Mid-Minnesota Legal Aid, Robins Kaplan Bring Class Action Suit Against Mobile Home Park

Exposure to raw sewage, overcharging for utilities, and invalid leases are at the heart of a class action lawsuit filed by Mid-Minnesota Legal Aid (“Legal Aid”) and Robins Kaplan LLP against a mobile home park in Sartell, Minnesota. The suit, filed by four longtime residents, names the out-of-state owners of the Sartell Manufactured Home Park (“the Park”) as the Defendants.

“We have identified three major violations at the Park that need urgent and immediate correction,” says Robins Kaplan partner Anne Lockner. According to the complaint, Defendants defrauded residents by falsely informing each resident, under duress and the threat of eviction, that state law required them to re-sign their leases, while failing to disclose that the leases presented to them contained new, illegal, and restrictive terms not found in their current leases.

Second, the complaint alleges that the Defendants installed utility meters under each home with the stated purpose of charging each resident for the utilities that they use. In reality, the meters either do not work or the Defendants are charging for utility use that is wildly inaccurate.

Finally, the suit claims that Defendants knowingly operate compromised water and sewage systems that cause human excrement and other sewage to back-up into residents’ homes and leak onto residents’ rented lots and community spaces, making the Park uninhabitable.

One of the Plaintiffs in the action, and a longtime resident of the Park, Marcie Knox, stated: “When I asked them to fix the raw sewage problem under my house, they blamed me and refused to pay for the repairs. I was forced to spend my entire pandemic stimulus check cleaning up the filth just to make my house habitable.”

“For years, Defendants have exploited and preyed upon our clients and their neighbors in the Park,” contends Legal Aid’s Litigation Director Justin Perl. “These are elderly folks, veterans, disabled persons, and low-income families being squeezed out of a tight housing market. Enough is enough. We bring this class action to protect their rights, to get a responsible property manager appointed who will maintain the Park according to this State’s laws, and to remove the current owners who do not care about the residents and their basic rights to health and safety.”