Park’s water service shut-off

Unpaid bills totaled over $80,000, Kingsbrook
Estates residents rally to make sure owner pays up

 

Editor’s note: We have agreed to not use names of residents for this story, due to their concern of being evicted from the park for speaking out. One resident, Mark Kenney, consented to using his name.

ALMONT — Residents of Kingsbrook Estates were caught in the middle of a dispute between the mobile home park owner and the Village of Almont.

In a dispute over a water bill that has gone on for years, the village threatened a water shut-off on Thursday, June 12 at 9 a.m. A few residents have contacted the Tri-City Times about the situation.

Residents gathered outside to discuss the issue on Thursday afternoon. All were extremely upset their water had in fact been shut off, considering all of them had done their part by paying their own water bill – only to have management hold on to the money and not pay the village.

Some showed a letter from the owners saying the lot rent was increasing an additional $95 in June of 2021, but residents would no longer receive water, sewer or trash invoices in the future.

Resident Mark Kenney said he personally spoke with the owners of the park, Ara Darakjian and Jewel Darakjian, last week.

“They told me they were purposely not paying the water bill because the village was charging them 15%, more than other residents in the village. They felt it wasn’t fair and withheld payment.”

Village Manager Dale Kerbyson said in a statement via e-mail, the “Water bill was due May 10. Shut off notice (was)sent May 19 stating that the water will be shut off June 10. We worked with the Kingsbrook owner and gave two, 24-hour delays in anticipation of payment. (The) Water was shut off after we gave this notice yesterday. Village DPW staff and I hand delivered this to each unit in the park. We notified Michigan LARA that we were going to shut the water off. LARA gave us a form to distribute providing the park residents an avenue to make a formal complaint. Water was shut off at 9:15 a.m. today.”

Depending on who you believe, the outstanding bill for the park is said to be over $80,000 and has been an on-going issue since before COVID.

Kerbyson shared a document given to park residents that stated, “We regret to inform you that the Kingsbrook Estates park owner has not paid the water bill for the park. The bill is significantly overdue. The Village of Almont has notified the owner that the water will be shut off tomorrow (Thursday) morning at 9 a.m. if the bill is not paid. Please know that this is not what the Village of Almont wants to do but it is inappropriate for the residents of the Village to pay the water bill for Kingsbrook Estates.”

The message went on to say, “Please do not contact our (Village of Almont) office regarding this matter. You should contact Ara Darakjian or Jewel Darakjian as they are the contacts listed for the Kingsbrook Estates utility account.

Kerbyson distributed phone numbers of both people in the note to the park tenants.

The park owners provided the village with payment in full late Thursday.

Kerbyson gave an update late Thursday, saying, “We received an eCheck for the payment of the water after they were instructed we would only accept a cashiers check. This is because the last eCheck we got in March for $75 thousand bounced.”

He added, “The e- Check is for $83,054. The water is being slowly turned back on with our DPW helping the Kingsbrook maintenance staff flush their lines as we refill the system. We do not manage a private system so we will not have any kind of alert for them.”

In a social media post Thursday morning, one resident wrote: “The letter (shut-off notice) was sent to all residents. The owner is horrible as you can see, they owe over $83,000. Please help if you can.”

It’s not the first time the issue has surfaced. In April of 2021, the Tri-City Times reported Kingsbrook Mobile Home Estates was on track to owe the village of Almont more than $98,000 in sewage and water fees.

In February of 2021, Kingsbrook requested that the village remove 50% of late fees and penalties incurred since March, 2020 due to the failure to pay their water and sewage.

At that time, the village council agreed to a payment plan with Kingsbrook Estates of $14,000 twice monthly. If the payments were made on time, the council agreed to remove 50% of the late fees.

Kingsbrook, a community of over 200 units located in the 4600 block of Van Dyke Rd., agreed to the payment plan. However, after making one payment, according to the council, they failed to follow through on the next two payments in the agreement.

At the time of the article in the Tri-City Times Kingsbrook Estates was delinquent by $54,846.77. The quarterly bill of $43,544.95 was due in May, bringing the total owed at that time to $98,391.72.

Both former Council President Steve Schneider and current President Tim Dyke said shutting the water off would pose a serious safety issue, especially as it related to having water access in case of a fire.

“We can’t put residents in dire straits. We can’t shut off the hydrants without a back up plan,” Dyke said.

Schneider agreed saying, “the fire issue makes it unconscionable to do a shut off.”

Residents in Kingsbrook Mobile Home Estates are billed monthly by Kingsbrook’s corporate office for their lot rent, water, sewage, trash and cable.

The Kingsbrook water bill has been discussed at council meetings numerous times.

“Shutting the water off to 200 trailers, would basically make their homes inhabitable,” said former President Steve Schneider.

A resident of Kingsbrook for the past 12 years shared this is not the first time management has put residents in a position like this. The resident wished to remain anonymous due to fears that management could retaliate against them.

“We have a two-day grace period on our rent. If we don’t pay, they take action. We pay our bills on time, why can’t they?”

Ian Kempf, who served as interim village manager for a period of time during the debate said,“They requested that they enter into a new payment schedule which would be a $19,000 a month agreement. I told them that that violated the terms of the first agreement as far as waiving the 50% of fees incurred” explained Kempf.

President Schneider expressed concern for the amount of people a shut off would impact saying, “it seems so unfair to all of the people living there.” He noted that many of them are up to date on their water bills, but that management is the issue.

“They are saying it is COVID-related. They have multiple people who were not paying their bill, and they were not allowed to shut their water off,” Kempf relayed.

“From the business aspect of it, they need to pay their bill. The Village of Almont should not sit on almost $100,000.”

Residents, mostly unaware of the situation, have been shocked to realize their water payments are not being paid to the village, despite their timely payments.