Couple sues mobile home St. Albans couple park for failing to maintain premises

CHARLESTON -- A St. Albans couple is suing Sunny Acres Mobile Home Village after they claim the company has failed to maintain the mobile home village in a habitable condition.

John Haulotte and Jessica R. Bradshaw-Haulotte reside in the defendant's mobile home village, according to a complaint filed Nov. 3 in Kanawha Circuit Court.

The couple claims since July their lot has continued to collapse and slip over the steep hill at the back of their mobile home.

The ground beneath the mobile home has slipped and lost contact with the mobile home, this leaving no support for the rear of the home, according to the suit.

The couple claims the lack of support has caused the mobile home to bend and break, causing damages, including cracks in the roof of the home; warping of the floors and walls of the home; and large cracks in windows of the home.

Because the home is not level, water is draining underneath the home and destroying the insulation beneath the home, according to the suit.

The couple claims the defendant attempted to stabilize and level the mobile home by "jacking up" the home and inserting additional blocks, but did nothing to address the obviously rapidly slipping ground beneath the home.

In October, following repeated requests by the couple, the defendant began to dig around the mobile home in search of a water leak, according to the suit, which during that time, ditches and holes were dug, pipes were exposed and water service was disconnected from the home.

The couple claims a water leak was not found to be the cause of the slipping hillside, yet the ditches and homes remain on their lot.

While the couple continued to ask the defendant to stabilize their home and expressed concern over their personal safety and security of their personal property, they were consistently "belittled, cursed and put on notice that eviction would result from any infraction, no matter how minor, of the Sunny Acres Mobile Home Village ever-evolving tenant regulations," according to the suit.

The couple is seeking compensatory and punitive damages. They are being represented by David B. Richardson.

The case has been assigned to Circuit Judge Tod J. Kaufman.

Kanawha Circuit Court case number: 11-C-1962