Lawyer offers to help mobile home park evictees

A St. Petersburg lawyer who specializes in real estate law has signed on to help residents of a mobile home park who received eviction notices Wednesday saying they have to be out by Friday.

Cary Alan Cash met Thursday with residents of Tampa Sun Mobile Home Park on North 47th Street and said he will represent them at no cost or on a contingency basis.

"It shocks the conscience to think that somebody can move their homes in a day or two," he said. "There is no way that anybody can be forced to vacate their home and/or lot they rent in a mobile home setting in a period of two days.

"They are just getting bullied," he said.

Cash said he may ask a judge to sign an emergency injunction to halt the evictions.

It appears the owners want to change the land use, he said. If that's the case, Florida statutes say tenants are entitled to more than two days to arrange for new places to live.

Cash said tenants with week-to-week leases should get a seven-day notice; those with month-to-month leases should get 15 days.

The eviction notice did not reveal why the park is closing, and residents are in the dark.

Dana Patton, who has lived there since December, said the on-site managers and maintenance workers have been let go. The trash bin was removed, and garbage heaps are forming where the bin once stood, said the 30-year-old mother of five.

"They haven't rented trailers over the past few months," she said. "Something is going on; we just don't know what."

She said the park's owners are not accepting rent checks and have said they will turn off the water Monday.

"All of us have families," she said. "All of us have kids."

Calls to the owners have gone unanswered, she said. "They just hang up on us."

According to property records, the park's owner is based in Hollywood, Fla. Calls for comment were not returned.

The park has 43 mobile homes and is valued at nearly $1.2 million, according to records. The value of the property alone is just less than $500,000.

About 25 mobile homes are occupied. Alfred Jackson, 65, who has lived there more than a year, said monthly rents are about $500 to $700.

Steve Campbell, a former owner of the park, showed up Thursday and tried to calm residents. He said the way the park is set up, owners can give a seven-day notice, but after that, renters can petition the court, and all that takes time.

"There's a legal procedure that has to be followed," he said. "I've never heard of a two-day notice."