Operators of a Tucson mobile home park are being sued by Arizona’s top prosecutor, who is accusing them of not telling residents the park’s electrical system was dangerous and overloaded, leaving them unable to air condition their homes in the triple-digit heat.
Residents of the Redwood Mobile Home Park “have suffered unacceptable regular electrical outages, leaving them unable to air condition their homes,” according to a consumer fraud lawsuit filed by the Arizona Attorney General’s Office on Aug. 21.
“Mobile home units in triple digit heat and no A/C become an oven. It’s dangerous and it’s only a matter of time before someone dies,” Attorney General Kris Mayes said in a statement. “This is a warning to all property managers: if you endanger residents with repeated electrical outages or AC outages, my office will come after you.”
At the end of July, the attorney general issued a cease-and-desist letter against the mobile home park’s owner and manager saying they must repair the electrical system immediately “to provide its residents reliable electricity and air conditioning during sweltering, life-threatening heat.”
Redwood Mobile Home Park, located at 6181 S. Randall Blvd. in Tucson, has more than 100 residents and 40 mobile home lots.
The attorney general’s lawsuit alleges the owner of the park, Redwood Thunderbird MHPS LLC, and its property management firm, BoaVida Communities, violated the Arizona Consumer Fraud Act by failing to inform park residents the electrical system was outdated and insufficient to power basic appliances and air conditioning systems.
The lawsuit also alleges the owner and manager knew the park’s electrical system was overloaded and dangerous, and that it exposed residents to potential electric fires and to lose air conditioning regularly during extreme heat spikes.
Josh Court of BoaVida said the community has worked with a licensed electrician to inspect the system and found residents were causing problems by making unapproved changes.
“There were numerous unpermitted alterations made by residents, which cause the power draw to greatly exceed the capacity of the system,” he said. “These alterations are causing the main fuses to trip, interrupting service for them and their neighbors.”
He said the management firm was working to make repairs or changes needed to “ensure residents do not experience interruptions caused by other residents tampering with the system.”
In 2024, more than half of the people who died in their homes from heat-related causes in Pima County and four other rural counties, mostly in southern Arizona, lived in mobile homes or RVs, according to the Pima County Office of the Medical Examiner.
About 25% of indoor heat-related deaths in the Phoenix area in 2024 were in mobile homes, trailers or RVs, according to Maricopa County’s Department of Public Health. While making up nearly one-quarter of the locations of such deaths, only 5% of Phoenix-area houses are those types of residences.
The Maricopa County medical examiner commonly finds that people who die in their homes had malfunctioning air conditioners.
“Arizona’s heat can be a terrible situation for people living in manufactured homes,” said Kath Noble, president of the Arizona Association of Manufactured Home Owners, which advocates for residents in the housing.
She said the association is making manufactured home utility problems its top issue in the next legislative session.
The association has planned forums across the state in September to talk to residents about their utility issues.
The temperature in a trailer or RV without AC can soar to above 130 degrees in the summer.
“What’s also troubling is 77% of Arizona’s manufactured housing was built before 2000 and have failing AC systems,” said George McCarthy, a manufactured home expert and CEO of the Lincoln Institute of Land Policy.
Both Noble and McCarthy said most Arizona owners of manufactured homes live on fixed incomes and face rapidly rising lot rents and utility bills that prohibit them from buying new ACs.
Some tips for owners of manufactured homes trying to take care of their ACs are to regularly change air filters, repair ductwork, clean HVAC coils regularly and keep vents unobstructed.
Arizona Republic reporter Caitlin McGlade contributed to this article.
More AC troubles: Attorney general demands Phoenix apartments restore air conditioning in triple-digit heat
This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Arizona mobile home park operators sued over power outages
