Posted on 11/03/2009 3:50:31 PM PST by Morgana
WHEELWRIGHT – A Wheelwright man has filed a lawsuit against Bank of America, alleging agents working for the bank repossessed his home by mistake and refuse to pay for any damages other than the replacement of locks.
According to court documents, Christopher Hamby arrived home on Oct. 5 to find the locks on his doors changed and physical damage to his property from winterization chemicals placed in the plumbing and various lines cut at the residence.
The lawsuit also names A1 Preservation and Richard Spurgeon, who owns the business, as agents acting for Bank of America who wrongfully participated in the actions that Hamby alleges took place.
Hamby said that he does not have a relationship with Bank of America, including any type of mortgage agreement, and that the defendants had no legal right to come on his property. Hamby also said that he has had conversations with various agents for the defendants in the case and they acknowledged they wrongfully entered and damaged his property due to the mistaken belief that his property was in default and subject to repossession. The defendants allegedly offered to pay for a locksmith to repair the damage to the doors but have denied any other form of compensation.
Because of the alleged damage, Hamby said that he has been unable to rent or sell the property.
Hamby is asking for compensatory damages that include punitive damages for the “reckless disregard” of the defendants, a trial by jury and any and all other relief deemed appropriate. Hamby is represented by attorney Ned Pillersdorf.
(Excerpt) Read more at floydcountytimes.com ...
Let us go a “repose†the BoA CEO house, by mistake, of course. Wonder if he would like it.
I was watching the Hitchcock movie “Shadow Of A Doubt” the other day (Teresa Wright, Joseph Cotten) and for the first time (I’ve seen the movie several times) noticed a Bank Of America building in the background of a scene. I forget what town in California it was filmed in.
Breaking and entering. Criminal trespassing. Vandalism.
Santa Rosa, California
Thanks, I kept thinking something “rose” but I knew I’d get it wrong :)
Correct, this is a criminal case AND he should sue.
Santa Rosa...
May be a mortgage holder of the company BOA took over (wells fargo?).
Thanks :) To think that was considered a small town even then. I’m not familiar with it, what would it be considered now?
Wow! What was the outcome of that?
Did he keep the house? ;)
it's not small... but i come from San Jose, so population-wise, it seems somewhat small to me... less than 200,000... however, when the movie was made, it had a population of just 12,000 plus... so, it's much bigger now!
Hmmmmm! Sir, how much of the government’s Tarp money do you want? Will tomorrow be okay?
Hmmmmm! Sir, how much of the government’s Tarp money do you want? Will tomorrow be okay?
Try it at my house when I’m out and about, and we’ll see if the SS109’s perform as designed.
Then we’ll sue.
The Countrywide Business that Geitner/Paulson forced on BOA is a total mess. Their computer system has a high rate of error not only of what house a mortgage is on, but of the amount paid, the amount owed, whether taxes and insurance are in escrow, etc. When money is paid, they make errors in whether to apply it to p, i, t or i.
It should be noted that BOA did not want that mess.
But big brother made them an offer they couldn’t refuse ... iterally. “Do it or we’ll destroy you.”
Not only are homeowners the losers; the share holders and retirement accounts of many were also destroyed.
As LBJ said in the 60s, we have to destroy the village to save it. That is now the modus operandi of Uncle Sam.
Probably USBANK had to be satisfied taking back the piece of sh!t house without any copper wiring or plumbing that they gave Donald Duck and Minnie Mouse a half million dollars of their deositers money to buy. But no doubt they dumped it on the municipality to deal with. USBANK should stick with what they do best, stealing from their safety deposit boxes. USBANK just made a telemarketing call here within the last 3 hours, Honest they really did.
We had a CW mortgage that BofA took over. We have had nothing but problems since then.
BofA S#CKS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
What is this business about cutting pipes and putting in “winterization chemicals”??!! I’ve never heard of such a thing being done anywhere.
Dang, BAC, not USBANK!
Read first post later, read first post later,read first post later.
never mind.
B of A should just settle this by apologizing and giving the man a couple of the foreclosed houses as a parting gift. They’re never going to sell them anyway.
the winterization prevents pipes from freezing and breaking in a house with no heat......the lines for telephone, electric and cable were most likely cut.
the LEAST they should have done was to pay for the lines to be put back up and remove all the winterization, fix the locks and doors....and beg the guy not to sue them.
That’s OK.
I went out to the back 40 on the ranch to discover an oil well being drilled on my property — and yes, I own the minerals.
They chased me off my own land when I told them they were in the wrong place.
Wrote them a letter; they ignored it.
After a lawsuit (where they payed my lawyers), I not only got the well, but my attorney fees. Normally, they deduct the cost of the well from proceeds, but since they were “willful tresspassers” they didn’t get that.
It’s about 40bbl/day now for 2 years.
Guess they think it’s cheaper to lose in court.
It’s essentially mandatory in cold climates. If you don’t do it, the pipes break and the house floods, destroying plaster/drywall and wood floors. Then the mold sets in. The house becomes a major rehab or even a tear-down.
Toilet tanks, toilet bowls, and traps get anti-freeze so they don’t crack. They probably drained the water lines, possibly by cutting them in several places in the basement, if it has one.
The companies that do this are hard on the houses I’ve seen. They will do whatever takes the least time and costs the least. Get in, get out, fast. They don’t care about damage.
The phone and electrical lines don’t need to be cut since the companies just cancel service.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0036342/
gives:
904 McDonald Avenue, Santa Rosa, California, USA
which must be the neice’s home. The film opens out east, don’t know of any other locations.
That really seems extreme, especially if the intent is to resell the property at some point. It must cost a small fortune to go in and un-winterize once all of that has been done. After sitting long enough you’d probably have to gut the house before it could be habitable again.
When we moved from Virginia to NC after I retired from the Navy, my insurance carrier required me to keep the utilities on in order to keep my homeowner’s policy in force.
In places where there is reasonable expectation of a quick sale probably isn’t done. But in the current market or in bad neighborhoods I’ve seen it done a good bit up north.
With your private homeowners ins the house usually is dropped by a carrier after 30 days of vacancy or more specifically if they find out it was vacant and a claim is made.
I’ve seen cases with low end rentals where the tenant didn’t pay utilities and the pipes had to be drained before they froze by the landlord.
People buying foreclosed places realize the plumbing is going to need repair, assuming someone hasn’t broken in and stolen some or all of it (by tearing the wall open). But if it’s still there, all you have to do is repair a few pipes that are out in the open and flush the anti-freeze out.
The damage to doors and locks isn’t too expensive if you are a DIY-er. If the house was in decent shape before, it should still be pretty good. If they boarded the place up, they usually damage the trim and siding around the door.
Cold temps can crack plaster, but they are usually just cosmetic repairs. Speaking from experience, the huge discount on a foreclosed place is usually well worth any repairs you need to make on the house.
They better return it in the same condition they found it or they owe some money! I couldn’t imagine coming home to that, I’d consider it just the same as someone breaking in.
That’s some excellent perspective, and the basis of a great business...
Thanx!
The problem is that after you fix it up, it may take a while to sell.
We bought ours for our own home, so it was a steal. Could we sell it for what it is worth? It might take a while since there are a lot of low priced houses for sale. It depends upon the area the house is in.
Certainly it depends on the locations and the market, but I’m betting in 2-3 years we will be on the other side of a lot of this nonsense, and once we begin to sort out what’s left after the collapse in 2010 and into 2011, renovating houses will be profitable again somewhere.
The immediate task is to get through the next 18 months to 2 years...
Someone who has a lot of cash and credit could stock up on cheap but good houses now and make a nice profit down the line.
You’d have to fix them up a bit and rent them out so the taxes didn’t kill off your future profit.
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