A mobile home park near Flint, Michigan, has no water, as it has been shut off by the city. This leaves all of the tenants who pay for their spaces in the park without basic functionality for drinking, cooking and bathing. However, the fault seems to lie entirely with the landlord who owns the park, seeing as how he allegedly owes the city an amount that totals up over $100,000, prompting the shutoff.
One woman who lives in the park said that she’d already gone an entire day without water. People had been coming to her home and bringing jugs of water with them. These had simply been needed just to allow her toilet to function.
Reports indicate that a lot of the mobile homes in the park have been vandalized since people are not living in a high percentage of them. However, the residents who do live there have said that they’ve been paying their rent and doing what was asked of them. They noted that it was not their own fault, saying that the landlord should pay the roughly $106,000 for the water bill since they were paying their portion.
One man who claimed to be the owner of the park did speak to reporters. He said that part of the issue was just a billing error, and that he had been in contact with the city. He said that he had written them a check and that they were setting up a payment plan. He indicated that the water should come back on soon.
When someone signs a residential lease agreement that states that they will get things like water services if they pay their rent, they need to be aware of their legal options if those services are taken away.
Source: WNEM, “Water shut off at local mobile home park” Andrew Keller, Jun. 04, 2014
