Jhon Rios said he and his wife, Alicia, recently spent three days in a hotel after the city of Arnold put a condemnation sticker on their mobile home.
Rios said the couple heard a noise outside their home in the Ozark Hills Mobile Park on Jan. 31, and when he opened the door, he saw a city building inspector putting up a notice that said the home is unfit for human occupancy or use.
Also that day, the inspector issued Rios a summons to appear in Arnold Municipal Court on April 7 for alleged building code violations, court records show.
Arnold City Attorney Bob Sweeney said the citation was issued due to a deck being constructed at the home without a permit.
“Immediately we called a lawyer, and the lawyer called Sweeney,” Rios said. “The lawyer said the police could come. My wife and I were like, ‘All right we are getting out of our home.’ We stayed in a hotel in Fenton until (Feb. 4).”
Rios said the couple was allowed back in their home on Feb. 4, but they don’t know how long they will be allowed to remain due to the dispute that started last summer when a city inspector saw he was building a carport at the home without a permit.
In July, a city inspector was investigating a possible sewer leak around the mobile home community, where there had been a previous leak emptying into the nearby Pomme Creek.
The inspector discovered that the Rioses did not have a permit to build the carport and that the couple had moved into and done work on the mobile home, which had been condemned in 2022.
City records show Arnold sent a notification declaring the mobile home condemned on Feb. 7, 2022, to Rob Rosenfeld, the mobile home community owner. The violations included holes in the front door, broken windows, a hole in the siding and exposed electrical wiring.
Rios said he and his wife moved to Missouri from Texas in 2022 to be closer to their daughter, who attends college in Wentzville. Then, they purchased the mobile home in March 2023 and moved from Herculaneum to Arnold.
“All of the things were fixed, and we did extra work to make the home habitable,” Rios said.
Sweeney said when the mobile was condemned in 2022, Rosenfeld did not show up for the hearing, and no one applied for permits to renovate the home and bring it into compliance with city codes.
“Had permits (for construction or occupancy) been sought, the city would have been able to inform the Rioses of the condemned nature of the structure,” he said.
Sweeney also said the Rioses did not have the mobile home title after they purchased it, and the city has no way to verify that the couple owns the home.
“Without evidence of ownership, the city had no authority to grant occupancy if it had been sought,” he said.
After the dispute started last summer, the city completed an inspection on July 17. The inspection report said there were numerous projects in various stages of completion at the home, flooring was missing thresholds, outlet covers were missing, electric work had been performed without a permit, a new water heater was installed without the code required expansion tank or permit, the HVAC unit was dumping cold air below the home, drywall was installed in the home preventing a way to inspect what was behind it, a GFCI outlet was not functioning properly, a tie wall was rotted and needed to be replaced, a carport was built without a permit, exhaust fans were not installed in the bathrooms, hand rails and guard rails were missing on the front porch, no smoke detectors were installed, cabinets were not mounted properly, countertops were not fastened and the home’s skirting needed repaired.
Sweeney also said an oversized shed was built outside the mobile home, and that structure violates city code because it does not have a foundation.
In addition, the estimated cost of the renovations that had been completed at the home exceeded 50 percent of the home’s value, a violation of city codes.
According to Arnold’s ordinances, “In any case where the conditions constituting the public nuisance are such that the costs to repair or maintain the building or structure so that it will no longer constitute a public nuisance equal or exceed 50 percent of the value of the building or structure, it shall be ordered demolished.”
The Rioses received a letter on Aug. 5 outlining what they needed to do in order to keep the mobile home in Arnold.
Jhon Rios said he believes the city is making unfair demands.
“The initial elements that brought about this issue were so insignificant and were abated and fixed,” he said. “They are bringing new things, bigger things to make it so the mobile home is not usable.”
In September, Rios and his wife filed a discrimination complaint with the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development against Arnold, claiming the city was treating Rios unfairly due to his national origin.
Rios moved to the U.S. from Colombia in 1989 and has dual citizenship.
Arnold received notification about the HUD complaint and investigation on Oct. 22, and Building Commissioner Randy Noland responded to HUD on Oct. 30, denying discriminatory behavior and providing a brief history of the dispute.
Sweeney said while the HUD investigation is ongoing, the city will pause any enforcement action and maintain the status quo.
He also said Arnold offered the Rioses up to $2,000 to relocate the home outside city limits.
“That was a suggestion by the HUD investigator after it became patently obvious that the structure could not be brought into compliance in a fiscally responsible manner,” Sweeney said. “The amount and type of repairs was probably around 10 times the value of the structure.
“The thought was that perhaps Jefferson County’s standards would be less exacting.”
Jhon Rios said $2,000 would not be enough money for the mobile home to be moved out of Arnold.
“It will cost almost $10,000 to move that thing,” he said. “We would have to get permits, movers and have things reinstalled. That doesn’t work.”
Rios said the situation has been stressful and embarrassing, making him and his wife feel like criminals.
“We have been told we can go back into our home, but we don’t know if someone is going to come and tell us we have to get out now,” he said. “The problem is we can’t sell it because they haven’t issued permits. We don’t have an occupancy permit. We are in limbo. We need a lot of money to move and get the appropriate permits somewhere else. If we stay, who knows when they will let us into our home permanently?”