Complaint Review: Kenneth A. Schneider - KAS Funding & American Bridge Funding - New York New York

KAS provided us signed LOI/Term sheet thru his brokers 2-25-10; we were told to talk to our broker (Inbee- David Prouhet) and our broker would talk to KAS' broker (Ken Martin) who would talk to KAS. Raised issue of RIPOFF reports and KAS reported that borrowers didn't provide accurate info and KAS refunded commitment fee when KAS didn't provide loan. We secured an addendum signed by KAS that made the refund of commitment fee clear if we complied with our obligations and KAS did not offer loan in amount requested.

We provided loan application fee of $7,500 which was to be for due diligence expenses, appraisals, title searches,etc.  In addition we provided loan commitment fee of $10,500 which was to cover any additional expenses but it was to be refunded if KAS did not comply with loan commitment agreement assuming we complied with our obligations.  We provided info requested, e.g. survey, appraisal, title search, etc. Were told repeatedly that KAS was going to make site visit to determine value of site and commitment letter/date expired without a visit or any feedback or any valuation on Lender's part. We were told that KAS would visit first week in April and he finally visited site 4/13 (commitment letter expired 4/2). Claimed that he didn't receive our appraisal which was sent to his broker to be forwarded to him as was all the other materials, e.g. title search, surveys, etc.  He then asked for additional comps which we provided as best we could.

Finally met KAS 5-4 and we had presentations prepared to review with him, but he told us that they were irrelevant and that the only thing that mattered was valuation of property which would be sole collateral for loan. He further told us that there was nothing further that we should provide that was needed. (both brokers can corroborate this). He then told us that his usual lender didn't believe the appraisal we supplied nor did they have any interest in providing loan (appraisal was for $3.4M and we were only pursuing loan of $1.05M). He further told us he was looking for another lender.

We have been stonewalled since, i.e. won't answer phone calls, etc. and I requested refund of $10,500 per agreement May 19, 2010. KAS assistant responded May 21 that we had not provided certain required docs prior to or at closing per agreement. KAS never provided any valuation or appraisal to counter ours and he further told us that nothing was required when we finally met him April 13 (11 days after commitment letter expired). Obviously this is just an excuse not to refund our commitment fee. We sent follow up letters to him May 28 and June 17, 2010 refuting relevance of request for docs and again requesting refund and have not gotten any response. His broker, Ken Martin, has also gone silent. In fact, the only expense he had was a plane ticket to Branson to visit the site- he paid for nothing else so he really pocketed the app fee of $7,500 less air ticket plus the $10,500 commitment fee.