CLEARWATER, Fla. — Twenty Clearwater families are fighting eviction after they were served notices giving them two weeks to move out. Days later, they received another round of notices saying they now owe thousands of dollars.
Tucked away on a dead-end road in Clearwater stands Westchester Apartments, a 20-unit complex housing mostly low-income, elderly and disabled people.
The group said the tenants include parents, a foster mom, animal lovers, chronically ill patients and a military veteran.
"I just love the people here. We're all like a big family," said Tonya Robertson, who has lived there for three years.
Robertson and other tenants said on Feb. 3, two papers were taped to their front doors. One was a welcome letter from Midfield Management and the other was a "Notice to Vacate" saying their tenancy ended on Jan. 16.
Westchester Apartment tenants said they immediately called and e-mailed the new property management company to understand why they were being told to leave and to clear up the confusion about the tenancy ending the month prior.
Robertson and Vernneasha Jones, another tenant, said a few days later they all received another "Notice to Vacate," this time with an updated date of Feb. 18 as the end of their tenancy.
"I went into anxiety attack," said Lynn Davidoff, a tenant of 16 years. "I didn't know what to do. I tried calling. No answer. I don't know what to do. I'm disabled and I'm high anxiety right now."
Davidoff said she gets social security and she was appointed a payee to manage her benefits, including paying her rent. In other words, her rent is paid directly by the government to the property owner.
That's why yet another round of notices dated Feb. 6 telling tenants they owed anywhere from $1,000-$5,000 left Davidoff and others baffled.
"I got a notice saying I owe $1,200 plus a late fee of $1,365 so that’s impossible," said Jones, who lives in the apartment with her two sons.
10 Tampa Bay left messages and sent e-mails to the contact information for the property management company given on the tenants' notices. No one has responded to our requests.
Tenants say they've been reaching out several times a day since they got the letters.
"Where’s my family going to go? Where’s my son going to sleep? What are they going to do to everybody," Robertson said.
William Kilgore with the St. Petersburg Tenants Union said giving such little notice to vacate goes against Florida state law – even if you were on a month-to-month lease.
Additionally, any late fees have to follow a strict protocol outlined in the Pinellas County Tenant Bill of Rights.
The tenants fear their old landlord sold the property without telling them but Kilgore says that shouldn't dismantle their lease.
"If there’s a change of ownership, your lease agreement is still valid if you have an annual lease," Kilgore said. "It does not just disappear because there’s a new owner."
A few hours after 10 Tampa Bay left the property Thursday, a Clearwater police officer responded to the complex to look into what was going on with the property owner.