Tenants of the River Ridge Mobile Home Park, located north of Athabasca off Highway 813, say theyíve been without water for more than two weeks.
ìYou canít flush your toilets, you canít cook, you canít take a bath,î said a resident of the park who wished to remain anonymous for fear of being evicted.
She also said the park is without garbage pick-up, snow removal and grading of the access road during the summer.
ìThere are a lot of things you cannot do, and our landlord does not understand why we are frustrated.
ìLast New Yearís Day we had no water, and didnít have water for probably three weeks,î she added. ìHe didnít answer the phone, he did nothing. This has been an ongoing thing since he bought the trailer court.
ìI have him on speed dial, but he just hangs up on me,î she said. ìI am frustrated.î
The park is currently owned by Edmonton-based Muller Ryan Richard Development Group Inc. (MRR), which purchased the park following a foreclosure.
Company representative Charles Ryan confirmed the water situation.
ìThey donít have any water, no,î he said. ìSome of the trailers, it is quite possible that it has been as long as 14 days.î
Ryan said MRR was trying to find a contractor to install a water pump.
But speaking to the overall conditions of the park, Ryan said the reason for the lack of services is simple: he claimed that only two trailers in the park out of 14 are paying rent.
ìYou ask why there is no snow removal? There is no rent,î he said.
ìIn a perfect world, we would just empty the park out, renovate the park and start bringing in new trailers,î Ryan stated. ìThe problem is that we are trying to do the best we can for the people that are there. They are low income, and they just donít have the money to move their mobile home.
ìItís not like you can just tell your renters to go away when it costs $20,000 to move a trailer.î
Ryan said any negative attention brought to the situation in the park could cause MRR to proceed with evicting its tenants.
ìItís not that weíre neglecting it, but weíre at the point that if this news article comes out bad, and it doesnít look good on us ó and Iíll decide that ó then most likely we will just give everyone a 30-day notice on their trailers,î Ryan said. ìIf it is going to cause us any embarrassment, weíre just going to move to the next level. Iím trying to be nice, but if it is going to cost me my reputation, then I wonít be nice. (If) I have to go and shut it down, I have no problem with shutting it down.î
Park tenants have appealed to the local health inspector regarding the water situation, but to no avail.
ìBasically we have regulations, (and) as part of the regulation, the landlord (is) required to put good quality of water. We have to make sure the water quality is good, but the regulation doesnít say about the quantity of water,î Athabasca health inspector Imtiaz Ahmeb confirmed.
As far as evicting the current tenants, Mike Berezowsky from the Consumer Contact Centre with Service Alberta said the proper notice is six months.
