 Nightmare on Pinecrest St.
I decided on the dream of homeownership three years ago. To say that I was ignorant about the subsequent realities would be fair, but inadequate.
Thus, in April 2006, I invested in a small older home in the city of Sarasota Florida. As to the exact figure I invested, or promised to invest, I can only say that trusting a mortgage broker is one thing I will never do again and it is my suggestion that all follow this rule.
It is not the house's fault that I was denied inspection by Southeast Capital, nor is it the houses fault that the sellers, Enrique & Sheri were in collusion with Arthur R. Seaborne the broker to dupe me by threatening my 8K earnest if I didn’t close without the inspection on the date they wanted to close on and still remain in the house for a week or two. And it most definitely is not the houses fault that the sellers lied about and concealed many numerous material defects. For this we can safely place the blame on them.
Nonetheless, it bears mentioning that my purchase served as an indicator for the ensuing housing market collapse. It was as if the colluders were saying, "We sure know how to spot an opportunity don’t we."
This first shock of homeownership (that property values sometimes go down) was followed by a second: FRAUD and MISREPRESENTATION. And by "this" I mean, of course, "that just because I am honest does not mean all will be."
So ok, I was lied to, misrepresented, scammed, overcharged and used. And that was just by Arthur R. Seaborne. Enrique & Sheri happily proceeded to lie cheat and steal any chance I had of keeping this home by falsifying just about everything on the seller disclosure statement. So here I am. The check cleared and the papers were signed. Now I owned this much less than a nightmare domicile. I never did get a key to the house so after the sellers finally moved out I broke in, and subsequently broke down in heaving, sobbing tears. The walls were covered in black mold; the appliances began falling apart immediately; the garage door opener broke the first night at 2 am and haunted me out of my stuffy nosed sleep, most of the pipes and the roof leaked like they weren’t even there to hold water. The pool I so dreamed of floating in was costing me $200.00 a month to keep water in it and to put the icing on the cake so to say the toilets broke within the first month…both of them!
Yes, I tried to call Southeast Capital and I tried to call the sellers to utilize the 1 year warranty on the roof that they must have felt like generous benefactors to have given me but as my luck would have it, you just cannot force someone to respond to nor be responsible for their actions so I just kept on trying. I sent a copy of all my paperwork to anyone at all connected with housing in the fine state of Florida.
Then it was high summer and a knock came to my front door, I opened it to find an official from the Sarasota Sheriffs office holding an envelope in his hand singing, “you’ve been served.” Turns out that the second mortgage promised at closing for 52K, (the cash given to the sellers for a down payment on their BRAND NEW HOME that was supposed to be with Regions Bank was never applied for and Southeast Capital Advisors LLC, Verne Phillips and Arthur R. Seaborne proceeded to forge my name on a balloon note for 62K and they were now foreclosing on my home for it. The blinding tears came once again. I tried to find a lawyer but at this point had very little money as I myself took a HELOC from Bank of America for 19K to try to clean up the house and get some windows in it so I could live there. An acquaintance referred me to an attorney the attorney asked for 2K retainer then proceeded to miss every court date and pull the just don’t answer her call ploy and it obviously worked for him as well.
And so by this time the State Office of Financial Regulations had gotten a hold of those packages and complaint I sent out and proceeded to have a Detective phone me almost daily to harass information from me. This phone calling and upsetting me daily caused my new employer to tell me this, “you just have too much on your plate, we have to let you go, it isn’t working out. NOW I really have a problem, NO INCOME and MUCH OUTGO. I made a deal with World Savings on the first loan that was a Negative Amortization loan unbeknownst to me until I noticed my principal go UP after every subsequent payment. They told me they would not refinance just 6 months into the loan because the house was not worth what I owed but, being the gracious lenders they are they will give me one year at a fixed 6.5% APR for the low rate of $300.00 and an additional year of PRE-PAYMENT PENALTY… WOW! I am a lucky girl.
So, being somewhat resourceful, (somewhat being the operative word), I did some contract writing jobs to keep up with this until I found another job and found another lawyer but he would only handle the non-disclosure issues with the sellers and wouldn’t touch the mortgage end. And for another 2K retainer I have that lawsuit still in the Sarasota court system while the sellers lawyer, proceeds to draw-out for every penny it is worth for more than a year now. Through fall and winter, the paint continued to peel and the driveway concrete *****ed and the house flooded with every rain, (I am now the owner of many towels though few are ever dry) and the insulation in the attic congregates in toxic, black tufts.
The *****s in the foundation (about which I could do nothing) quickly led to *****s in the cement wall and granite stone path that abut our garage. I decided, after a brief consultation with a contractor, that we could do nothing about these for the time being, short of prayer. I refuse to go into detail about the water damage. It's already been a long day.
So here I am, the government ignoring the mess that they created, the mortgage broker, Arthur R. Seaborne and Vern Phillips and Southeast Capital Advisors LLC, well the Agent with the FBI tells me that with my help they will freeze all his assets, prosecute them and put them in jail for a long time and liquidate those frozen assets to pay back the deep pocketed investors and lenders that they cheated. And me, well he says, “that is not our problem and I can’t help you there missy, Good Luck though”.
So after calling every real estate and predatory lending attorney from here to timbucktu, I am sitting on LoanSafes doorstep with more bright eyed hope than a bride on her honeymoon, because hope is all I have left.
Last edited by Cat Damiano; 05-29-2008 at 05:52 PM.
Reason: removed personal names and addresses
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