‘I just want my life back’ Mother, son ousted after moving into Sevier County mobile home

SEVIER COUNTY, Tenn. (WATE) — A disabled East Tennessee mother and her adult son have been forbidden to move into their mobile home in Sevier County .

They bought it earlier this month knowing they had to qualify to live in the mobile home park. That’s what the park landlord told Cheri and Brandon Byrd. Brandon is self-employed. His 61-year-old mother is in poor health and receives Social Security disability benefits.

They were able to buy a 30-year-old mobile home in Seymour by selling their old one, but they had to be out of it by the end of March. Days after receiving the title to their new place, they received bad news.

They have been living in a motel room for more than two weeks, even though they own a home. On April 3, they bought this single-wide mobile home in Seymour. Their landlord now tells them they can’t live in it.

“I want my life back. He has taken it. We have nowhere to go,” Cheri said. “We are almost out of money, just to live in a motel.”

To buy the trailer, they sold their old home and an acre of property in Dandridge. They paid $30,000 to the previous owner of their new mobile home.

They immediately started moving their belongings in, made dinner, and spent two nights there. Cheri’s credit was turned down by the property owner of this park in Seymour and they now must move.

“We trusted this man wholeheartedly,” Cheri said.

“I went over my past employment history, told him that we had less than perfect credit. It wasn’t perfect,” Brandon said. “If that was something he was going to have an issue with, we needed to find out before we exchanged check for title.”

“He goes over everything with you, he says, ‘good to go,’” said Cheri. “You trust him, think everything is okay. Then he tells you, ‘No.’ You don’t have nothing.”

Jim Lowery sold the home to Cheri and her son. Lowery said he told the Byrds, when he bought the home three years ago, he also needed the landlord’s approval to live in the park.

He said his old landlord broke the bad news to Cheri.

“He called me a couple of days later and said he was unable to get them verified because of their credit.”

Lowery told WATE that he was approved to move into the home despite having bad credit and even having a bankruptcy on his credit at the time.

We called the landlord, Charlie Blankenship. He said it took a day or two to run Cheri and Brandon’s credit report.

“When I got the application, I went ahead and verified their credit, and I rejected their credit because they didn’t qualify.”

“The Byrds say they can’t even go back into their home, Is that true?” Dare asked.

“They don’t have permission to live in there because of the liability of insurance,” Blankenship responded. “Therefore, they had to remove the trailer from the mobile home park.”

It is Brandon and Cheri’s understanding they cannot return to the trailer park. If they do, there could be legal consequences.

“If we go back there, we could be trespassing,” Brandon said. “If we are outside on the property at all we could be trespassing.”

I can’t go back into my home. If I do, I’m going to wonder when the police are going to show up,” Cheri said.

Blankenship added that the Byrds can return to the mobile home to retrieve their belongings.

Cheri said she doesn’t know what to do, where to go, and it will be expensive. “Nothing can compare to the emotion that we’ve been through,” Brandon said.

The Byrds said they like their new home, but it is going to be a struggle to start all over again. To begin with, they’ll have to find a new site for their trailer, store their stuff, then pay to have the home moved.

Brandon said all of that will likely take a month or two. In the meantime, they’ll have to stay in a motel room.

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