Woman evicted from her apartment for missing payments while in hospital

A woman was evicted from her apartment complex for missing payments while in the hospital.

Barbara Mosher said she was kicked out for being late on rent and despite getting help from a local rental assistance program but the complex still won’t let her stay.

Mosher said all her stuff including pictures, heirlooms, furniture, and important documents are all inside and she can’t get it out.

Legally Summer Lakes can keep Mosher from retrieving her belongings because the court records show management gave her plenty of time to move out.

Now she’s desperate to get her possessions back and find a new place to live. For more than a decade Mosher called the Summer Lakes Apartments home.

“I’ve been there 14 years. This is the first time I’m having problems,” Mosher said.

The problem is simple and something so many people face. They can’t make their rent.

“I’m on disability and what I get on disability, the rent was more than my disability. So that’s why I was going on rental assistance so they could help me pay my rent,” Mosher said.

Mosher is disabled and was in the hospital from the beginning of April to the middle of May for hernia surgery, that’s why her rent went unpaid.

Mosher said when she got out she said tried to use the help of St. Vincent’s rental program.

“Then they said ‘no we don’t want that. We can’t accept your rental services,'” Mosher said.

Because while Mosher was in the hospital the owners of Summer Lakes filed a complaint for eviction and made it clear Mosher owed $4,368.

Mosher said she had no idea why Summer Lakes wouldn’t accept the money she had for them.

They put the notice on her unit that without payment she’d be evicted on or after June 6.

When Mosher got out of the hospital a week later she said she never got the notice.

In early July Summer Lakes management said she had to go.

“‘They say well we gave you a month’s notice, you should have been out of here more than a month ago’ and I said ‘yeah I’m trying my best,'” Mosher said.

Her best only got her through to July 19.

Summer Lakes called the Collier County Sheriff’s Office to come change the locks.

Now Mosher fears she’ll never get her things back from inside the home.

“It’s just like my photo albums, the car keys, and my clothes and I wanted at least my mother’s and grandmother’s cabinet,” Mosher said.

WINK News reached out to the property manager and they said they could not speak at this time.

“I think it’s my fault that I didn’t do more, I tried my best but it just kills me that I couldn’t at least have an hour more to get more stuff out of there,” Mosher said.

But as for Mosher now, she’s living with family not too far away.

“I’m grateful that they are helping me but I just feel like I’m annoying them or putting them out of their way,” Mosher said.