JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – A local disabled veteran is turning to the News4JAX I-TEAM after her landlord threatened to evict her if she didn’t pay a $2,200 water bill for her mobile home.
“I almost had a stroke, sitting in my chair looking at the computer to pay the bill,” Kelly O’Neil said. She lives at the Three Seasons Mobile Home Park off Collins Road, says her bill is normally $30 a month, a bill she pays directly to the landlord.
It’s why she was floored to see her July bill balloon to $676 but it was the month of August that resulted in the ultimate sticker shock, a bill of more $1,739.
“Yeah, I can’t buy groceries. Because of the amount of money that I had to pay for water,” O’Neil said.
O’Neil and her father say they searched for a leak or a malfunction in the water meter, which they could not find. That was confirmed by a local plumbing company which charged her $320 for their services. They told O’Neil more than $2200 dollars of water in two months is equivalent to filling several large swimming pools, but she still received a threatening letter, to pay the water bill or find another place to live.
“She got no resolve from the manager at all,” Kelly’s father, Stanely O’Neil said. “When you’re trying to try to figure out what the heck’s going on. She didn’t care at all, just wanted you to pay the bill. So Kelly paid the bill. So she wouldn’t get evicted.”
When News4JAX went to speak to property managers at the Three Seasons Mobile Home Park today, a woman ran inside, locked the door, and refused to answer questions.
The company is owned by Moore Enterprises, and James Moore out of Irving, Texas. We contacted them to get their side of the story but they didn’t return our calls. The O’Neils are threatening legal action if this situation isn’t resolved.
“I want them to find the leak, resolve the problem and give me my money back,” Kelly O’Neil said.
Kelly and her father said in July, a local cable company digging lines caused a water main break, which resulted in a temporary outage for residents, and they believe this is the cause of the leak.
They say the plumbing company told them that a leak of this magnitude is somewhere deep in the ground, and could cause a sinkhole, if not located and repaired.