I made a deposit on a pre-construction lot in a beach front real estate development about 80 miles west of Forteleza Brazil. A Pre-Purchase Agreement with specific terms of how title would pass, time frames for future payments etc, was negotiated. After a number of changes I requested, we were ready to proceed to due deligence on this property. David Mahoney of RealEst International (developer of this project) promised that all documentation would be to my attorney in Forteleza starting shortly after July 8, 2009. Nothing received. Again was promised the documentation would be to my attorney by July 16. Nothing received. Asked again on July 24 for the documentation, was promised it would be to my attorney on July 27.
On August 7, still no documentation had been sent to my attorney. At that point, I wrote an email clarifying that because of the inability to provide basic due deligence documentation, I had lost confidence in the process, and wanted my deposit of $2060 refunded by wire transfer. Received an immediate response from David Mahoney that he understood and would submit the transfer request for payment.
After not receiving the refund, I sent two emails in August with no response. Sent another email on Sept 10, and did receive a response with apologies from David Mahoney that payment had not been sent, but that he would take care of it. Sent another email on Sept 18 saying that the refund had still not been received. No response again until Oct 11, when again, excuses were made and a vague promise about being in the US and getting the refund taken care of. It is just more of the same.
Now $2060 is not a huge amount, but in this day and age, all dollars need to be protected. In the larger picture, if they will not refund an amount this small, do you think they are trustworthy with larger amounts? People don’t just lie or deceive selectively. Either they are trustworthy and their word means something, or they are not. In this case, I trusted RealEst and David Mahoney. Perhaps David will still send the refund, and if he does, I will report it as such at this site. A late payment is better than no payment, and shows that in the end, he followed up on his word. Will let you all know.
This post was submitted by Marlin Statema.
October 28th, 2009 at 1:50 pm
Mr Statema
I have read your statement above and I think it’s a little unfair. Let’s just walk down memory lane shall we?
We tried everything possible to accommodate your purchase. I got involved personally to try to make this deal go thru. We lowered the price after I agreed to, we structured a “Special Payment Plan” after I fought to get it approved, we amended contracts many, many times at your request. The bottom line is my finance department is reluctant to refund your deposit because of the way you conducted business, and quite frankly I agree with them especially after reading all that above. I was fighting for you as I don’t like any customer to leave with a bad taste in their mouth. Anyway let’s recap shall we..
1. You requested so many contract clause changes which went on for weeks that I have on my desk a 29 hour legal bill for all your contract changes amounting to $1740. $60 an hour from a legal assistant.
2. We spent days with you showing your hundreds of square miles of product and projects in Brazil. All of this cost time and money which we would be willing to offset had you actually been a client.
3. You changed your mind on a Golf Course Lot because you released you couldn’t afford any currently changes, this was after signing leaving us to take the rap.
4. You insisted on using a lawyer which is acting for a competitor, who is in the middle of a huge law suit with me personally.
We have to date signed over 120 contracts and not one single client has had more then 3 or 4 changes, a maximum of 2 hours work, even in 5 different languages, but you wanted us to make so may changes, as well as requesting a special payment plan no one else even has, yet your still unhappy??? So how can you sit there and say you have been ripped off? We have lost $1000’s on all this, legal bills, lost time for staff, wasted fuel, embarrassing contract cancelations. I think I should post a statement about you ripping us off !!! LOL..
Marlin, I am truly sorry you feel that way, but you used hours of time, and canceled signed deals, we are not a charity and that’s business. I wish you no personal ill feeling, good luck in the future and I hope you find what your look for in Brazil.
David Mahoney
Project Director.