John & Carol Church
15926 Woodcote Drive
Huntersville, NC 28078
August 20, 2007
Mr. Robert H. Schottenstein
Chairman of the Board
M/I Schottenstein Homes, Inc
Suite 500 3 Easton Oval
Columbus OH 43219
Dear Mr. Schottenstein:
On April 24, 2007, I met with Lori Olivier of MI Homes and signed an agreement for sale of a house located in Concord, NC in the Christenbury Division on Lot CBY-676; the Marseille plan.
On 7/2/07 we meet with Lorie Olivier and Tony Carroll to review issues with the house. Problems ranged from stones being uneven on the front of the house, and window hung at an angle, kitchen cabinet color uneven with the wrong knobs, to the wrong color granite in the kitchen. Most of these changes were corrected but I must say it was not easy getting MI to even agree we had a problem. Lorie Olivier thought we were liars when we said the granite was not the color we chose and the carpet color was not what we selected and even went so far as to tell us it was the same. The granite company agreed to change the counter tops but we decided just to leave them as they were because the options we were given weren’t any better. The sample from the design center was different from the granite that was actually put in the house as evidenced when Lorie brought the sample and placed in on the granite that was installed..
The above issues are just a preliminary to our real problem. Before I signed the agreement for sale of this house and lot, we asked Lorie Olivier about a contingency clause and she said MI did not do this. We asked if we could not sell our house what would happen. She told me not to worry; MI would work with us and build us another house if ours did not sell. We could use the $7500 we put down on another house. We were told this repeatedly each time we asked the same question. When I signed the contract, I was told I had to sign the “Waiver of Continguecy” form that would show that Lorie had told us MI didn’t sell on contingency. Later, we were told we signed a Waiver of Contingency form releasing our rights to a contingency sale.
Pam Yobo has repeatedly contacted us to close on this house even those there were still issues not resolved. Each time was to suit MI and the closing attorney with no regard to our schedules or situation. We did not respond to Pam Yobo because we were not ready to close. Often times, we’d just receive a letter in the mail saying our closing date had been set.
Our original closing date was to be July 13, 2007 and was subsequently extended to July 27, 2007 at the direction of Mr. Todd Hartsell. However, we were unable to arrange the financing we needed for a mortgage on the MI Home and a second mortgage to make the down payment. MI extended the closing date until August 31, 2007. This was to allow us a chance to sell our house and arrange financing. Since we have not sold our house I called Lorie Olivier to ask about the promise made to us so often that MI would build us another house if we could not sell ours. Lorie said we make too much money and could afford to make two payments and this promise would not be allowed in our case and was null and void. We asked Chris Anthony of Allen Tate Realtors to speak to Vince Funari and Chris advised us Mr. Funari would not discuss our situation with him. He called Lori and was told the same thing about our being able to make two house payments. We authorized Chris Anthony to call on our behalf because he knows real estate law better than we. I’m not sure how it was derived that we could afford two house payments and a payment on a second mortgage also but it is untrue. We are not in a financial position to make multiple payments and thus the problem arranging financing. When the statements about building us another house were made, nothing was ever mentioned about our financial situation.
We decided not to get a buyer’s agent when we choose to purchase this house from MI. We felt that since David Simonini and Ray Killian were involved with this development we would not have any problems dealing with the sales representative representing any of the builders in this area. We based the offer to purchase this house solely on the reputation of Simonini and their good name. However, from the beginning we were duped. We were told we had to put down $7,500 good faith earnest money when we made the offer when I’m told by a real estate attorney that the usual and customary down payment required is 1% of the purchase price or if you make a low-ball offer, perhaps 2%. I would appreciate this money being refunded to us at this time. We were told we had until August 31, and yet we received an email letter last Friday, August 17, 2007 saying we were in default. Pam Yobo tried to arrange a closing with the attorney for MI before August 31, because the attorney was going to be out of town.
Never in my years of buying a home have I been pushed and prodded to close on a house that was not complete and treated so poorly by the representatives of a builder. We liked this house very much and looked forward to living in Christenbury. I hope we can solve this to both our satisfactions. My wife, Carol, and I would be happy to discuss further. I would hope builders would pride themselves with building a good house, standing behind his word and doing the right thing. Surely, reputation is everything when it comes to homebuilders.
Before we take any further actions we are requesting our $7500 be returned to us.
Sincerely,
John W. Church
Carol H. Church
cc: Chris Anthony, Allen Tate Realtors
Mr. Todd Hartsell, MI Homes
Mr. Vince Funari, MI Homes
We sent this letter and have met with MI several times, they refused to give us our money back. Hope this does not happen again to anyone.
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