BRADENTON BEACH – Pines Park homeowners may be able to extend their tenancy under conditions that include relinquishing the titles to their mobile homes to the park ownership.
In a Feb. 4 email to Pines Trailer Park homeowners, Fort Lauderdale-based property acquisition company The Urban Group offered homeowners some options which included turning over the title to their mobile homes in exchange for extended tenancy until January 2026 along with state statute-required compensation for abandoned units.
Those terms are governed by Chapter 723 of the Florida Statutes, also known as the Florida Mobile Home Act. The law states in part: “If a mobile homeowner is required to move due to a change in use of the land comprising the mobile home park as set forth in s. 723.061(1)(d) and complies with the requirements of this section, the mobile home owner is entitled to payment from the Florida Mobile Home Relocation Corporation of: The amount of actual moving expenses of relocating the mobile home to a new location within a 50-mile radius of the vacated park, or the amount of $3,000 for a single-section mobile home or $6,000 for a multisection mobile home, whichever is less.”
The last correspondence that homeowners received from park owner Pines Park Investors LLC was a Jan. 4 notification that the park would be closed. The LLC manager is developer Shawn Kaleta.
On Jan. 22 Bradenton-based attorney Louis Najmy sent the following text to The Sun: “The owner group has no more comment on this. That’s all I’ve been authorized to state.”
The Feb. 4 email states in part:
“As you have been previously informed, and as a direct result of the community-wide damage dealt by hurricanes Helene and Milton, coupled with non-payment of lot rent, Pines Trailer Park is no longer sustainable as a trailer park, and must be closed, with an official park closure date of July 31, 2025.”
The email states that for those who would like to proceed with abandoning their mobile home or extending their tenancy until January 2026, the following is required:
Residents must sign an Agreement to Terminate Chapter 723 Tenancy, Abandon Property and Release Claims. Residents must then execute a bill of sale and transfer the original certificates of title to the park. As per statute, there will be compensation for abandonment and transfer of title. Homeowners will receive a refund of any lot rental payments made between October and December 2024. Residents will receive a credit or refund for lot rental amounts and payment for January through March 2025 or the vacate date, whichever occurs first.
Lot rent payments will commence in April 2025.
The facilities, including laundry and clubhouse, remain in disrepair following the 2024 hurricanes. For nearly half the residents, there is no available parking since the Pines ownership converted the Pines lot into public paid parking in December 2024.
“If you are able to relocate your mobile home outside the park please contact our office to discuss the details related to relocation and removal of mobile home from the park,” the Urban Group email states.
Pines homeowner Steve Jackson said he will likely walk away from the mobile home he purchased in 2024 for $125,000.
“If they had said two years, that would be different,” he said. “I don’t want to put another dollar into it for that short amount of time. I’ll just walk away from it and deal with the money I lost.”
Another Pines homeowner, who asked not to be named, said he will also walk away from his investment there.
“I just don’t want to be involved with it anymore. We are done,” he said. “We are just writing it off as a loss and moving on. We have such a sour taste about Bradenton Beach right now.”
PINES TIMELINE
On Sept. 26, Hurricane Helene swamped mobile homes at the waterfront Pines Trailer Park.
Former city Building Official Darin Cushing said on Oct. 17 that FEMA guidelines characterized the subsequent water intrusion into Pines’ mobile homes as major damage, triggering a city ordinance requiring elevation of the units.
On Dec. 5, the parking lot for Pines Trailer Park residents at 201 First St. N. was converted to a public paid parking lot, effectively removing parking for nearly half of the residents at the Pines who have no parking at their units and had paid $750 per year to park in the lot.
On Dec. 9, 83 of the 86 Pines Trailer Park homeowners received notice from the city that they could repair their hurricane-damaged mobile homes with the proper permits.
A letter from Bradenton Beach Building Official Darin Cushing stated the following in part:
“We previously provided you with a notice that your property may have been affected by flooding due to hurricanes Helene and Milton, and that a second, more thorough inspection would be performed to gather data critical to making a formal determination as to whether the cost of repairs necessary to restore your building to its pre-damage condition might rise to an amount constituting “substantial damage” as defined in the City’s Flood Damage Prevention Ordinance 21-538.”
Following the results of that second inspection, and with a review of the data, as well as a review of the property values, repairs could be made with the applicable permits, according to the letter.
“At this time, the data suggests that costs to perform repairs and restoration will not constitute a substantial damage repair,” Cushing’s letter stated.
Many Pines homeowners said they would not be making repairs until they heard from park ownership about future plans. They got their answer on Jan. 4 when they received notification from Pines Park Investors LLC that the park was being closed.
Pines Trailer Park mobile homeowners found eviction notices taped to their windows and doors on Jan. 24, notifying them of a July 31 deadline to vacate the park, with the possibility of extended tenancy.
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