BOSCOBEL = Residents facing eviction from their mobile home parking spaces at Cozy Acres raised new allegations at a pre-trial hearing in Grant County Court this week. The hearing before Judge Robert P. VanDeHey took place on Monday, October 3.
Matthew Turner, who owes $4,374.03 in back rent, and who’s lived in the park for eight years, told the court that he’d been illegally charged $2,000 to cover back rent owed by the previous owner of his trailer before being allowed to sign a lease.
Wisconsin’s administrative code, which has the force of law, states that no operator may “solicit or receive any payment or other thing of value as a condition to the assignment…of a rental agreement.”
VanDeHey said that these statutes take precedence over the evictions proceedings and scheduled a trial for October 27 at 2 p.m.
Steve Woodside was also scheduled for trial on the same date. He alleged in court that the eviction was retaliation after he discussed conditions at the trailer park with the Dial. Turner and Woodside both were quoted anonymously in the story. None of the other evicted parties were quoted.
A third resident, Donald Shawgo, reached an agreement with manager Bruce Zinkle before the hearing. In an interview, Shawgo said that he traded his girlfriend’s trailer, which she’d bought from Zinkle in 2021 for $4,500, to pay off his back rent $1,884.24.
Zinkle, who manages the property for the absentee landlord, Michelle Gillette, told the Dial that it’s not unusual to make a Cozy Acres lease contingent on paying the former occupant’s back rent.
“There are times when people are in a situation where they want to buy the house, and the park is interested in recovering the back rent, so that would be the price of the house,” he said. “We’re not interested in making any money on the homes. We just want to recover the back rent.”
State oversight
As has been reported here, a patchwork of local and state agencies share jurisdiction over mobile home parks. Of these, Wisconsin’s Department of Agriculture, Trade, and Consumer Protection (DATCP) is charged with enforcing landlord-tenant laws as they apply to mobile-home owners who lease a parking spot.
In 2016 a park resident filed a complaint with DATCP against Cozy Acres and Zinkle. In the complaint, John Anderson wrote that he had purchased a trailer for $800 in June of 2016. His complaint alleges that he was refused a lease unless he paid the previous owner’s back rent of $1,626.56, and that the water and electric were disconnected from his trailer until he paid up.
Included in his complaint were text messages that he alleged came from Zinkle responding to his refusal to pay the back rent. In one exchange, from November 2016, Zinkle allegedly texted that the owner would have Anderson evicted “by Christmas.”
“I’ve tried to work with you,” Zinkle allegedly texted. “Put the wheels on both your homes and get them out of my park. You seem to forget that you live on rented land, and I don’t owe you a place to live.”
Anderson wrote back: “Bruce there is no way we have to pay Whitney’s back rent and water bill. We know by law we don’t have to.”
Zinkle: “You’re right by law you don’t have to. The reality is, you are on a month-to-month lease. We only owe you a 30-day notice, and we don’t need a reason for giving it. When I discussed this with you a few months ago you asked me if you could make payments and I agreed. When I tell the owner that you’ve changed your mind, he will move aggressively to have you removed.”
A DATCP investigator wrote that these practices violate the Wisconsin Administrative Code and asked Zinkle to provide a response to the complaint.
Zinkle wrote: “As Mr. Anderson does not have a lease for the lot on which he is currently living, and is therefore trespassing, we will be dealing with him through the court system.”
Ultimately, DATCP issued the park and its manager a warning for shutting off the utilities at the trailer as a form of illegal eviction.
More hearings ahead
Two additional residents, Janna Smith and Travis Atkinson, face eviction hearings this month on the October 17.
Zinkle said there might be more evictions soon.
“Eviction, for me, is a last resort. I don’t want to make anyone homeless,” he said. “We don’t like to let the balances get as high as this, but with COVID and all the restrictions with that, we decided that this summer it’s time for people to get with the program. The eviction gets their attention and then they want to work it out. That’s typically how it happens.”
