Tenants living in a Williams Lake trailer court are hoping to form a park committee after the new owner sent them updated park rules and regulations.
RJ De AthEstates Limited of North Vancouver purchased the Fran Lee Trailer Mobile Park on Eleventh Avenue in December 2019.
Recently the owners sent out a notice to all the tenants dated July 25, 2020 with instructions to sign it and mail it back.
The three-page notice states the owners have the right to fine, terminate and take legal action without warning when deemed necessary and administer fines of $1,000-plus for not abiding by all the rules and regulations.
“Any resident(s) found/proven slandering on social media or anywhere else (will result in termination of tenancy effective immediately,” the notice states. “Yards that are not properly maintained will be fined $1,000-plus and will be cleaned up/mowed by our contractors without any warning or notices (all costs associated will be forwarded to that residents/tenants.)”
To date RJ De AthEstates Limited has not responded to the Tribune’s repeated requests for an interview.
A 22-year-old tenant who bought a trailer in October of 2019 is leading the effort to form a park committee and has called a meeting for Saturday, Aug. 15 to take place across the street from the park in the former Poplar Glade School grounds.
Andrew Bettles said he has already heard back from the park owners via e-mail that they will not be attending the meeting.
That’s problematic, Bettles said, because they need a landlord present at the meeting to create a committee.
He will still go ahead with the meeting, however, and said he has spent the last few weeks educating himself about manufactured home park tenancy regulations in B.C.
When he received the amended rules and regulations from the new owners he was immediately worried.
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Joined by his roommate, they went door-to-door in the park to find out what other tenants thought.
“There were lots of people who didn’t understand it fully,” Bettles said, noting only a few people have signed the new rules and regulations agreement so far.
Legal advocate Matthew Granlund of the Women’s Contact Society said he believes that the proposed amendments are in breach of the Manufactured Home Park Tenancy Act and the Regulations to the Act and his office is able to assist with matters like this one.
Bettles did sign an agreement with the previous owners when he move in.
He said it outlines general rules about keeping lawns maintained, no fences and only small pets allowed.
There are 98 trailers in the park, and for a pad rental of $350 a month, they receive water, sewer and electrical services.
In the past a park manager lived on site, but there is no on-site manager living there presently and the mobile home used by the previous manager is for sale.
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