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Partial cloudiness early, with scattered showers and thunderstorms overnight. Low 74F. Winds SSE at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 50%..
Partial cloudiness early, with scattered showers and thunderstorms overnight. Low 74F. Winds SSE at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 50%.
Cimarron Trailer Park is a small manufactured home community in Nolanville. Despite its quaint surroundings, which include a railroad track behind the community and a well-off subdivision immediately opposite, the park is the center of a revolution for many residents.
Jack Dowling | Herald Resident Owen Maddox explained that the park has refused to repair his porch after a guest stepped through his porch. Maddox is a regular renter, and does not own his home or the attached porch.
Jack Dowling | Herald Resident Owen Maddox shows just one of many charges billed to his account over the past few months.
Jack Dowling | Herald Resident Owen Maddox looks at his account on Aug. 20. Maddox said he has a significant number of charges that he feels are unfair.
Jack Dowling | Herald Park resident and firefighter James Beck glares at the sheds he was forced to purchase. Beck pointed out that the sheds are smaller than city ordinances require.
Jack Dowling | Herald Unoccupied lots at Cimarron Parks Estate show signs of neglect. Several residents claim that it is unfair for them to be charged for tall grass and other violations when park property lies in a state of disrepair.
Cimarron Trailer Park is a small manufactured home community in Nolanville. Despite its quaint surroundings, which include a railroad track behind the community and a well-off subdivision immediately opposite, the park is the center of a revolution for many residents.
Cimarron Trailer Park is a small manufactured home community in Nolanville. Despite its quaint surroundings, which include a railroad track behind the community and a well-off subdivision immediately opposite, the park is the center of a revolution for many residents.
Jack Dowling | Herald Resident Owen Maddox explained that the park has refused to repair his porch after a guest stepped through his porch. Maddox is a regular renter, and does not own his home or the attached porch.
Jack Dowling | Herald Resident Owen Maddox shows just one of many charges billed to his account over the past few months.
Jack Dowling | Herald Resident Owen Maddox looks at his account on Aug. 20. Maddox said he has a significant number of charges that he feels are unfair.
Jack Dowling | Herald Park resident and firefighter James Beck glares at the sheds he was forced to purchase. Beck pointed out that the sheds are smaller than city ordinances require.
Jack Dowling | Herald Unoccupied lots at Cimarron Parks Estate show signs of neglect. Several residents claim that it is unfair for them to be charged for tall grass and other violations when park property lies in a state of disrepair.
Cimarron Trailer Park is a small manufactured home community in Nolanville. Despite its quaint surroundings, which include a railroad track behind the community and a well-off subdivision immediately opposite, the park is the center of a revolution for many residents.
NOLANVILLE — Sitting on creaky porches and listening to the clatter of the nearby rail line, residents of Cimarron Park Estates in Nolanville say they feel trapped into predatory contracts.
“The bottom line is that low-income families are being extorted and taken advantage of. The tenants of Cimarron are being unfairly intimidated by management, threatened with their homes and their livelihoods,” resident Jessica Burgess said.
Burgess, and residents like her, are alleging that management company Oakwood at Cimarron Park Estates, 1400 E. Avenue H, uses deceptive trade practices and other tactics to strong-arm residents into purchasing homes, which they say are in deplorable condition. Oakwood owns another local property, Clear Creek Rentals.
While the Herald spoke to about a dozen residents of the mobile home park who shared similar concerns, the company did not return calls and emails for this story.
Burgess’ story begins in June, when a letter on her front door told Burgess that she had 30 days to move out.
“I flagged down the manager and it was there that it was explained that I did not have to move if I was willing to purchase the trailer for $15,500 over a three-year term,” she said. “I immediately agreed verbally, knowing that myself and my husband would not be able to financially cover a 30-day move-out, or face the current rental/buyers market for a new home.”
“Rent-to-own” agreements are commonplace, and offer residents the opportunity to live in their trailer while they take out what is essentially a zero-percent-interest loan. Every month, a portion of their rent is allocated toward the loan, and once the loan has been paid in full, the resident owns the trailer, though not the lot. However, rent-to-own agreements aren’t for everyone. Some residents see purchasing a several-thousand-dollar mobile home as an impractical investment.
“About six years ago Barbara offered the trailer to us for $5,000. We passed as we were looking for land to buy,” Sara Rodriguez said. Rodriguez has lived in her trailer for 18 years.
However, on March 1, Rodriguez was offered the same trailer in which she has lived for the past 18 years for $17,000, “as is.”
“No, was the answer. Next morning there was a 30-day notice on my trash can. My lease was up in July,” she said. “How could they do this?”
Residents throughout the park have claimed they were “strong-armed” into signing a rent-to-own agreement, as the park refuses to offer a traditional rental agreement. Residents have also pointed out that active-duty military service members are required to waive their rights under the Service Members Civil Relief Act. The Act protects service members from being locked into contracts when they receive permanent change of station orders.
“We were intimidated into buying the house,” Rodriguez said. “Or be homeless.”
Strictly speaking, it is fully within the park’s purview to offer rent, or rent-to-own contracts. Despite this, many residents felt pressured into purchasing homes “as is.”
There’s just one catch: It is illegal for a licensed mobile home retailer to sell a residential home “as is” in the state of Texas, according to James Hicks, director for the Texas Department of Housing and Communities Affairs — Manufactured Housing Division. Homes sold for office space or are otherwise not for human residence may be sold “as is,” but not residences.
“Homes sold by a licensee cannot be sold ‘as-is’ in Texas,” he said on Wednesday.
As it turns out, the park holds an expired license to sell manufactured homes in Texas under the name “OW CIMARRON PARK ESTATES, LLC.” That license ran from July 21, 2020, and expired on July 21, 2022.
Angel Carnahan, who lives in lot 43, said she is another victim of the “as is” clause that all residents are required to sign.
“When we completed our tour of the trailer, it took just 10 minutes because the manager was rushing us,” she said. “She told us that the trailer was ‘fine when she lived there,’ and that it was ‘a good trailer.’”
Carnahan said that the night she moved in, sewage poured into her bathtub.
“The home at 1400 E. Ave H #43 Nolanville, Texas 76559, is being purchased ‘as is.’ OW Cimarron Park Estates will not be doing any repairs to the home,” reads the “as is” notice included in the Carnahan’s lease agreement.
The park refused to conduct maintenance on her home.
However, Texas law requires lessors of manufactured homes to provide a 60-day “habitability warranty,” Hicks said.
“Any sale by a licensed manufactured home retailer must include a one-year warranty regarding new homes and a 60-day habitability warranty for used homes,” he said.
Hicks stopped short of saying that the park is in violation of Texas law, but asked residents to submit official complaints through the Department’s online portal at https://bit.ly/3e0FHSQ.
Amy Jones, a general councilwoman for the Manufactured Housing Division, noted that any potential remedies against the park must come as the result of an official complaint. As of Wednesday, no official complaints had been submitted to the Division.
“If the park does not fix habitability issues which are noted within this time frame, they may be held liable via a habitability warranty order that may be issued by the Manufactured Housing Division,” Jones said. “If the licensee fails to comply with the habitability warranty order, the licensee may face enforcement action, such as, revocation of their license or a fine of up to $10,000.00 dollars.”
Jones noted that the remedies listed above are speculative in nature, and that they rely on local law enforcement to respond to residents’ complaints.
Despite confusing verbiage on the park’s agreements, which state that residents “take possession of” their “purchased” home, Carnahan does not actually own the home she lives in until her rent-to-own agreement matures. This means Carnahan and the majority of residents at Cimarron do not enjoy the protections of Chapter 94 of the Texas Property Code, and instead fall under traditional lease-law, just like someone renting a house.
Because they do not own their trailers, many residents feel there is little they can do about “crazy” fees — including $50 a month fine for a shed that many did not want.
According to Nolanville city ordinances, every mobile home park lot is required to provide a minimum of 110 cubic feet of storage for residents.
To comply with city requirements, the park installed a shed on each lot; every lot, therefore, now has an 8-foot by 8-foot shed, giving residents 64 cubic feet of storage – 46 cubic feet less than Nolanville requires. In addition, resident Ronald Beckem explains that he is being charged $50 a month, or $600 over 12 months, for his shed with no timeline for payment.
“It’s too small, we didn’t want them, and now they’re charging us for them,” he said.
Nolanville Police Department Chief Michael Hatton confirmed that the sheds currently installed at the park are not sufficient to meet local code. But Beckem said he can’t complain; if he does, he faces eviction.
“If you ask the management about any fees, they get angry and threaten to evict you,” he said. “That’s if you can actually get ahold of them.”
According to Burgess, an overnight leak in July left the park without water for 22 hours, “with no warning or notice ... and with no answer as to when to expect restoration.”
“This happened a second time within a week, where water was off for nearly 18 hours, again with no warning or answer for when to expect restoration,” she said. “When I attempted to get basic answers to my questions about these issues, I was hung up on. I was told by management that she had ‘better things to do’ on multiple occasions.”
Things came to a head when Burgess said the park manager “abruptly ended” the call and came to her house.
“In a very aggravated tone, she proceeded to show me a line in our contract that stated she had the right to evict at her own will, with the basis of ‘misconduct,’” she said.
For most residents, the threat of eviction is enough to quell dissent — but not for Melvin Vierra.
Vierra claims that he used to mow residents’ lawns for a small fee, which is what he says he was doing when he stumbled across a broken line with standing sewage. He said he reached out to the main office and asked if the park was aware of the situation.
According to Vierra, he was told to “shut up and mind his own business.” His wife, Mary Vierra, allegedly took umbrage at this, telling park management “no, you shut up.”
A few hours later, he said an eviction notice was posted on his door, and they were locked out of the resident portal, unable to see their fees or pay their rent.
The Vierras fought the eviction, and a motion to dismiss the eviction order was granted by Justice of the Peace Bill Cooke without prejudice on Aug. 11. According to Mel Vierra, Cooke allegedly told Oakwood Park Estates that they did not have the authority to evict someone “for being rude.”
When asked about the case, Cooke said he had no comment.
As Cooke’s office does not keep a transcription of each hearing, the exact circumstances of Vierra’s eviction notice are unclear.
What is clear, however, is that the Vierras were charged $154 noted simply as “Justice of the Peace” by the park on July 19.
“I paid it because I wanted to show I was trying to comply with the park’s rules,” Mel Vierra said.
For some residents, the park’s rules seem arbitrary.
“A state health worker parked in the grass in front of my trailer for just a few minutes,” Beckem said. “She left after five minutes. Next thing I know there’s a $100 notice on my door for rent past due.”
Resident Owen Maddox, who has lived at the park for a little over a year with his husband, Enzo, pointed out the park’s rules against “unsightly vehicles” and conducting maintenance.
“I was out topping up my wiper fluid,” he said. “My first interaction with the new manager was that she told me she would fine me if she saw my hood up again.”
Burgess claims she was nearly charged $350 for parking her car with a flat tire and damaged rim in her lot. Residents are also charged for overgrown yards, despite many abandoned lots showing signs of neglect.
For Maddox, however, even the strict rules would be bearable if the park completed work orders.
“About a month ago, one of my friends stepped through my deck,” Maddox said, pointing at a fist-sized hole in his porch. “But the park said it’s my responsibility to fix it.”
Maddox is a regular renter, and despite multiple requests to sign a new lease, said he has not been provided one from the management company.
However, it wasn’t until Monday that work orders caused real damage. Resident Lea Beebe showed a copy of a work order submitted July 4, for a dying tree branch infested with carpenter ants that needed to be cut down.
Beebe and her husband, Ken, do not have permission to cut down the tree from the park, and the park replied on July 8 that the tree was “healthy” and would not be trimmed. On Monday, a branch fell, denting and damaging a neighbor’s fence.
“They won’t let us do any work, but they won’t do anything either,” Ken Beebe said. “It’s frustrating.”
The Herald reached out to Cimarron Mobile Home Park on Friday via phone and email on Thursday during normal business hours. The park did not respond to a request for comment.
Beck explained that he has reached out to Lone Star legal Aid, a pro bono legal defense program, at 254-939-5773.
jdowling@kdhnews.com | 254-501-7552
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You have a factual error in the story about the Nolanville mobile home park. You cannot compare cubic feet to square feet. If the storage shed pictured is accurate, it's dimensions are approximately 8x8x6. This would equate to approximately 384 cubic feet.
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