Residents at Jacksonville motel are shocked after the owner sells property without giving them notice
Residents at a Days Inn on Dix Ellis Trail in Jacksonville are on edge after they say they paid the owner of the property their rent money last week. Shortly after that they were told the property was sold to new ownership.
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Everyone we spoke to say the owner never gave them any notice that they were doing this. Since then, a fence has been put up around the property by new ownership, and residents say they are afraid of what could happen next.
“I’m just betrayed,” says a resident who didn’t want to be identified on camera.
That same resident says she had already paid her rent for the month.
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“We all had paid our rent up to the third or the first of the month. Last Wednesday I guess the old owner sold this place to a new guy,” said the resident.
That resident had paid $350. She even says she knew the former owner on a personal level and never thought she would do this.
“The man was really nice, and you wouldn’t think he would be doing something like this. He was a family man, I knew his little kids,” said the resident.
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She also tells Action News Jax she has been living here for three years and says she doesn’t have anywhere to move.
She, along with other residents who still live on the property, even say their key cards don’t work to get inside of their units.
Mercedes Rowe, who also lives on this property and has five kids, says she has to leave her door propped open. If it closes, she won’t be able to get back in.
“I have to leave my kids sometimes. I have a 14-year-old, so we can leave and get back into our room to our belongings because there is no way to get a key anymore,” said Rowe.
Rowe says she also had a good relationship with the former owner.
“He would look at me with my kids when we would be outside playing, so it’s very hurtful,” said Rowe.
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Rowe adds that she is very nervous about the new owners and what they might say or do about her current living situation.
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