Lawsuit filed: Ex-tenants claim they were illegally evicted from trailer park

Current and former residents of the Boulder City Mobile Home Park on Nevada Highway filed a class action lawsuit Oct. 18 claiming that the owner and manager of the park intentionally committed harmful and negligent acts that caused the evictions of over 100 residents.

The lawsuit is individually suing RPS Properties, the Boulder City Trailer Park and the owner of the two companies along with his business partners and family. Randy Schams, his wife Christine Schams and his daughter Jackie Schams, who manages the trailer park, are each being sued.

The lawsuit filed by Matthew Callister, attorney for the six one-time trailer park residents, states that Randy Schams and other employees of RPS Properties and the mobile home park cut off necessary utilities without notice, put illegal liens on residents’ homes, evicted residents without proper notice and illegally auctioned off homes.

“The tenants of the mobile home park were never properly notified of Randy Schams’ intention of dismantling the park,” Callister said. “Nothing that has been done has been in compliance with Nevada law.”

Jackie Schams said the lawsuit is pointless and that residents of the park were properly notified about any changes and anyone who was evicted did not pay their rent.

“This lawsuit is frivolously because I properly notified everyone that they had a 180 days to vacate the premises and anyone who was evicted did not pay their rent for the space,” she said.

Randy Schams purchased the mobile home park in December 2015 after its former owner Brett Caruso filed for bankruptcy. The purchase was only for the land and did not include the trailers; however, Schams now owns many of the trailers in the park.

The lawsuit states that when Randy Schams bought the land he told residents he planned to keep it as a renovated mobile home park “giving the tenants false hope.”

The lawsuit then states that his company, RPS, invested $110,000 in improvements for the park while Jackie Schams continued collecting rent from tenants for the spaces that the trailers occupied. Randy Schams then notified tenants on Jan. 28 that he would be increasing rent effective May 1. He then notified the tenants that he was raising the rent again starting Nov. 1, but as of right now the Schams have not enforced the new rent increase.

Callister said that the Schams’ actions were fraudulent because they continued to collect rent while never properly informing park residents that Randy Schams was planning to remove them to create townhomes on the property.

Jackie Schams said that she and her father never lied to tenants and always properly informed them of their plans for the land.

“When my father bought the land he did intend to keep it as a mobile home park,” Jackie Schams said. “But the costs and some of the people we had to deal with made our original intent impossible. We are still having issues with squatters and drug use in the park, and when the bad outweighed the good we notified everyone that we were no longer going to keep the area as a mobile home park.”

Jackie Schams said that every resident was properly notified Oct. 26 to leave the park within 180 days and that the cost of relocation would be paid for up to 150 miles or that the landlords would buy the tenants’ trailers pending an appraisal.

Four tenants of the mobile home park who did not wish to be named confirmed that they were approached by the Schams about a buyout or coverage of relocation costs.

The lawsuit also states that the Schams illegal evicted tenants from their mobile homes and cut off necessary utilities because of late payments.

A complaint filed by former tenants Lori Conners and Doug Helvey stated that they were illegally evicted and locked out of their home after owing $800 in past due rent. Callister said that locking the two tenants from their home was illegal because the trailer was not owned by Jackie Schams or Randy Schams.

Jackie Schams said that anyone who did not pay rent for the space was informed that they had to leave the property and that the process of locking someone out of their homes was done legally through the Boulder City constable.

“Anyone who did not pay rent was notified that they had to leave the trailer park and if they did not, the constable had the right to evict them from their home if they did not comply,” she said. “I did not lock anyone out of their homes and no one was even evicted till April and they were only evicted if they didn’t pay any rent.”

Jackie Schams went on to say that anyone who has consistently paid rent has been happy with the way she and her father have handled the situation.

“I don’t know anyone in the park that pays their rent that is unhappy with the way we have conducted business,” Jackie Schams said. “We understand that this is a tough situation and we could have legally told everyone that they needed to get out within 30 days, but we didn’t do that because we didn’t think it was fair.”

Callister said that his tenants were also given statements for past due utility fees, a claim that Jackie Schams denies because they do not charge for utilities.

Randy Schams said he feels confident that the court will drop the lawsuit.

“I am not worried about this lawsuit and I am confident that the courts will drop the case.”

Tenants have been notified that they must leave the park no later then Jan. 1.; however, Jackie Schams said she would be willing to work with tenants who are having trouble leaving.

Randy Schams’ attorney David Merrill did not respond to multiple requests for comment.

Contact reporter Max Lancaster at mlancaster @bouldercityreview.com or at 702-586-9401. Follow him on Twitter @MLancasterBCR.