MASON CITY – A Mason City man is battling City Hall and his landlord to keep his home.
Quinn Symonds found a notice at his home for “no occupancy” on Thursday. The notice stated that as of April 13th – less than three days from Thursday – Symonds and his five year-old daughter would have to be out of the rental house they live in, located at 719 North Kentucky Avenue. The house is owned by landlord Joe Paulson.
The notice said that Symonds has to be out of the house because a city inspector determined that some windows in the single-family home are not up to code. The windows – which look like standard windows – are supposed to be “egress” windows for escape purposes in case of emergency.
Symonds said late Thursday that the first notice was placed on his door by city staff around noon while he was at his daughter’s spring program.
After seeing that the city was giving him less than 3 days to vacate his home, Symonds went to City Hall to get some answers. When he got there, most people were at lunch, so Symonds was able to make contact via phone a short time later. Symonds said that City Hall officials admitted they had made a mistake with the first notice and then came to his home and placed a second notice on his door.
See video of Symonds describing his situation before he went into City Hall seeking assistance with his problem:
httpv://youtu.be/_1-xqEsks-U
Shortly after stopping at City Hall, Symonds got advice from Human Rights Director Lionel Foster via phone, who told him that the city can’t force him out of his rental house due to deficiencies caused by the landlord not adhering to city code with the windows. Foster advised Symonds to deliver a notice to Paulson advising him that he was unduly forcing Symonds out of his home. Symonds brought a notice to Paulson later Thursday.
Symonds had this to say of working with city employees at City Hall:
See Video:
httpv://youtu.be/tcgq8LLMDps
After discussing the issue with city officials, they admitted that the three day notice was a “mistake” and immediately brought a new notice to Symonds’ home and placed it on the door. The new notice gave Symonds 30 days to be out of the house.
Later, Symonds, following the advice of Human Rights Director Lionel Foster, put in writing his concerns and hand-delivered the notice to Paulson. In the notice, Symonds says he told Paulson that he would not be paying rent until the house was up to city code and “informed him that the city cannot evict me because it’s the law that he keeps the home rentable by lease.”
Symonds said that his current lease is set to run until March of 2014.
See video taken by Symonds when he delivered a notice to Paulson to bring the rental house up to code:
httpv://youtu.be/R8hiel51Ttw
See letter from Symonds to landlord:
Inspection report:
