Residents of a mobile home park in Sartell, MN are suing owners after sewage leaks

The lawsuit pits residents against the current and former out-of-state owners. The mobile home park, located east of the Mississippi between a bowling alley and a car wash, was founded in the 1970s and was owned by the same company from 1978 to 2014.

The park was purchased in 2014 by Colorado-based RV Horizons, run by David Reynolds and Frank Rolfe, who own and operate several parks across the country and lead a training course on how to get rich by owning RV parks. Reynolds and Rolfe have faced several lawsuits and compliance complaints over the years, and their Mobile Home University has been criticized for focusing on raising rents and reducing services to make a larger profit – which even earned the wrath of John Oliver on his HBO show.

Reynolds and Rolfe also operated the park under the name Impact Communities and sold it to Michigan-based Gemstone Communities in June. The owners' attorneys are not listed in the state's public court system, and representatives for the companies did not respond to requests for comment.

The lawsuit states that after RV Horizons purchased the park, “rents began to increase significantly and repeatedly, water bills became outrageous and arbitrary, amenities disappeared, residents who complained were retaliated against, and, worst of all is, [residents faced] Health and safety concerns as SMH Park began to seriously deteriorate.”

Residents attempted to purchase the park in 2016, but an appraisal found the park needed significant infrastructure repairs, estimated at $1.5 million, to bring the property to “average condition,” the lawsuit says . Because the residents didn't receive financing, the deal fell through.

The lawsuit asks the court to order the owners to fix the failures in the plumbing and sewer systems and to repair the park's flawed utility billing system.