A judge will visit the Benchmark Trailer Park next month to examine a home at the heart of a legal dispute between its landlord and tenant.

The park’s owners served Cindy Carey with an eviction notice in March 2014, citing poor upkeep – a breach of the tenancy agreement, they said.

The Carey family, who has owned the trailer for 25 years and rents the land it sits on, disputes the eviction and has brought the matter before a judge.

During a hearing last month in territorial court, Benchmark’s Rob Twa testified he and co-owner Kirk Gale have had concerns about the Careys’ trailer since 2009.

Out of 30-plus trailers in the park, he said, theirs is among those in the worst condition.

Twa said he talked to Cindy, as well as her brother Darrell and his wife Michele, who own the trailer, about improving its appearance multiple times after Cindy moved in with her children in October 2008.

But nothing changed, he said.

A couple of other residents in the park complained to him about the home, he said.

“Out of frustration, we served them notice of termination,” Twa said.

But the Careys say they’re good tenants, and that they’ve wanted to upgrade the home by hauling away an old section and building an addition.

They obtained a building permit from the City of Whitehorse back in 2007.

“We’ve had a lot of materials sitting in the yard – trusses, the insulation, everything to get going on this, and it’s just been sitting and waiting and waiting,” Cindy told Judge Donald Luther.

The problem lies behind the aging trailer, where a dirt bank has encroached on the back wall.

Cindy had two contractors look at the property, and they told her the dirt would have to be moved before the old section could be pulled away.

They also had concerns about water and sewage lines that run beside and underneath the trailer, and said three power poles behind the home would have to be anchored before any work began.

The Careys believe its Benchmark’s job, as the landlord, to deal with those issues.

“We had full intention and have full intention of working on it, fixing it to make it a nicer home, but we were very concerned with the plumbing and the hillside,” said Michele.

She said they’ve kept the yard clean of weeds and garbage over the years, and fixed an indoor appliance when it broke, but should not be responsible for landscaping issues.

“I feel it’s beyond our little yard area that we’re renting,” Michele said.

Cindy said the family has tried to talk to Twa several times about the bank, but he would tell them he had to discuss the situation with Gale.

She said she even offered to pay for the dirt removal, if Twa agreed the Careys wouldn’t be liable for any damage to the poles or water line.

But Twa made it very difficult for any communication to take place, the Careys allege. He and Gale don’t live in the park, and the Careys say they wouldn’t return the family’s calls.

Twa, though, said the Careys only discussed the dirt slope with him after he’d given them the eviction notice. He said if they’d made substantial repairs to the trailer, he’d have changed his mind about eviction.

Twa said he gave them several verbal warnings to improve the trailer’s appearance over the years and they didn’t.

Cindy said she offered to paint it, but Twa told her she couldn’t.

Twa denied that in court. He said he told her paint alone wouldn’t beautify the trailer.

“Your honour, the place needs more than a few coats of paint,” he said to Luther.

Contacted by the Star this morning, Gale declined to comment.

Twa could not be reached for comment.

NDP MLA Kate White also testified at the hearing, after the Careys reached out to her for help.

“No contractor is going to take the liability risk of digging in a bank that’s obviously sloped, like it’s already sloughed off, when you’ve got all those things (a water line and power poles) in there,” White said in an interview.

“The point being is that it seems like an unreasonable request to tell someone they have to do repairs to a trailer if they can’t actually access the trailer to do those repairs.”

White points to an out-of-date Landlord and Tenant Act that she feels doesn’t do enough to address mobile homeowners’ rights.

Under the 2002 act, the Careys are viewed solely as renters, when, really, they’re homeowners who rent land, she said.

Updated legislation was passed in 2012 but has yet come into effect. That’s expected to happen this year, once the accompanying regulations are completed.

“Developing comprehensive legislation takes time, especially when there is public consultation involved,” said Bonnie Venton Ross, a Department of Community Services spokeswoman.

Both the 2002 act and the incoming version allow landlords to evict tenants for breaches of a tenancy agreement, like not paying rent or conducting illegal activity on the property.

But laws in other jurisdictions also specify circumstances in which a landlord can evict a tenant even if he or she hasn’t broken any rules, such as home renovation or a family member moving in.

This cause-for-eviction clause doesn’t exist in the Yukon legislation. And neither the 2002 nor 2012 act caps yearly rent increases, as laws in other jurisdictions do.

White has gathered about 350 signatures from Whitehorse mobile home owners, requesting a distinction in the legislation between themselves and renters, and a maximum annual rent increase.

“There is concern from other people in that row (at Benchmark) about erosion, but there is also fear about contacting the landlord,” the MLA said in court, because of the possibility of eviction without cause.

In an interview, Cindy said she never wanted to take the matter to court, but felt she had no other options.

Twa and Gale wouldn’t return her calls, and they told her in a letter they wouldn’t discuss the issue with her any further, she said.

“It’s been pretty stressful,” she said.

The eviction notice stated she had to move by last month, but she’s still living in the trailer while the court case is ongoing.

“I just want to fix my place up and keep my kids grounded,” she said. “When you have teenagers, if you start moving them around and everything, it seems that they don’t stay grounded.”

Two of her four children live at home. They’re 13 and 15, and Cindy says they’re top athletes and honour-roll students.

She doesn’t want to have to uproot them.

She said she hopes the Landlord and Tenant Act is changed to clarify the status of people in her family’s situation – those who own a home but rent the land underneath it.

After several hours of testimony on March 9, Judge Luther said this was one of the few cases in his career where he’d need a “judicial view” by visiting the trailer park.

That’s scheduled to happen May 27.