An elderly man said a mobile home park in Hillsborough County thought he was dead, so they sold his trailer and threw out all of his belongings, all while he was sick and living with relatives in Spring Hill, according to court records.

"I hope the judge will give me my rights," said the displaced homeowner, Salaheldin Abuelenen, 88.

Abuelenen said he paid $9,500 cash for his mobile home in November of 2012, not including the cost for the furniture, and set up automatic payments for the $533 monthly lot rent at Lakeshore Villas Mobile Home Park. The elderly man, who's originally from Egypt, said he lived there for more than a year without any problems. 

Abuelenen said the trouble began when he wasn't feeling well last March and left his mobile home to live with a relative in Spring Hill. When he returned to his mobile home in December, Abuelenen discovered his home had been sold out from under him.

"First he tried to open the mailbox and it was not working. So, when we got here (mobile home), he tried to open the door and the door key is also not working," said Abuelenen's nephew, Hany Khalil, 40. "Finally, somebody come out from inside and told us that this is my house."

Khalil said when Abuelenen went to the office to ask about his mobile home, the manager looked like she had just seen a ghost.

"They saw him coming back and like, wow," he said. "It was a big-time surprise for them."

Khalil said the park manager told him that all of his furniture and belongings, including his 1926 birth certificate from Egypt, were gone and the mobile home had been sold.

"All gone, everything. He's a writer, he write books," he said. "His original birth certificate was in this house. How we gonna get a copy?"

According to a sworn affidavit, the Lakeshore Villas landlord, Debby Heminger, stated that Abuelenen did not pay his lot rent for April, May and June. The problem with that is Abuelenen's bank records show the rent for April and May were automatically drafted from his account.

"She take the money from the bank and said that I didn’t pay," said Abuelenen.

The elderly man said the park did not even try to collect rent for June. Based on the affidavit and with no response from Abuelenen, a Hillsborough judge gave possession of the mobile home to Lakeshore Villas last August, according to court records.

Last month, Abuelenen filed a handwritten motion in court showing he had paid rent and did not receive the eviction or abandonment notices. A couple of weeks ago, the judge threw out his original order that gave Lakeshore Villas possession of the mobile home.

According to the mobile home park attorney, Jonathan Damonte, a company called Sun Communities purchased Lakeshore Villas from American Land Lease in January. Damonte said they sent notices to Abuelenen, posted one on his door and in the newspaper.

"They had not heard from him for many, many, months. They’d sent notices, they weren’t able to contact him and the rumor in the park was that he’d passed away," said Damonte. "So, they did an eviction and an abandonment. And the home was resold in an abandonment sale."

Damonte said Abuelenen's mobile home was sold at auction for $5,000 last October. The attorney said an accounting mistake led to the abandonment sale and the company wants to compensate Abuelenen.

"Obviously, somebody made a mistake in the accounting department. We don’t get those records here. We get a notice saying, 'Someone hasn’t paid, proceed with the eviction,' " Damonte said. "We want to offer him either another home in the park or we’d be willing to settle up with him. But since the home has been re-sold to someone else, we can’t restore that to him now. But we do want to do right by him."

The law office sent Abuelenen a letter on Feb. 10 stating, "We would like to avoid going to any more hearings and would instead like to discuss a possible settlement." Abuelenen said he recently had heart surgery and he's not interested in living at Lakeshore Villas.

"I will buy another home in the street," he said.

The judge set a hearing for March 11, to discuss how to resolve all the issues between Abuelenen and Lakeshore Villas. The elderly man said this week he filed a complaint with the Better Business Bureau and the Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office.