Mobile Home Residents Sue Crofton Management Company

CROFTON, MD — Resident Berta Bonilla, 47, collects rainwater in pots and pans from her porch to help reduce water usage. But if she leaves them out for too long, she'll be charged a $25 fee by the property manager.

She uses the rainwater for cooking, cleaning dishes and gardening. It helps alleviate the overwhelming cost of water she's being billed each month, which has reached as high as $790. She even buys gallons of water from the store for her family to drink, they keep showers short and even turn off the water while soaping up to conserve it.

“No one should have to pay such an outrageous amount for water bills,” Bonilla, who cleans houses for work, told The Washington Post.

Bonilla and other residents of a mobile home park located in Germantown where they live have filed a complaint against a Crofton-based property management company, alleging that the landlord and the property manager have been charging a flat rate for water and sewage use that's higher than what they would be charged if they were billed directly by the Washington Suburban Sanitary Commission that serves their area. They also claim in the complaint that the property management company, Horizon Land Management, has not repaired leaky underground pipes that the company says they're to pay for instead. They received assistance with the complaint filing from immigrant advocacy group CASA de Maryland.

When residents complained that the landlord and property manager weren't "fulfilling their contractual and legal obligations," they were threatened with eviction, reports The Washington Post.

Horizon Land Management disputed the claims in the lawsuit and told The Washington Post that, “We are deeply disturbed by the baseless and defamatory allegations in this lawsuit. Horizon Land Management operates Middlebrook in full accordance with the law. We value our community and work closely with residents to address concerns.”

Horizon also said in its statement shared with The Washington Post that the "residents’ claims of
abnormally high water bills were previously found to be without merit.”

Middlebrook is one of 12 mobile-home communities that Horizon Land Management operates in Maryland. The Crofton company manages a total of 170 parks scattered across 20 states.