Another summer of surprise giant utility bills finds mobile home residents with few options

For mobile home residents across Tucson, summer heat can bring more than higher cooling costs. It can also produce utility bills so large that people must choose between paying rent, buying food and using savings they had set aside for emergencies. At Twin Palms, a north side park, 73 year old Dyan Norfleet paid more than $900 in August after her electricity charge reached $171. The month before, her total bill for lot rent, home rent and utilities was $777.21. Norfleet’s home has a swamp cooler in one room and two fans, and she said her typical summer electric bills are closer to $40 or $50.

Norfleet had to use her savings to avoid falling behind. Her neighbor, Aida Garcia, faced a similar problem. Garcia’s Aug. 1 bill listed $256.96 for electricity alone, despite her usual summer costs. Norfleet said the unexpected expense forced her to consider how much food she could afford for a kitten she had recently taken in. She has also started looking for work after a career as a social worker, partly because an 8% lot rent increase took effect in August. “I have to go back to work to stay here,” she said.

The problem is not limited to Twin Palms. At Plaza Del Sol, about nine miles south along Interstate 10, Liliana Salmon received a water charge of $2,105.05 on her Sept. 1 bill. Salmon cleans houses, but her work has dwindled to a few clients, and she and her husband are raising three children. On Sept. 10, the park issued her a seven day notice for nonpayment of rent. Salmon said the situation has left her unable to sleep and feeling sick.

Salmon’s bill arrived during an existing dispute with park management. Last spring, she said, the park called animal control after her service dog barked at a security team member who approached her porch. She went to court over the dog dispute, and the case ended in a legal settlement. At the time of the large water bill, however, Salmon and her attorney were still discussing how much she owed in legal fees. Salmon believes the water charge resulted from an incorrect meter reading and is waiting for the park to tell her what will happen next.

Other Plaza Del Sol residents have reported similarly dramatic increases. Maria Collantes, who had lived there since 2017, received a $1,750.76 water bill in May, after paying $45.23 the previous month. Park maintenance told her she must have a leak, but Collantes said she could not identify anything that would explain such a jump. She paid the bill with help from Poder Casas Móviles because she feared eviction. At a Sept. 22 Tucson City Council meeting, Salmon asked for an investigation into how mobile home residents are billed and who is responsible for ensuring the charges are accurate and fair. Mayor Regina Romero directed her to the Arizona Attorney General’s Office.

Twin Palms, Plaza Del Sol and Flowing Wells Mobile Gardens share a billing arrangement common in manufactured home parks. Management charges residents directly for some or all utilities, often using a master meter for the entire property and separate meters at individual homes. The utility company owns or controls the master meter, while the park generally owns the meters serving individual homes. Park management, sometimes with assistance from a third party, then bills residents. That arrangement leaves residents without a direct relationship with Tucson Electric Power or Tucson Water, making it difficult to challenge an unexpected charge before the next rent payment is due.

Residents at Flowing Wells Mobile Gardens, a park next to Twin Palms with about 60 manufactured homes, confronted the same issue in summer 2024. Several received electric bills more than five times their usual summer amounts. With help from local organizers, they took their complaints to a state administrative court. Skyler Clary, an attorney with Southern Arizona Legal Aid, said residents have few immediate legal options. The concern is especially serious for elderly and low income tenants who may be able to cover regular rent but cannot quickly absorb an extra $200, $500 or several thousand dollars.

The issue helped fuel the creation of Poder Casas Móviles in 2019. Organizer Raye Winch said high utility bills were among the first concerns residents raised, including reports of $500 water bills. Kath Noble, president of the Arizona Association of Manufactured Home Owners, said her organization receives calls every month from residents who believe their charges are wrong. Earlier this year, the association supported proposed legislation that would have changed utility billing rules for manufactured home parks and created additional remedies for residents, but none of those measures became law.

State officials have increased scrutiny. In summer 2025, Attorney General Kris Mayes issued a consumer alert after her office received more complaints about unusually high bills. The alert warned parks that billing statements must include opening and closing meter readings and the cost of utility charges. Mayes said parks could face consequences if they misrepresented usage, omitted important meter information or misled tenants about rates. Norfleet and Garcia both complained to the Attorney General’s Office this summer and raised the issue with park management, but paid their bills because utilities were collected with rent and they had nowhere else to live if nonpayment led to eviction proceedings.

Park representatives dispute that residents were incorrectly billed. COARE Communities, listed by the Pima County assessor’s office as the mailing address for Twin Palms MHP LLC, said its property management team reviewed the charges and found no evidence of incorrect or fraudulent billing. Kimberly Stepchinski, the company’s southwest regional manager, said a sharp increase could reflect changed usage or the way a local utility calculates rates, and that one unusually high month does not by itself prove an error. TEP communications manager Joe Barrios said TEP had not raised rates in a way that would explain Twin Palms’ electric charges and said the utility does not know how the park bills its tenants. At Plaza Del Sol, a staff member identified as Ron said residents have individual water and electric meters and are billed through a third party. Tucson Water confirmed that Plaza Del Sol receives water through master meters serving the property line, not individual homes, and said it has previously performed audits and made recommendations for residents. Advocates point to Tucson Water’s own adjustment process for leaks and other problems as a model, but residents billed through parks must first depend on management to address the dispute.