I just took a call from a guy who has been living on his mother’s living room floor for the past two weeks because of sewage issues. The ground under his mobile home is saturated with sewage and the park owner is essentially saying “too bad, come back in spring”. I referred him to the Minnesota Attorney General’s office under the assumption that they could help him. Can they? He must have recourse of some sort, yes?
He is renting the lot right?
If he is…off course he does.
He should go down to the county offices and complain.
I think the AG is a bit to high to go too.
Yep, renting the lot.
I wasn’t quite sure where to send him and the AG’s office would know. The AG here is very accessible, and I figured if he could go to his landlord with a statement starting off “The AG’s office says…” he’d have pretty good luck with his landlord. 
What would they tell him, though?
Start with the local county or city inspector. Work your way up the food chain if need be.
Well… as a practical matter if the lot soil under the hime is truly “saturated” with sewage effluent I’m not clear what the landlord can do at this time other than cancel his land/lot lease and say bye bye, until the sewage stops being pumped into the soil, and the lot is allowed to recover via natural microbial action over time.
Regardless of the good or bad intent of the park owner, what exactly do you anticipate that the park owner can do other than move him off the lot at this point?
Step #1 is the local Health Department (city, county, whatever). Whether he owns or rents his mobile home, he rents the lot, making it a landlord-tenant issue, and landlords requiring tenants to live in unsanitary conditions that are landlord responsibility, is, I’d bet toothpicks to Sequoias, within the purview of health departments in every state. They can mandate landlord to clean it up in some areas, close down his profitable mobile home park as unsanitary unless he fixes the problem in others.
If Minnesota is like New York, the Attorney General’s office may be loath to get involved off the bat, but will be prepared to bring in big guns if need be. Alternatively, if you don’t get satisfaction from local health officials, state health department is always prepared to step in in cases like this, and from what little I know of Minnesota law regarding police and health powers, they have plenty of power to force correction of the problem.
Oh, I agree. But at the tenant’s own expense? That’s the part I have an issue with.
No, they won’t get involved, but they’ll give him better advice than I can. I just want to know if the guy can get the landlord to pay for someplace for him to live. I got really torqued when he told me the landlord made him pay March’s rent despite the fact he couldn’t live there.
I’m not sure I have the story straight, but as the owner of 10 mobiles that I rent out, mostly on rented lots, I do have a bit of experience in the matter.
If your friend owns his own mobile and rents the space, in my opinion, the fault is very likely his own. It sounds as though his main drain line has either broken or come uncoupled where it enters the sewer or septic tank.
That’s almost certainly NOT the fault of the owner of the rented lot. In my experience, that has always been my responsibility to get the required permits, inspection and perform needed maintanance.
I’ve had the same thing happen once or twice over the years and can tell you that it’s real hard to find a plumber willing to deal with the resulting mess. My advice would be for your friend to fast for a good day or so, don some clothes he doesn’t care for, pull the skirting and get in there with a flashlight to see what’s actually going on.
If the mobile was properly installed to begin with, there is a plastic vapor barrier on the ground that has contained most of the mess and one can often lift it enough to slosh the slop over far enough to effect necessary repairs.
At a guess, it’ll be one of two things, the three inch waste pipe wasn’t properly supported and either broke or became uncoupled, or more likely it will be a rubber reducing boot that goes from the 3" waste pipe to the 4" septic pipe that has failed. He’s not gonna know though until he looks. I’ve seen some real bastardized setups under mobile homes.
Once repairs are made, if it’s warm enough, pull the skirting in a few places and spread a couple bags of agricultural lime over the mess which will go a long ways towards alleviating the odor and help it to break down faster.
Not a friend, and he rents both lot and trailer. I’m not really sure of the details, either, but he says the landlord told him it happens every year.
Anyhow. I felt kind of useless as I was unable to assist in any way; I’m just hoping there’s some way he can make the landlord pay for a place to live while the sewage issues get sorted out.
That’s a whole different matter then.
If it was me, I sure wouldn’t want to live where there was a reoccuring sewage problem every year.
Had he known this, he shouldn’t have paid his rent, rather given written notice to the owner or manager that he was breaking the lease on the grounds of inhabitability.
I still doubt the Attorney General is going to have any answers for the tenant, although they’ll most likely be contacting the local state health department and get this guy shut down until he makes repairs or does what ever is necessary to fix the issue.
The tenant should take photographs and carefully write all the problems and conversations with the owner\manager and ask neighbors to write statements and prepare to go to small claims court for the return of his rents and deposits. He can ask for the sky regarding making the landlord pay for alternate housing or moving expenses, but in my experience, most judges won’t award it. I don’t suppose it ever hurts to ask though.
It’s a shame there are landlords out there like this one seems to be, but I know there are. There is a real need for lower income housing in this country but no one should have to live in a sewage lagoon.