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:
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:
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:
See letter from Symonds to landlord:
Inspection report:
Just a minute. The same people complaining here would be the first to convict the City if nothing was done and a fire trapped the renter due to a non-egress window. Now, what the City better be doing is applying this law equally across the city. If anyone can show they are NOT applying this Code equally, well then grab your city wallet, council.
I would like to think that an honest landlord in Mason City with rentals up to code (If such a thing exists) would come forward to help this man and his child out. it saddens but does not surprise me the amount of vitriol spewed forth from some of these people (and is the term people loosely) A community is about helping one another and coming together. the hate that I see come from some of you is the exact sort of thing Mr. Symonds is out to eliminate.
So his ex sold him the rental and it had code violations? Nice!
Quinn, I would say that every landlord in Mason City and the surrounding area is on high-alert with your name now. Good luck trying to find a place to rent in the future. I personally feel you took this too far. You could have handled this much more professionally with your landlord, rather than trying to smear his name on public website. JMO, but I think it would have been best in the long run.
By the way, a job to excavate and put in an egress window is about $5,000. You might just find yourself looking for another rental. Good luck on that.
How is that you keep hearing the same bullish from me, when I have commented on this and maybe one other story a few months back? Maybe you would like to reread what I wrote, I never implied that his old job had anything to do with him standing up for himself. I implied that he has to much time on his hands. Because he was fired for being dishonest. #that is all
Sorry, it is what it is!
Quinn,
Here’s the scoop. Look for another place to live. Don’t use this as an issue to come down on city hall.
I have done some checking and Mr. Paulson is not at fault here and you know that.
You have until May 13th to find a new place to rent. Get on with your life. I first thought this was retaliation from city hall because of your foray into politics. Not so.
It is time you look at yourself and where you are in life and realize the choices you have been making have not been in your best interests.
As far as your upcoming announcement to run for Mayor? Don’t waste your time and mine!
I thought there only had to be egress windows in basement bedrooms, but now I find I’m wrong. Nice to know that. It’s is definitely the landlords’ fault that this is happening to Quinn. But this smacks of someone trying to make trouble for Quinn through his landlord’s failure to be up to code. Funny how it was never an issue before with this rental. It’s too bad the City doesn’t do this to every landlord in town that doesn’t come up to code. It’s a little fishy that they are picking on this particular house at this particular time. Let’s hope that Quinn doesn’t get evicted because of this and then a month later Joe brings the house up to code and starts renting it again to someone different. THAT would really look fishy. Do the right thing now, Joe. Straighten this out for Quinn the way it should be. After all, I think you own a construction company. It should be easy for you to do yourself.
Thanks, Lionel, for helping Quinn with this matter. I hope he doesn’t have to travel to Des Moines in the future to fight for his rights through the HRC!
And Quinn, don’t push for the Blue Zone health program if you smoke anything! That will come back to bite you.
FROM NIT STAFF: Please clean up the comments and stick to the topic. Thank you.
WOWWW…. i didnt watch the video before i commented. Not the way to get your votes Quinn. Handle your business like an ADULT should. Lost our vote. If Mr. paulson sajd hed take care of it and was just made aware, and the city cant legally evict you… what the hells the problem? I think you are jusr full of drama and Id hate to see our city ran by you. Childish
Coukd it be possible that there was a miscommunication between Joe & his ex wife if said tenant moved in while Nancy still owned the property? Was she renting out this properth prior to Quinn moving in? In my opinion, if Nancy was using this as a rental property then she should have known about this as well. While i do agree that Mr. Paulson needs to address and fix this problem. But to say Joe is a bad business man because of all this? Ive dealt with him on numerous occasions without every any problems. Can we hear his side too?
DONT let this chode Quinn Symonds fool you. Your opinion of Bookmeyer may not be on the up and up, but this dude? Nothing but time on his hands because he was “let go” from his last employer for doctoring his hours in the system, so he could get paid for time he wasnt putting in. So now he spends his time making videos, writing letters, and arguing with people on facebook on his “Symonds for Mason City” page, and “People of Mason City” page. STELLAR!
First of all, Joe Paulson is not an honest business person. Second, this is a cheap attack from the mayor simply because this man has announced his intentions to run for mayor. This just shows how low Bookmeyer will go.
Wow, I can’t believe this is happening on our community. Joe Paulson being a business owner should be ashamed that he is letting this go on.
Shouldn’t city hall be going after Paulson as the landlord if it it his property in the first place?
What a damn shame that our city is trying to intimidate and discredit this young man with their bag of dirty tricks. What else would we expect from the bunch of elitist we currently have running our city. I personally don’t think the kid can win (not enough money) but I give him a lot o credit for trying and wish him luck.
What’s most telling is that the city finds this guy a threat. If they are willing to screw with him, they’d screw with any of us.
This must be stopped for the good of everyone.
Can we all say’ “Retaliation”.
Shame on you Mayor this isn’t just effecting this man but your also effecting his 5 yr old daughter.
YOU ARE SCUM, and your little buddies too!
Shame on City Hall. Way to obvious that City Hall is using it’s power to harass Mr. Symonds because of his intention to run for Mayor.
This city has had forever to address the window issue. I am going to call Joe Paulsen and see how long this has been going on. There are dozens of homes in Mason City with folks using their basement that don’t have an egress window.
Bad timing for sure and looks like a total abuse of power!
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