RUMFORD – Selectmen and town officials continue to battle with a Massachusetts-based landlord, who they say refuses to fix serious safety violations at his 14 Prospect Ave. apartment building.

Landlord Brian O’Keefe of Chelmsford, Mass., has claimed he is broke and can’t afford to make repairs.

On Friday, after the deadline to comply had passed, Code Enforcement Officer Rick Kent posted a sign at 14 Prospect Ave., identifying it as a dangerous building, Town Manager Len Greaney said.

To force compliance, selectmen ordered O’Keefe’s three tenants out of the building by Nov. 6; the board’s initial eviction notice issued on Oct. 2 was for 30 days only.

In Maine, only landlords – not towns – can evict tenants, provided they have a court order from a judge, a process that can take months.

However, the first-floor tenants, a family of four, moved out this weekend and into a heated garage. The third-floor tenant also is moving, but the second-floor tenants, a couple with four children, are staying put because they cannot afford to move.

“This couldn’t have happened at a worse time,” Greaney said, noting winter’s fast approach.

He said landlord O’Keefe could have fixed the remaining problems for $200 to $300.

The building lacks required exits from the second and third floors and hard-wired smoke detectors in appropriate locations on each floor.

According to Rumford law, the process has now entered a penalty phase, wherein the town is fining O’Keefe more than $100 a day for failing to comply with the selectmen’s order to evict and/or fix the code violations.

O’Keefe was unavailable for comment. His phone number is no longer in service.

Second-floor tenant Stacy Hoyt said O’Keefe told her that insurance on the building would be dropped by month’s end and that he would not have any more oil delivered. The tank was three-quarters full, but the furnace wasn’t working properly, she said.

“Every time we want heat, we have to restart the furnace and it’s not putting out heat like it used to. It was 53 degrees here this morning and we had to restart the furnace again,” Hoyt said.

Glimmers of hope came Tuesday, the first from an anonymous caller, who, Hoyt said, indicated he would send a donation.

Additionally, the Portland Tenants Union is working on the Hoyts’ behalf.

“Common sense and common decency strongly suggests that there must be some way to help these folks stay where they are,” Portland Tenants Union Treasurer Ed Democracy of Portland wrote Monday in an e-mail.

Democracy, who has talked to all involved, said it wouldn’t take much to address the code violations and allow the tenants to stay.

“When we do the math, $1,000 keeps these folks in a good place where they can continue to provide safety and stability for their four children,” he said. “They are hard-working people. Unnecessary and excessive disruption could end up costing them and others far more than $1,000 in health care, other costs, and lost economic productivity.”