Bowling Green man evicted from mobile home over alleged property manager bias

BOWLING GREEN, Ky. (WBKO) - Eddie Adler, a long-term tenant at Countryside Village Mobile Home Park, claims that he is being evicted due to the park’s property manager’s bias.

Adler owns his trailer and rents the plot that it sits on, and attempted to purchase another mobile home in the community for his son. After Adler collected the necessary funds, the individual selling the mobile home approached Countryside Village’s property manager, Marsha. It was then made clear that Adler was not welcome in his community.

“The lady at lot 58 went up to the office, and Marsha made the statement to them that, ‘I’m not gonna sell it to him because I would rather sell it to the Hispanic people and the immigrants other than the n—- f—-- lover that he is,” Adler said.

That day, Sept. 21, Adler confronted Marsha about her statements.

“When I heard those kind of comments, that’s when I went up there to Marsha and I asked her what’s going on,” Adler said. “I went up there to ask her about that comment. She got all rude with me and everything again and cussed me and told me to get out of the office and that she doesn’t have to explain nothing to me.”

When Adler returned home from the office, he found an eviction notice on his door that stated: “You are in rules violation, therefore we are terminating your tenancy.”

He was given 30 days to vacate the premises and move his home elsewhere. To move his mobile home, Adler estimates that the cost could be upwards of $10,000.

“And when I asked Marsha for that, what’s happening, she gave me that excuse that she doesn’t have to explain anything to me,” Adler said. “‘Get the … out of my office, and all these four-letter words that she knows to use.”

According to documents that WBKO received, that same day, Bowling Green police received several complaints regarding Adler’s two dogs, one of which is a doctor-prescribed emotional support animal. The complaints include trespassing, frightening, running at large in public, and removal of animal waste. When Adler checked with the tenants who reportedly made the complaints, he found that the complaints were allegedly fabricated by Countryside Village’s management.

“These people did not say that, they said that they were not complaining. That she made that up,” Adler said.

Countryside Village’s property manager was reached on the phone, though she declined to comment on the issue, stating that it is a routine eviction.

A Warren County Sheriff’s Office deputy responded to the complaints and issued a training evaluation of Adler’s dogs and found that they were not a danger to the public and that Adler was not in violation of any county regulations.

Kraig Richardson, Adler’s former employer, and a former landlord for over 70 rental properties in Bowling Green has a deep understanding of tenant rights. To ensure that Adler’s dogs were not a nuisance to the surrounding community, Richardson gathered input from Adler’s immediate neighbors. In these immediate yards, Adler exercises his dogs throughout the day and says that they all have an understanding of one another.

“They love Eddie, as a neighbor, because they basically described a person that you would want as a neighbor,” Richardson said. “He’s supportive, and if you need some help or something, he would be there for you and help you. I got a snapshot, he may be a friend of mine but I don’t know what other people think or what their experience is.”

Richardson hopes to see a change in legislation in the future that would offer greater protections to those who own their mobile homes and rent their plots of land. As it stands, mobile homeowners face the same laws as those living in an apartment, putting them at risk of being evicted from a home that they own.

“Asking someone that, due to circumstances, to move out of an apartment with their possessions is totally different than asking someone to move their home to a new location,” Richardson said.

Unless there is a resolution soon, Adler expects that he will be removed from his home by the end of the month.

“I have nowhere to go, I’ve been given a notice to get out, and I go to court on the 17th at 10 a.m. for Judge Brown. I’ve been told that after that, I have to get out within a week, a day after Thanksgiving,” Adler said. “So, I don’t know what I’m going to do. I don’t have that kind of money.”

Other tenants in Countryside Village have expressed concern that their tenancy could also be terminated at a moment’s notice. Additional tenant rights and Kentucky standards for evictions can be found at KYJustice.org.

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