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MARTINSBURG -- The management of a pair of mobile home parks in Martinsburg have canceled a planned water surcharge following tenant outcry.
Mobile Realty 7 LLC sent tenants of the Spring Manor and Stone Manor Mobile Home Parks a letter in November announcing plans to impose a $13 monthly surcharge for what it said was excess water usage.
Tenants gathered Dec. 12 at the Morrisons Cove Memorial Park Banquet Hall to discuss the letter and their options, including appealing to the attorney general for help.
After multiple requests by the Mirror for comment, Mobile Realty 7's management team wrote in a second letter dated Dec. 19 -- emailing a copy to the Mirror and mailing it to tenants -- saying "after further consideration, our company has decided to cancel our previous notice dated 11/20/2023."
"The $13.00 charge for excess water costs is canceled, effective immediately, and you will not be required to pay this fee on January 1, 2024," the management team wrote.
The November letter blamed the difference between the parks' combined water meter reading and what was recorded on individual property meters on tenant overuse of water and their inaccurate meters.
Tenants at the meeting blamed the discrepancy on leaks in the lines before the property meters, which they said was the responsibility of the parks' owner.
On Friday, Martinsburg Borough Manager Rich Brantner Jr. pushed back against most of the November letter's contents, emphasizing that Herb Fisher with Mobile Realty 7 was the one who made the conclusions.
"I had no say in that," Brantner said. "He discussed the overage problem with me and he concluded (the $13 monthly surcharge) was the least expensive way to resolve it."
According to both the tenants and Brantner, the mobile home parks have a master water meter that feeds lines to individual home water meters. Brantner confirmed that all of the meters are owned by the municipal authority.
When tenants received the first letter from Mobile Realty, Brantner said they began questioning him about the accuracy of their home meters.
He said he went to the parks, took six of the oldest meters and sent them to Laurel Management Co., which calibrates water meters.
"They all came back about 100% accurate," Brantner said. "They do a high flow test and then a low flow test and let it run about 10 minutes. They all came back about 100%."
He said the lowest accuracy reading they received was 97% while the highest was 103%.
The Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission requires water meters to be between 96% and 104% accurate, Brantner said.
"I'd say he has some leaks in the parks, between the main and water lines," Brantner said. "The issues are in the water mains, in the ground."
That's the reason the authority started billing the realty group for the overages instead of the tenants, he said.
Phyllis Colledge, who has lived in Spring Manor for 26 years and organized the tenants' meeting, said that when she signed a lease with the realty group, it specified that tenants "were to pay from the meter to our trailer."
"All other was up to them to pay," Colledge said.
A petition that tenants signed to be sent to the Office of Attorney General stated "these overages and water system leaks in the parks are the responsibility of Mobile Reality 7."
"Good for the tenants," Brantner said. "Where is it going to stop? It's $13, but then it just keeps going up and up and up."
Brantner and Colledge had both mentioned another letter that tenants had received from the realty group during the summer of 2022, this one informing the residents that their rent would be increased by about $45 a month to make major improvements.
"They knew they had an issue then, but to my knowledge they never did anything," Brantner said.
With a rent increase of $45 and water surcharge of $13, the tenants' rent would be $418, up 16% from the $360 it had been. This would bring tenants' yearly rent expenses from $4,320 to $5,016, she said.
"I'd say around 90% of the residents are on a fixed income," Colledge said.
The tenants have reported the leaks before but the realty group has repeatedly failed to do anything about it, she said.
"They knew they were there all summer long," Colledge said.
She said that even though Mobile Realty 7 has canceled the surcharge, she will still be sending the petition to the AG's office in the hopes that the tenant's other concerns regarding the company can be addressed.
"I'm 77 years old and I don't give a sh*t what people think," Colledge said. "I'm going to fight for what's right. There are people who are afraid of fighting but I will fight for them because I don't think this is right."
Mirror Staff Writer Rachel Foor is at 814-946-7458.