, the company has proper grounds to evict. "We don't care if they picket, but they are affecting the rights of other residents in the park, disturbing them. They are violating the rules of the park. This is something we don't want to do but we have to protect the other residents. "One thousand two hundred people live in our park There are only 25 or 30 in their organization. Nobody else is complaining," Foresta said. Mitchell, Larry Brewer, John Genovese Sr., Mardee McLean and Carrie Peterson have to vacate the premises by Sept. 1. They were cited in the notices for "continuing and repeated violations of park rules and regulations" and "continuing and repeated refusal to comply with park rules and regulations." Robert Hettinger, president of the Mobile Home Owners Association of Illinois, said the scare tactics are only beginning. The association must be strong to continue in its fight, he said. The lease that has residents paying for their water is one place to start the battle, Hettinger said. The way residents were notified about it was not proper, he said, and grounds to nullify it. But strength in unity is the key. "There are a lot of legal problems here with this lease," he said. "In order for you to continue this, you have got to have a solid association. If I walk up there with 20 people, they'll listen, but things won't get done. The larger the association, the more power you have."
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