Below is a quick snapshot of my experience with Lake Forest
I have noticed the management tends to make up the rules as they go along sometimes slapping new charges on your account without notice. Don't expect a 30 day notice for changes to your lease or expect to know how they determine new charges because apparently that?s not part of their operating procedures.
One of the few inviting things about this park was that they included water and sewer charges in the rent. The roads are bad, the neighborhood is well, questionable and the management is uneducated regarding landlord tenant laws.
Anyway now they've decided to up the ante and charge for water and sewer, which leaves little motive to select Lake Forest as your home's destination. There was NO 30 day notice given to this change to the lease or before they started charging fees. I guess they gave the residents notice two years ago from what the mgr told me today. Wow, considering I didn't have a home there until a year ago that did me no good.
I asked when they installed a meter on my home, all the manager could tell me was somewhere between Oct and Feb. When I asked what the formula was for the water and sewer charges, she said she had no idea. Her words: I just send the meter reads to corporate and they figure it out. Therefore, I still don't know how they calculate the water sewer bill just that I get charged by some mysterious method.
There was no initial meter reading so for the first bill they took the entire parks usage and divided it up between the tenants. Sweet!
Several of the residents told me all about myself and my contract etc with Lake Forest. So don't expect even a modicum of confidentiality. One of the residents told me about the charges on my account, they showed him my ledger, actually gave him a copy. He is the one who called to let me know my rent check wasn?t going to be posted because I had a remaining balance. The park didn?t let me know there was a problem but a resident did. Wow! I just hope they didn't give out my social or anything.
I don't live at Lake Forest but I do have a double-wide there that I rent out. Lake Forest doesn't send me any bills or notices; I just wait to hear about changes from the other residents. They increased trash charges but I didn't know about it until a couple of months later. No 30 day notice on that one either.
As I mentioned they don't send bills so I was unaware of the extra water charges. I wrote the rental check for $260.00 thinking I was paying more than enough but found out later the mgr refused to post it because she said it was a partial payment. (I always write the check for more than the lot rent so I can build up a cushion, I guess that extra had been paying the increases, lot rent & trash is 234.00) They erroneously charged me for 10,000 gallons of water & sewer usage. (no one is living in the home; there is no water heater, washing machine or dishwasher) Of course I didn't know the 260.00 was a partial payment because I had never received a bill or notice and I didn?t know about the water/sewer charges. Of course my ledger doesn?t reflect my payment because the mgr is holding the check in a file and to top it off has added a $60.00 late charge on the account. Can you say greed? They were determined to get that extra $60.00 one way or another I guess. The correction on the water and sewer was $60.00.
From what I understand you?re not allowed to walk in the park at night. You can?t have 3 or 4 guests coming and going to your home because that makes you suspicious. None of this was in place when I rented a lot from them. I could go on but there is no point.
In my opinion a business can?t get more underhanded or redneck than this plus its one hell of a way to run a business! I would encourage anyone looking to move his or her home to Lake Forest to think twice. Consider paying a little more lot rent to get a more professional service.
more