Housing Crisis pt. 3

For all of you who have been following this drama, here is the latest.

As far as the "spies" go, they actually called the manager to report that my friend stopped in the empty lot driveway next to my house for a max. of 30 seconds to pick up my kids for school. She found this unacceptable and called my friend's husband to let him know it.

We have received our so-called "second notice" from the park's attorney. The first notice was received in March, 2009, and the latest August, 2010. This states we are to cease and desist doing running a business from our home. We have discussed this with the park previously that we do not run a business from our home. My husband simply has to drive his work van home because they do not have an office within hundreds of miles of our home. He is considered a "remote tech". We do not sell any products from our home or do any advertising. This also bothers us because the park rules state that we are to receive a notice from the park before any legal action will be taken. They have skipped past their own rule to go directly to their attorney.

Awhile back I mentioned our attorney not responding to our calls & having no clue where our lawsuit stands. On August 17th, I called and left a message with his answering service. No call back....not a surprise. The next day my neighbor, who is also a party in the lawsuit, sent an email to the attorney's mother....as they have discovered that is the only way to possibly get through to him. (Note, she works with her son, the attorney). The neighbor was demanding answers for those of us involved as this has gone on far too long. He even had to threaten reporting his actions to the Utah State Bar if we heard nothing. Finally, a response!!

The attorney wrote back, in short, stating he has been struggling with mental health, family, and financial issues so we might want to hire another attorney. (That would have been nice to know...oh, a year ago...before we ran up the bill!!)

Also, the courts apparently decided to move forward with at least the neighbor's injunction portion of the lawsuit. They mailed out a notice of the hearing within a week's notice, but somehow the attorney never got it and neither did the neighbors. According to the attorney, the courts should allow us to re-file based on the above mentioned circumstances with our attorney and not receiving the court notice. As a result of not showing up to court, the case was then dismissed "without prejudice".

OK, that might be fine and dandy if we hadn't already put money into hiring him. And at this point, any money I have in savings I'm debating whether to use toward hiring another attorney (with unknown results) or paying off whatever is left of my mortgage if I ever get an offer that is approved on this house, being that we are already planning to take a loss.

And by the way, still no response from the 4 news stations I have written to. I am hoping more park residents will also write, making obvious the need for assistance in this situation affecting many, many families.

So, there is the "shortened" version of it. Now we are back to square one trying to figure out what to do & where to go. Mike is working on forming a residents association as a forum where we can collectively gather information from concerned residents. Aside from that, just more reading on the state laws and decisions, decisions.