INDIANAPOLIS — WRTV continues to follow a story impacting two dozen families in Speedway. Residents of a mobile home park were given just over 30 days to move out, as the owners are selling the property.
A local attorney is now involved, representing about a dozen of the residents at the El Lou mobile home park. He met with a number of them Wednesday night and is now fighting to keep them in their homes a little longer.
George Coffman and his wife remodeled and built up their home to what it is today, themselves.
“[We] planned on living here until she retired from Marion County Sheriff‘s,” said George Coffman. “This was going to be home.”
But a letter sent to the Speedway residents dated October 26 stated the park owners were selling the property and they’d have to leave by November 30.
“No one wants to see them lose their home,” said attorney Matthew Zentz. “There are veterans living there. These are just hard-working people.”
Zentz, who was hired by the residents, says according to a new law that went into effect in July of this year, mobile home park owners are required to give residents 180 days notice to vacate; that's significantly longer than the roughly 30 days El Lou owners gave them.
“The best way to handle this moving forward is to at least reach out to the owners of the mobile home park and attempt to resolve this informally to allow the residents to have enough notice to try and find some other living arrangements,” Zentz said.
If the owners are not cooperative, Zentz said, “in a very short time here, we will be forced to request the court to issue an injunction while we work this out.”
The Indiana Attorney General’s office is also involved. They say they’ve received eight complaints so far regarding this matter and are now investigating.
The Attorney General’s Office has the authority to and has previously litigated consumer related issues involving mobile home parks.
