Complaint Review: Clayton Homes and Manager Angela Kent - Candler North Carolina

On January 27, 2008, my husband and I signed a contract with Century 21 to purchase two parcels of land in Hidden Meadow Estates in Candler, NC. We put in the purchase offer with the intention of putting a doublewide mobile home on the land.

After having had a bad experience with New Generation Homes in February 2008, we opted to go to Clayton Homes in March to purchase a home. We took along with us our own financing - so no further financing was needed. We were desperate to get out of the rental house we lived in, and did everything in our power to get a home financed, with less than desirable credit, to get our children out of the bad health conditions of the rental house.

We were given several bids for the grading of the land. We chose to obtain our own grader - because we had to keep the total financing down in order to close on the land/home package without having to come up with down payment money. We were sent an email on March 24, 2008 by Tonya Goldsmith (Sales at CMH), inquiring about our ability to obtain a grader. On March 25, 2008, we signed a contract with the grader to do the work on the property. We also borrowed $2800.00 to give to the grading company as a deposit to begin work.

My husband and I obtained all permits, as well as had the perk test done. We had the two parcels combined into one parcel, as asked to have done. We did all the legwork to have our land/home package come to fruition. We took countless hours off work to get everything done we were asked to do by Clayton Homes.

We were told by Angelia Kent, Manager at Clayton Homes, that we had to let their company close on the land and take control of everything until the final closing on both land and home. We were assured several times that we would not lose our land - and that it was procedure that they oversee all the work - grading, well, septic, etc., until the home/land package closing. On May 14, 2008, Clayton Homes (CMH) closed on the parcel of land. We were told that we were not to show up at the closing of the land.

Shortly after the closing of the land, I received a phone call from Tonya Goldsmith stating that she would contact our grader and inform them that they could begin work on the grading of the land. My family and I, as well as a couple of friends, were at the land early on a Saturday morning to watch the first tree be cut down. We were there at the parcel of land at least once every day that the graders were doing work on the land, taking pictures of progress that was being completed. To my knowledge, Angelia Kent did not show up at the land once while the work was being done.

On or about March 27, 2008, (before the grader had completed the work) my husband, Angelia Kent, and the owner of the grading company had a meeting - at that meeting, Ms. Kent proceeded to yell at my grader, telling him that he had ruined the land, and that it was not useable and had to be repaired. Ms. Kent told my grader that he was fired and that he was to remove his equipment from the piece of land, and that she would take out trespassing charges on him if he were to be caught on the land again. Ms. Kent also stated to my husband that everything had to be to spec and that the drawing done by the Buncombe County had to be exact.

When my husband told Ms. Kent that we liked the job that the grader had done on the land, he was told that it did not matter what we liked because it was not our land, it was her land, and it had to be done the way she wanted. My husband was then told by Ms. Kent that she would get one of her graders out to the land to see how much it would cost to repair the damage that had been done.

On May 26th, my husband and I met with the people we purchased the parcel from - also contractors and graders. The contractor and land owner that has been responsible for most of the grading and development of all the parcels in the subdivision. Mr. Roberson walked the land with us, and pointed out only a few things that needed to be finished. (As earlier stated - our grader was fired by Ms. Kent and was not allowed to finish the job.) Mr. Roberson also pointed out that the pad for the home was virgin soil, as there were deep roots sticking up everywhere. (Ms. Kent kept insisting that the pad was not virgin soil.)

When I told Ms. Kent the comments that Mr. Roberson had given us, I was told that he didn't know what he was doing and that Clayton Homes had had to fix everything that he had done on their sites.

On May 28th, my husband and I met with a gentleman with Buncombe County, who had done our perk test months earlier. He walked the land with us, and told us that the job that had been done looked great. He was surprised that the grader had done so much work for so little money, and also surprised that Ms. Kent had said that he ruined the land. He also told us that the grader could not have graded the land exactly to his drawing, due to the trees and an electrical box that was placed in an awkward spot.

When I told Ms. Kent the comments that the gentleman from the county had given us, I was told she did not give a d**n what he said -- it had to be the way she wanted it.

In an email from Ms. Kent on May 29, 2008, we were told that it would cost approximately $10,000 to fix the land - but that she had contacted my lender, and that it would only run us about $75.00 more per month on our mortgage.

We asked NUMEROUS times that Ms. Kent give us copies or statements from the person/persons that said that the land would not meet code - we have never received anything from Ms. Kent, nor from CMH. We also did not receive a copy of the document that we were forced to sign to give CMH the right to take control of the land and oversee the work until completed.

In the beginning of the loan process, we specifically told our mortgage person that we MUST stay below our target of less than $1000 per month in mortgage payments in order to feel comfortable.

We feel that there was a Breach Of Contract by Angelia Kent and by Clayton Homes. We also feel that our land was stolen out from under us. We bought a piece of land with a worth of $49,600 for the price of $25,000. We were able to keep grading costs with our own grader below $10,000 - when the least obtainable by Clayton Homes was around $16,000 - $18,000. We did not go for a high-end home from Clayton Homes - we chose a lot model, and we did not have to use Clayton Homes' finance company, as we came pre-approved with our own financing.

We're hoping that no one else has to ever go through what we did - Angela Kent and CMH shattered our lives.

Diana

Candler, North Carolina

U.S.A.