COLUMBIA, SC (WIS) -
Fifty tenants at Hacienda Mobile Park are taking legal action against the property's owner after seven of them claim they paid off their trailers but never received their titles.
Attorney Jack Duncan is representing their case.
"One of the most convoluted, disastrous situations I've ever been involved with, but it keeps getting worse," Duncan said.
Duncan says each tenant provided receipts as proof of payment. He contacted the property owner.
"I spoke with him about this problem, and he related that there were some payments. I had proof of that he did not receive," Duncan said.
The tenants say they wrote some checks directly to the park's manager, Linda Newman. We talked to Newman over the phone, and she says she always sent that money to the owner.
Last week, Duncan says he asked the owner when the tenants would get their titles. He has received no response.
The property will go up for sale next month, according to Duncan. He says the bank handling the foreclosure has not sent an eviction notice yet. If it does, the tenants will have 90 days to leave -- some of them without their trailers.
Even if Duncan can get the titles from the owner, there's still another problem -- some of the trailers are more than 30 years old.
"I'm also concerned these mobile homes may not be in a condition to be moved," Duncan said. "I don't know that yet. They may be too old and decrepit to move. If that's the case, they have been defrauded."
The property manager denies she pocketed any money from the tenants. We tried to reach the property owner, but our calls were not returned.
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