Dubuque mobile homeowner rescinds eviction documents issued despite state moratorium

The out-of-state company that owns Table Mound Mobile Home Park has backed off from notices it sent some residents Monday to start an eviction process over unpaid April rent, even though Iowa has suspended most evictions at least until the month's end.

In a Thursday letter to those households, the park's community manager apologized and advised that the legal notices - which are precursors to eviction proceedings if recipients do not pay rent owed within three days - were sent by mistake.

'You should disregard the cure notice, as it is without effect pursuant to recent state of Iowa proclamations related to residential lease matters,” reads the letter, viewed by The Gazette. 'To be clear, you are not being evicted for non-payment of rent, and you do not need to take any action as a result of receiving the cure notice.”

Park owner Impact Communities, of Colorado, said in the letter officials have taken 'necessary steps” to make sure past-due rent notices are not issued for the duration of Gov. Kim Reynolds' emergency order.

Initially ordered March 20, the governor's proclamation restricts evictions except in cases where someone is residing in a unit in which the person never had a lease or a right to live there, and for other 'emergency situations allowed by law.”

The order currently is slated to last through April 30.

Until that proclamation is lifted, Impact Communities told residents it instead will send out reminder notices to residents who fail to pay lot rent.

The company's regional vice president, Dan Harnum, on Thursday told the Telegraph Herald that 24 Table Mound households received computer-generated three-day notices.

Impact Communities is aware that most governors have halted evictions, and the Table Mound notices 'never should have happened,” he told the Dubuque newspaper.

The company did not immediately return The Gazette's request for comment Friday morning, including as to whether three-day notices also were issued in error at other Impact Communities manufactured housing parks in Iowa.

Impact Communities, formerly known as RV Horizons, belongs to Colorado-based MHP Funds LLC, which oversees at least 28 manufactured housing parks in Iowa.

Comments: (319) 398-8366; thomas.friestad@thegazette.com