They bought a trailer for retirement in Roy. Now couple fights landlord for their home

In a small, rural town south of Tacoma, Patrick and Trudi Froslie settled three years ago into a mobile home park reminiscent of a campground, peppered with tall trees and home to a mossy pond where ducks and geese swim.

The new homestead in Roy seemed to be a perfect fit for the self-described “nature folks,” who put up a cobalt-blue birdbath in their side yard and adorned the front of their rustic-gray trailer with tiny hanging birdhouses.

It is where Patrick Froslie, 61, a carpenter not currently working due to injury, had planned to live for many years with his wife, Trudi Froslie, 74, who retired from the hospitality industry, and their Chihuahua and cat, Willy and Otis.

“It’s not the Taj Mahal, but it’s my home,” Patrick Froslie said.

But several months after Little Lake Mobile Home Park, where they live, was bought by Little Lake LLC in February 2021, the couple received a notice that caught them off guard: Their new landlord intended to put their home up for sale and gave them 90 days to vacate.

Except there was one glaring problem, according to Patrick Froslie. Their home was not the new landlord’s to sell, he said, because he and his wife owned their trailer, unlike the vast majority of residents at the park who were renters.

When the Froslies did not comply with the notice, they were threatened with eviction in July for unlawfully detaining the premises, Pierce County Superior Court records show, prompting the pair to seek help from a pro-bono attorney.

Cecily Jurman, an attorney representing the Froslies, presented evidence in a court filing that she said showed Patrick Froslie held the title to the home. The title that Little Lake LLC held, she wrote, was for a different trailer that was neither the same model nor year as the Froslie’s.

The case seemed relatively cut and dry, except for a disparity between tax and property records, which Patrick Froslie acknowledged.

Tax documents show that when Little Lake LLC bought the mobile home park, the sale included 27 of the park’s 28 trailers — excluding only the property that is registered to Patrick Froslie. In May 2021, he purchased from the park’s previous owner a 1970 Champion trailer, listed on the sale document as being located at the couple’s current address.

From there, it gets a little complicated: Pierce County property records show that the Champion is registered at a different location, although the accompanying photograph depicts the trailer the Froslies live in. And the 1975 Peerless trailer owned by Little Lake LLC is registered to the Froslies’ address, but the accompanying picture is a different trailer.

Patrick Froslie said he was trying to sort out the inconsistency and noted that the park’s previous owner might have kept records poorly. Even so, he said he was assured by the ex-owner that the home the couple hold the title to was indeed the same one where they live. Adding more complexity to the situation, no one has yet been able to locate the serial number on the trailer for verification, he said.

Ultimately, Little Lake LLC voluntarily dismissed its unlawful detainer case, although the door remains open for it to be refiled in the future. It was also agreed that the legal action could not be used later on against the Froslies by tenant screening services.

The victory, however, did little to ease the Froslies’ concerns over whether the future they once envisioned for themselves was being upended. Dispute over the trailer’s ownership, stressful enough, had devolved into constant harassment and intimidation from their new landlord, Alan Makayev, they said.

“He would do anything to get us out of here,” Trudi Froslie said.

Makayev could not be reached at three phone numbers that public records showed were connected to him, with messages left on the two that worked. An attorney representing Makayev did not return emails or messages left with his office. Makayev has been a landlord for different properties dating back longer than a decade and is currently involved with at least two other companies dealing in real estate, court and state business records show.

‘It’s not his, it’s ours’

The Froslies stopped paying rent when they received the notice of the sale in October 2021, waiting for ongoing issues to be resolved, according to Patrick Froslie. They owed $9,800 at the time the case was filed, court records show.

Because they own their trailer, Patrick Froslie argued they should be required only to pay for the land that it sat on. Instead, when rent was increased a year ago to $1,200, the total included the lot fee and rent for the trailer itself, he said.

“I told him, ‘I’m not paying you $1,200 a month rent for a trailer that I own,’” Patrick Froslie said.

The couple’s overdue rent was part of the since-dismissed unlawful detainer case, which was not the only legal matter to have derived from friction between tenant and landlord.

Last month, Patrick Froslie sought and won a temporary protection order for his wife against Makayev, who is accused of swearing at her and attempting to rip the skirting off the mobile home in search of its serial number. Makayev also stares at the couple when he drives through the park, according to the petition for the order.

“I need this court to tell him to leave my wife alone and quit threatening her that he’s going to take our house,” Patrick Froslie wrote in the petition. “It’s not his, it’s ours.”

He filed it on behalf of his wife, as a vulnerable adult, because she has dementia and a heart condition, “both of which are made worse by yelling, vulgar language, and sudden demands to enter (their home),” the petition states.

Makayev was served with the protection order earlier this month, court records show, and a hearing is scheduled Sept. 26.

Community quickly dwindling

The Froslie’s eviction case was just one of 10 initiated by Little Lake LLC since it bought the park last year, roughly 18 driving miles south of South End Tacoma, court records show.

Most cases alleged that residents were not abiding by new rental agreements, which held them to account for unauthorized pets and forbid them from keeping trampolines, inflatable swimming pools, dismantled vehicles, trash and other debris on the premises, court records show.

Three cases cited failure to pay rent.

In all but two matters, tenants were evicted. One exception was the Froslies’ case. In the other, proceedings were ongoing against resident Bouviea Aaron, who disputed the alleged rental agreement violations against her, although she said she was preparing to leave.

“He’s a bully. That’s the only way I can really describe this man,” Aaron said, referring to Makayev. “He cusses at you, calls you all kinds of bad names. I told him to never speak to me again.”

Aaron, 64, a federal housing voucher recipient, has lived at the park for more than five years. Her rent was raised from $900 to $1,250 after the park was sold, although she paid it.

“I’m going to be in a tent on the side of the street in just a matter of a few days,” she said.

While the park’s previous owners were elderly and had difficulties keeping up the grounds, they at least often responded to calls for repairs, according to Aaron.

Some shared concerns over Little Lake LLC’s failure to provide maintenance for issues ranging from water leaks to black mold. One resident, who declined to provide their name for fear of retaliation, noted that Makayev became incensed when asked to make a relatively simple repair: “The guy is short-fused.”

On a recent weekday, Keshayla Brux and her boyfriend, 41-year-old Enee Pradia, surveyed their leftover belongings dumped by an enforcement crew on the corner of a street after they were kicked out by court order. They had already retrieved most of their personal items from the trailer. Only a large pile of trash remained: a dense mixture of plastic tubs, cardboard boxes and scattered household debris near someone’s burned-out trailer — one of two that recently caught fire, Brux and others said.

The two, who have three children, had been fighting eviction for a year. Their rent went up by $240 to $1,100 on Sept. 1, 2021. Brux, 33, who had applied for county rental assistance, owed more than $5,000 in back rent by the end of 2021, court records show.

She claimed that they did not have a working stove, their roof leaked and there were soft spots on the floor — all of which she said the new ownership refused to address.

Roughly one-third or fewer of the park’s residents were left from when Little Lake LLC took over, Brux and Aaron estimated.

The Froslies said they saw tenant force-outs and rising rents as the new ownership targeting vulnerable people. It was why Patrick Froslie said he felt compelled to stand up not only for himself and his wife but for others in the park, although he insisted that he would prefer to establish a professional landlord-tenant relation with Makayev, absent of animosity.

“I’ve taken this fight on because I love my wife. I bought this place for retirement, for peace of mind,” he said. “I don’t have that peace of mind anymore. I lost it. I’m trying to get it back right now.”