Attorney General Kris Mayes announced Thursday she will sue a Tucson mobile home park for failing to inform residents that the electrical system in the park was “extremely dangerous, unreliable, and overloaded.”
The lawsuit is an escalation in how public officials have engaged with utility issues in manufactured home communities in Arizona, and stands as a stark warning to park owners amid an ongoing wave of extreme heat.
“Mobile home units in triple digit heat and no A/C become an oven. It’s dangerous and it’s only a matter of time before someone dies,” said Attorney General Mayes in a news release announcing the lawsuit. “This is a warning to all property managers: if you endanger residents with repeated electrical outages or A/C outages, my office will come after you.”
Each summer, Arizona communities face electricity outages as summer storms batter electrical grids and extreme heat drives up air conditioner use.
Residents in mobile home parks are uniquely in peril from electricity outages during the summer: many are elderly, making them at higher risk of health impacts from extreme heat, many parks have aging infrastructure and mobile homes themselves are often difficult to adequately cool and heat quickly.
Over the past year, Pima County has seen growing organizing efforts from groups like Poder Casas Móviles, while Arizona Luminaria has been reporting on heat and utility issues in manufactured home parks.
On July 31, the attorney general’s office issued a cease and desist letter to the owners of Tucson’s Redwood Mobile Home Park, ordering the south side mobile home park to restore power and air conditioning to residents and upgrade its electrical system. On Aug. 15, the attorney general issued a broader consumer alert against illegal utility overcharges in manufactured home parks and explaining how residents can protect themselves.
Redwood Mobile Home Park, located near the Tucson airport, is owned by BoaVida Group, an investment firm that oversees properties across the country.
In a statement to Luminaria, Josh Court with The BoaVida Group said the office did not have a comment beyond that “we have been in touch daily with the AG’s office and continue to work to ensure the system is used as designed.”
In the news release on the lawsuit, Mayes’ office said that Redwood had violated the Arizona Consumer Fraud Act by failing to inform residents that the park’s electrical system was outdated and dangerous, which left residents exposed to risk from electrical fires and losing power during extreme heat.
The attorney general’s office said consumer protection laws require manufactured home parks to disclose whether they have an adequate cooling system to prospective residents.
Residents with concerns about high bills should put their complaint in writing to their landlord, file a petition with the Arizona Department of Housing or contact the Attorney General’s office in Phoenix at 602-542-5763, in Tucson at 520-628-6648, or outside the Phoenix and Tucson metro areas at 1-800-352-8431.
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