JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – The State Attorney’s Office closed an investigation into a Westside mobile home park after it found no criminal evidence in the case of a tenant who was hit with outrageously high water bills last year.
In the disposition statement, the SAO said Kelley O’Neil’s sky-high water bills at the Three Seasons Mobile Home Park Village off Collins Road were not a result of a criminal act, and listed some possible explanations for the excessive bills.
In early September 2023, O’Neil, who’s a disabled veteran, reached out to the News4JAX I-TEAM after her landlord at the Three Seasons threatened to evict her if she didn’t pay a $2,200 water bill for her mobile home. She had been averaging $30 the previous several months.
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The Three Seasons Mobile Home Park pays one bill to JEA for water, and bills tenants individually. At the time, the park was owned by a company out of Texas named Moore Enterprises, which eventually sold all its Jacksonville properties while the I-TEAM investigation was ongoing.
Multiple mobile home tenants contacted the I-TEAM in the summer of 2023 alleging Three Seasons overcharged them for water consumption during various times of their residency. But only one tenant had the proof, and that was O’Neil.
O’Neil paid more than $2,300 for two months of water for a one-bedroom unit. That’s enough water to fill several large swimming pools.
“When I saw the bill I almost had a stroke,” O’Neil said.
The outrageous water bill allegations escalated last September after News4JAX learned Moore Enterprises was previously investigated in Ohio for overcharging tenants for water at a mobile park they owned near Columbus.
Officials in Ohio told News4JAX they never uncovered why the bills were so high, and they never identified a leak.
The Ohio Department of Commerce decided not to take action against Moore Enterprises because they said they didn’t have jurisdiction.
In Jacksonville, JEA and City leaders also couldn’t find any leaks, which prompted a call for a probe by The State Attorney’s Office.
As O’Neil threatened legal action, the City of Jacksonville demanded an explanation about the high bills.
Moore Enterprises sold all three of its Jacksonville mobile home parks unexpectedly— turning them over to another real estate investor.
After a nearly year-long investigation, The State Attorney’s Office just released this disposition to News4JAX, which says in part:
“The City’s and the SAO investigation do not reveal a criminal act. Every criminal prosecution requires there to be an identifiable defendant who commits a criminal act.
The Three Seasons mobile home park billed O’Neil. However, it has subsequently sold its interest in the park to a new owner. Moreover, there is no identifiable person within Three Seasons ownership management or workforce who could be singled out for criminal wrongdoing.
There is no evidence Three Season employees intentionally misread the water meter. There is no evidence that they created an intentionally high bill for O’Neil.”
Stephen W Siegel, First Assistant State Attorney
Investigators with State Attorney’s Office said it still doesn’t know why O’Neil’s water bills were so high and came up with three possible explanations:
- Human error as stated by the investigator from Consumer Affairs
- Plumbing problem on O’Neil’s lot, which seems to have been examined and refuted
- An erroneous water reading by the meter reader
- An erroneous translation of the meter reading by the Three Seasons office personnel who billed O’Neil.