KSWT: Local News, Weather, Sports Yuma, AZ El Centro Imperial Valley, CA Leaky roofs and slow repairs irk Yuma trailer park renters

Leaky roofs and slow repairs irk Yuma trailer park renters

Yuma, Arizona September 12, 2011 - As a rainstorm pounds the homes at Desert Royal Mobile Home Park on 32nd Street, A resident we spoke to worries about the cracks in her trailer rental.

"That is a leak from water building up on top of the trailer and it'll leak in," says the resident as she points to the large crack in her bathroom ceiling.  "It'll start leaking 'cause they only do a half-patch job.  Just the real bad spots to stop the leaks."

The resident, who didn't want to be identified, says the bathtub floor gave way last week.

"My husband was in the bathtub taking a shower and that part of the bathtub fell in and he kind of tweaked his back a little bit, but that's the way it's been since Thursday afternoon of last week," says the resident.  "We told them about four months ago we felt it slip a little bit and we told the on-site manager Dotty Clark then and she supposedly told Donna, but nobody's done anything."

She says rent is $475 a month, which includes their two pets.  They have rented from landlord Olugbenga Oduyale since 2008.  Oduyale had just recently paid a delinquent $65,000 water bill to the City of Yuma to avoid having his residents go without water service.  The resident says she had to pay for ceiling repairs, which took Southwestern Equities Management, Inc., Oduyale's company, three months to fix.

"It's not much to ask to have the leaks stop, the floors fixed.  We've got Plexiglas cut in two in the front that air leaks out," says the resident.  "Air leaks out the windows because they're not sealed right. Our electric bill last month was $338."

The resident says Southwestern Equities Management, Inc. supposedly collects their rent checks.  She says spotty record-keeping on their end makes things difficult.

"Here he's telling us that he's not sure where we've been sending our rents to," says the resident as she shows us email correspondence been she and Oduyale.  "And I told him we've been sending them to the address that [he] gave us:  [his] house address.  We don't know what's going on."

But as far as maintenance requests go, the resident tells us someone else takes care of that.

"Donna Bly is the manager of the park.  She's supposed to see that all the repairs are done and everything," says the resident.  "Nothing gets done around here.  Nothing.  I hate to say it, but you kind of live like dogs in his park because we can't afford any place else to move."