We live in Cedarhurst Mobile Home park in Salisbury. In mid October we came home to find a letter on our door that the park was being sold. Our park is at least 95% senior citizens living on a fixed income. On December 1 we all got a letter taped to our front doors with a lease stating all lot rent would increase to $395 a month (most of us were paying around $250) so this a large increase to take effect January 1, 2018 and to sign the lease and return it or move by January 31, 2018. The company that purchased our park has also purchased Walston Switch and we are told they are also purchasing 3 other parks in our area. We did a petition, we have had resident meetings and we invited the manager to one of those meetings. The park managers are unprofessional, they have slammed the office door in the faces of some residents, have hung up the phone on others and generally don’t have a clue on how to manage a property. The lease is a joke 3 separate addendums, and this recent storm was a joke they didn’t even send in anyone until Friday to attempt a plow and even then it was a partial swipe, if anyone would have needed an ambulance they wouldn’t have been able to get in. This is the same company that purchased Frontier Town and Fort Whaley last year. We the residents are fighting, kicking and screaming to get the word out, we have sent copies (certified mail to the owner and managers) requesting a face to face and why the rent was increased so much. We have told them many of our seniors residents will be either homeless or unable to eat or pay for medications with this large increase. Can you help us get the word out? We have called our elected officials, MAC, Legal Aid, the TV Stations (no one would call us back) and we just don’t know where to turn to next.
Been in a similar situation. Nothing could be done, except leave. I got right on Craigslist and found a much cheaper situation saving more than 450 a month. The place I moved out of still sits vacant, so they are currently reaping the effects of their greed.
ReplyDeleteWe will be seeing more of this.Property tax has rose drastically this year.The landlords will have to increase the cost to make the same profit.
ReplyDeleteUnfortunately this is happening all over the country. Mobile home parks are a literal gold mine due to the fact that the land is cheap and most of the residents are for many reasons stuck there. these companies are making outrageous increases to lot rent and not much can be done about it. There isn't any real appetite for regulations on greed these days. 60 minutes did a piece on the issue last summer.
ReplyDeleteWhere is Cedarhurst mobile home park in Salisbury?
ReplyDeleteIncorrect. Cedarhurst is on Rt 50 West near Mardela.
DeleteCedarhurst Mobile Home Park is just outside of Salisbury, so yes it is considered Salisbury.
DeleteCedar hurst is just outside of Salisbury on 50 in the area of Naylor Mill and 50
Delete@9:49 the one by the mall!
ReplyDeleteFRee-market Capitalism at its finest. This is what y'all wanted. And I find it curious the author is asking for government officials to help. I thought less government regulation was what y'all wanted? Well, here's what it looks like - driving old people out of their homes. This is what you asked for.
ReplyDeleteWhile I empathize with anyone facing unplanned increases in their budget, please tell me anyone who is not on a "fixed budget"? I have never been able to simply adjust my paycheck because my rent went up, so although I do not receive government benefits, I too am on a "fixed income".
ReplyDeleteUnless we are disabled physically/mentally, we have the option of working and this, in my world, is the only way to increase my take home pay.
9:35 Yeah I agree. I just bought my home a little over two years ago and made no changes at all and the new Tax assessment has the value of the home increased by $30,000. I bought my home based on the appraised value at the time so this increase to me seems to be a bit extreme.
ReplyDeleteCedarhurst MHP is near the landfill, on the same side as route 50, just a little west of Naylor Mill Road. It is in the district represented by Sheree Sample Hughes in the General Assembly.
ReplyDeleteIf they is mobile homes, then move them or pay the new rent.
ReplyDeleteHey that's capitalism right? Do as your fellow Republicans say to do and pick yourselves up by your bootstraps. Quit relying on the gov't to take care of you. Etc. etc.
ReplyDeleteWelcome back to the free market and America. Your landlord can’t raise rates beyoynd what can be paid. No laws should describe these conditions
ReplyDeleteNothing government can do. The sad part is many of the older and smaller mobile homes cannot be moved as newer parks won't take them. The same thing happened at the park near the mall in he late 80's. You may want to organize and request they give you more time.
ReplyDeleteThere is not a thing you can do. . .my advice is to try and find another place. They've got you - and with the residential sprinkler ordinance, and mound septic systems building new is no longer an option. So sorry and I do indeed feel for you.
ReplyDeleteThis sounds like the business model Comcast/Xfinity uses...
ReplyDeleteA lot of people in this park are on social security or single parents and chose this park because of the community and the low cost lot rent. The problem is that the new owners raised the rent $145 instead of gradually raising the rent in smaller increments a year. No one is asking for the government to take care of them! I don't live there but i do know several that do live there and it aggravates me. Shouldn't there be a cap on how much a company can raise rent? It's just plain greediness!
ReplyDeleteThose who make profits off of other people's misery are a breed unto themselves. Unfortunately, there is no way to effectively deal with greedy people who want their money to make money for them. They probably haven't put in a hard day's work in their entire lives. The truth is that I have known many people like this in my life. I also know that they are usually the most unhappy people. Feel sorry for them, they are lost.
ReplyDeleteThe company that purchased Cedarhurst and Walston is not the company that purchased Frontiertown and Fort Whaley. Sun Communities from Michigan purchased Frontiertown and Fort Whaley and operates mostly RV parks across the country.
ReplyDeleteThe company is Sun Properties. They are indeed buying up "trailer" parks all over the country along with resort area RV parks.
ReplyDeleteThey are the same dimwits that planned a 214 site expansion at Frontier Town without the sewer EDUs to support it. Real brainiacs to not realize that if you are not one of the Worcester good ole boys you can't get anything done.
These companies are like investment funds. People buy shares the company buys property and you pay not only for their mortgages on the land and properties but to the share holders as well. Eventually the land itself will be worth more than having you there paying their mortgage. People on a fixed income suffer and the poor property upkeep effects the quality of life of neighboring owner's. Cities and Municipalities seldom take a stand against them.
ReplyDeleteWatch for the surveyors ! When they come out to bundle the lots and plot a development you really have problems.
You will soon see the same happening with Cemeteries. Plots of perpetuity and eternal rest will far exceed their original purchase and escrow investments for up keep. Investors will prey on families and extort further payments and disrupt and stock pile the remains of those long forgotten. It's been that way in many ancient European cemeteries for years. Sad but burial has always been bad land use anyway.
ReplyDeleteDoes anyone have an address, phone number,e-mail for the actual company that purchased this mobile home park? The same company purchased the John Walston mobile home park in Salisbury.
ReplyDeleteWelcome back to the free market and America. Your landlord can’t raise rates beyoynd what can be paid. No laws should describe these conditions
ReplyDeleteYour a freaking idiot, most of this comes from you stupid libtards, raising taxes in cities and counties that waste freaking money run by Democraps.
Liberalism is a mental condition.
Contact the Maryland Department of Housing and Community Development. They may be able to negotiate a smaller increase. Also, I believe there are ground rent laws in place which cap how much rent can be increased at a time.
ReplyDelete9:35am - So what you are saying is that they have been collecting say on 100 mobile home park, $300,000 per year and now need to collect $474,000 per year to keep up with property tax and make them the same profit?? This smells like BS to me. It sounds more like greed!!!!!!
ReplyDeleteActually the tenants were spoiled by years of low lot rent that the previous owner was charging. When he did have a modest increase , some tenants complained about that. So the new rate is probably about right.
ReplyDeleteTo those morons who say just move, how do you expect an elderly person to come up with 5 to 10000 dollars it costs to move a mobile home. How do you expect an elderly person to try to go out and get a loan to move when they can't even afford to eat or get prescriptions. Secondly if this community were black then every politician and media group would have already been out there trying to help and don't forget the racism word because that would definitely been brought up.
ReplyDeleteAnonymous Anonymous said...
ReplyDelete9:35 Yeah I agree. I just bought my home a little over two years ago and made no changes at all and the new Tax assessment has the value of the home increased by $30,000. I bought my home based on the appraised value at the time so this increase to me seems to be a bit extreme.
January 10, 2018 at 10:59 AM
Wicomico county taxes went down last year. Maybe your assessment went up.
That's exactly what 1:49 said. The assessment wen't up.
Delete
ReplyDeleteWALSTON MHP LLC
410 S AURORA AVE
CLEARWATER FL 33765-
Price: $950,000
Asset price inflation is a result of Fed easy-money policies for over a decade.
ReplyDeleteSoon every one of us will feel the inflation in some product, good, or service that we enjoy or need.
For these residents, the new rate reflects what the new owners want as a return on their investment.
It is as American as apple pie.
The reckless inflation and corresponding destruction of our currency on the other hand, is not American.
It is an evil that started in 1913 and became much worse in 1971 with the end of Bretton Woods.
Now those in charge of the American Central Bank simply do whatever they wish to do.
Print money. Purchase Bonds. Keep interest rates artificially low for decades. Rig markets. Commit fraud in COMEX. It goes on and on. This is the new America. The old America is long long gone.