B
birdfeathers
Guest
Please help!
I am writing this on behalf of about 100 mobile home owners who have moved into a mobile home park in Lebanon, Tennessee. My husband and I moved our mobile home here about seven months ago at which time we were told there was no lease agreement or anything to sign. Now we are informed by a notice that was slipped into our mail box that we have to pay personal property tax on our mobile home. The notice is not signed by anyone, but the name of the mobile home park is typed in at the bottom. In bold letters it states that this is not property tax. We are renting a lot that is about 50'X100' at the most and our taxes amount to about $400.00 a year. The note tells us that we have to make monthly payments on this besides paying a $300.00 lot rent. This seems like a rediculous amount to us and to the others in this park who also were not told of this property tax. A meeting was held by the park manager and only those who called to complain about the tax. The manager did not tell anyone else on the park about the meeting. We taped the meeting where the discussion got pretty heated and the manager denied not telling certain people about this tax but appologized to the rest of us who she did not tell and then promised that anyone else who was considering moving here would be told about it before they move in. She said that it was a mistake to call it personal property tax but tax as an approvement to the property. She showed us a page in the statutes that states that the owner of a mobile home park can make the owners of the mobile homes pay the improvement of the property. But she also said that she just took the approximate value of the home, deck(s) and storage building to arrive at the tax that we should pay. $400.00 for a 50'X100' lot is an outlandish amount of tax in this area. She also said that if we called the tax assessor and they had to come out, they would charge us much more than she had determined to be the value. We are also not allowed to pay the tax assessor, we must pay the property owner who we have no knowledge of, nor will they tell us his name. Except that he is a multimillionaire and lives in France. We are to get a receipt from the park with each payment but we are not to get a form to attach to our income tax showing that we are paying property taxes. Only the park owner is allowed that. We have no proof that this money is going to pay taxes and we are supposed to be paying this in advance while the property taxes are payed in May. The owners of the mobile homes here are angered at this extra charge and that we were not informed prior to our move in and a lot have moved out. There are those of us who cannot afford to move yet and would like some kind of representation to protect us from this type of practice but cannot afford it. Do we have any rights at all? How can he move all of us on and then several months later tell us to pay taxes? Is this legal or just unscrupulouse. We've been told that the owner is a multimillionaire who has more parks around the state, but lives in Paris. He's got his own lawyers and none of us would be able to afford to fight this. If anyone can help us we would all be greatly appreciative. Thanks, Down and out in Lebanon, Tennessee.
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Bob and Dale Hagen
[email protected]
I am writing this on behalf of about 100 mobile home owners who have moved into a mobile home park in Lebanon, Tennessee. My husband and I moved our mobile home here about seven months ago at which time we were told there was no lease agreement or anything to sign. Now we are informed by a notice that was slipped into our mail box that we have to pay personal property tax on our mobile home. The notice is not signed by anyone, but the name of the mobile home park is typed in at the bottom. In bold letters it states that this is not property tax. We are renting a lot that is about 50'X100' at the most and our taxes amount to about $400.00 a year. The note tells us that we have to make monthly payments on this besides paying a $300.00 lot rent. This seems like a rediculous amount to us and to the others in this park who also were not told of this property tax. A meeting was held by the park manager and only those who called to complain about the tax. The manager did not tell anyone else on the park about the meeting. We taped the meeting where the discussion got pretty heated and the manager denied not telling certain people about this tax but appologized to the rest of us who she did not tell and then promised that anyone else who was considering moving here would be told about it before they move in. She said that it was a mistake to call it personal property tax but tax as an approvement to the property. She showed us a page in the statutes that states that the owner of a mobile home park can make the owners of the mobile homes pay the improvement of the property. But she also said that she just took the approximate value of the home, deck(s) and storage building to arrive at the tax that we should pay. $400.00 for a 50'X100' lot is an outlandish amount of tax in this area. She also said that if we called the tax assessor and they had to come out, they would charge us much more than she had determined to be the value. We are also not allowed to pay the tax assessor, we must pay the property owner who we have no knowledge of, nor will they tell us his name. Except that he is a multimillionaire and lives in France. We are to get a receipt from the park with each payment but we are not to get a form to attach to our income tax showing that we are paying property taxes. Only the park owner is allowed that. We have no proof that this money is going to pay taxes and we are supposed to be paying this in advance while the property taxes are payed in May. The owners of the mobile homes here are angered at this extra charge and that we were not informed prior to our move in and a lot have moved out. There are those of us who cannot afford to move yet and would like some kind of representation to protect us from this type of practice but cannot afford it. Do we have any rights at all? How can he move all of us on and then several months later tell us to pay taxes? Is this legal or just unscrupulouse. We've been told that the owner is a multimillionaire who has more parks around the state, but lives in Paris. He's got his own lawyers and none of us would be able to afford to fight this. If anyone can help us we would all be greatly appreciative. Thanks, Down and out in Lebanon, Tennessee.
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Bob and Dale Hagen
[email protected]