Complaint Review: Ron Russell - Rent To Own Homes

In March of this year my husband and I went into contract with Summer Hills Real Estate for their rent-to-own program.

Summer Hills real estate agreed to begin the process of looking for a home for us in the understanding that we would put 2900.00 down and rent the home back from them at an inflated rate for 2 years. After viewing two homes we decided on a house for the company to purchase for us while we repaired our credit. Due to my husbands job loss about two years ago we were forced to file bankruptcy and are in the process of having our home foreclosed upon. Because of this the promise of the ability to stay home owners and buy in at the great rates that homes are currently selling at it seemed like a perfect situation....
However after about two months of constant correspondence with the company I was told that I did not need to email so often and that they would be in touch with me if there was any change to the status of our home purchase process. One month later I emailed again asking about the status and told things were in progress and they would be in touch.
1 month later I had emailed my agent Earl Neff, he didn't respond, 1 week after that I had a bad feeling (I am not an idiot I had a bad feeling from the start but had truly hoped this situation would work for us.) So I contacted the agent who was selling the house to summer hills that I would be renting from them. She informed me that summer hills real estate was unable to complete the loan because they did not have funds and so after the contract expired she put the home back on the market three weeks earlier and was already in contract with a new buyer.

I brought my friend Michael with me and we went to summer hills office to find out what was happening. I was then told that I could request my money back from the agent he just needed it in writing and would get me paid within 10 business days. I told him that I would first like him to contact the sellers agent and find out what was happening with the house. He hesitated and then called. He said he was surprised that they were no longer in contract on the property he told the sellers agent that it was not her place, (I assume in regards to telling me that the house was already in contract with a new purchaser. )

I wrote a written request for my funds to be returned to me within 10 business days as agreed upon. I went into the office on 6/10/10 exactly 10 business days later and contacted Ron Russell he told me that he did not have the funds for me, and that I would have to wait an additional 30 days he gave this to me in a form letter which he went to his computer and printed. When I told him he was in breach of contract he said that I was at the top of his list to have funds returned back to me but now I was at the bottom. I have since contacted an attorney and paid 500.00 for him to tell Ron Russell (Summer Hills Real Estate) to return my money to me.

I originally heard about this program over the radio, but have been told that it was also presented on TV as well. At this point I am not sure what to do, Summer Hills Real Estate has 2900.00 of my money and they are continuing to scam other people as well.

The company agent sent a form letter out to about twenty people the Monday following the 10th business day after my original request for funds 06/10/10. I emailed everyone on that list and all but one of the 8 people that responded to me told me that he had done the same or something similar to them and they did not know where to turn.

Was I naive to trust Ron perhaps? I did look at this website before ever going into contract with Summer Hills  and when I confronted Ron about the one and only entry at that time, he rather indignantly stated that  anyone could just go on the internet and file a complaint, but that that person (Jennifer) wasn't even willing to supply her name. I have since found out (by filing this complaint) that ripoffreport.com asks you to only Enter your first name and city and state.

I have hired an attorney and have filed complaints with the FTC / DRE / BBB as well as contacted a few news agencies.

Desired resolution: I would like my funds to be returned to me, however more importantly I would like to prevent this from happening to anyone else .