On September 13, 2007, we were sent an email from our Realtor that read:
"Annette & Mike,
Heard back from the surveyor last evening and he couldn't find the recording information for the proposed easement. I have contacted the agent and they are working on clearing this up. It needs to be recorded to assure that the drainage easement has been done as proposed! Anyway, will keep you posted.....Also, the agent does have the offer to the seller's and hasn't heard back as of about 9:30 this morning....Thanks, Deb"
Attached to her email was a copy of a 1998 survey of our property showing a dotted line referencing a proposed easement going around the eastern side of the house. No copy of the 2003 survey was provided at that time. Our realtor assured us that this was simply a matter of making sure that an easement had been recorded with the county; and that "they (sellers' Realtors) are working on clearing this up."
We trusted our Realtor's words and professional ethics, and relied on the three (3) Realtors to do their job. We had no reason to lack confidence in our Realtor to properly represent our interests; and, in fact, were subsequently emailed a document represented as being a notarized proof of recording of the "Release of Easement." We never heard anything more about the matter. Funding could not be approved, and escrow could not close without the matter being handled properly, right?
Little did we know that our trust was being violated through corroborated "behind the scenes" actions of our Realtor and the seller's Realtors. The three (3) Realtors were actively engaging in real estate fraud, tampering with our mortgage lending process.
As I explained in a previous blog; the signature on the "Release of Easement" document that was provided by the seller's Realtors, to our Realtor and on to our mortgage lender during escrow, was signed by the County Flood Plain Administrator. This gentleman testified under oath during our first civil trial to the following:
Getting back to the story of the surveyor. Because of the mandated flood insurance we were under pressure to obtain a valid Elevation Certificate. Part 9 of our blog explains this in greater detail. As a result of our need for an Elevation Certificate; we took the advice of the County Flood Plain Administrator and attempted to track down the original engineer, who was still working locally. Interestingly, we were unsuccessful in reaching the engineer with phone calls and email; but we were able to locate the original surveyor of the property.
We trusted our Realtor's words and professional ethics, and relied on the three (3) Realtors to do their job. We had no reason to lack confidence in our Realtor to properly represent our interests; and, in fact, were subsequently emailed a document represented as being a notarized proof of recording of the "Release of Easement." We never heard anything more about the matter. Funding could not be approved, and escrow could not close without the matter being handled properly, right?
Little did we know that our trust was being violated through corroborated "behind the scenes" actions of our Realtor and the seller's Realtors. The three (3) Realtors were actively engaging in real estate fraud, tampering with our mortgage lending process.
As I explained in a previous blog; the signature on the "Release of Easement" document that was provided by the seller's Realtors, to our Realtor and on to our mortgage lender during escrow, was signed by the County Flood Plain Administrator. This gentleman testified under oath during our first civil trial to the following:
- The "Release of Easement" was not relevant to our property.
- The document had never been recorded by the county.
- The house still sits on a designated drainage easement (unknown tributary).
- His office would not be involved in a release of easement on a residential lot such as ours.
Getting back to the story of the surveyor. Because of the mandated flood insurance we were under pressure to obtain a valid Elevation Certificate. Part 9 of our blog explains this in greater detail. As a result of our need for an Elevation Certificate; we took the advice of the County Flood Plain Administrator and attempted to track down the original engineer, who was still working locally. Interestingly, we were unsuccessful in reaching the engineer with phone calls and email; but we were able to locate the original surveyor of the property.
In October 2008, we called the surveying company and spoke with the original surveyor of the property. Again, we were merely trying to obtain a valid certificate for insurance; being that the only available certificate was the one received back in May 2008 from the County Flood Plain Administrator. As stated earlier, the certificate was rejected by our insurance company because it had erroneous elevations and was incomplete.
During our initial telephone conversation with the surveyor, he asked if he could go look at his files and call us back. Within just a short period of time the surveyor called us back and eventually spoke to both Michael and me. He stated that he remembered the property and his conversation with our Realtor during escrow. When asked how it was he could recall a conversation with a Realtor just over a year ago, he referred to a note on the document referencing the name "Deb":
“I remember this because Deb is a long time friend of mine. We grew up together. She married my best friend.”
He then went on to state . . .
"I warned Deb about this property. I told her Deb you got two strikes against you with this house…it’s in flood zone A and it’s got a drainage easement running right through the house.”
In our realtor’s email to us on September 13, 2007, she never mentioned any of the concerns expressed to her on the phone by the surveyor; and more specifically the "two strikes" comment. She also failed to mention that he was an old friend of hers. She also never mentioned anything about the property being in a flood zone, or that the house was sitting in a drainage easement which, in this case meant, an "unknown tributary".
At the end of our conversation the surveyor invited us to meet with him at his office and review his file on the property. During our visit he provided us with documents he had sent to our Realtor which included both the 1998 and the 2003 surveys. Our Realtor never provided us with the 2003 survey provided to her by the surveyor. She only provided us with a copy of the 1998 attached to her email stating:
At the end of our conversation the surveyor invited us to meet with him at his office and review his file on the property. During our visit he provided us with documents he had sent to our Realtor which included both the 1998 and the 2003 surveys. Our Realtor never provided us with the 2003 survey provided to her by the surveyor. She only provided us with a copy of the 1998 attached to her email stating:
"I have contacted the agent and they are working on clearing this up."
The day after we met with the surveyor we went back to his office where we were provided a letter signed by him confirming the fact that he had indeed related serious concerns to our Realtor about this property, warning her that it had two strikes.
At our meeting with the surveyor we told him that, during escrow three (3) flood determinations had been completed on the property. The first one placing the property in Flood Hazard Zone A, and all subsequent flood determinations pulling the property out of Flood Hazard Zone A, and re-designating it as situated in Zone X. We also showed him that the Title company had, as a result of these other determinations, generated a Flood Certification noting that the property was "NOT WITHIN ANY" flood hazard zone.
The surveyor responded shaking his head:
“No, you can’t get a flood certification on that property. It’s got problems. It’s in a flood zone and has a designated drainage running right through the house.”
We then showed the surveyor and his associate the flood determination documents and certification, to which he grinned and replied:
“You might be able to get it out of the flood zone on paper…at least until the next storm hits.”
The end result of this story is that the surveyor and his associate communicated with the original engineer on this property and informed us that they could not help us with an elevation certificate because neither they nor the engineer (who had filled out the initial bogus Elevation Certificate) had the necessary data.
Furthermore, the surveyor, his associate, a third surveyor and two engineering firms; all informed us that there were no benchmarks (reference points) within the area from which they could pull data in order to determine the BFE (Base Flood Elevations) on our property. In order to determine the BFE they would need to go to the nearest benchmarks which were a significant distance away; and this alone was going to cost us thousands of dollars. Moreover, that would just be the beginning since we would then need the property itself resurveyed to determine the variable between the finished floor and the acquired BFE.
Bottom line is this; the surveyor relayed to the Realtor(s) that the house was indeed still located in the drainage easement and the flood zone...and had two (2) strikes against it. Yet despite this fact the Realtors went ahead and tampered with the flood zone designation and fraudulently submitted an invalid and unrecorded document that had nothing to do with this property to the mortgage company in order to obtain loan approval.
The more information that surfaced in this case the more we realized how vile and sinister were the acts of licensed professionals. There's a lot at stake here with the potential consequences; one of those mentioned by our attorney as being potential criminal charges.
We feel violated. On top of the fraud perpetrated against us we have also endured many months of numerous drive-bys; some pulling up and stopping at our front gate for an unusual extended period of time only to back out again and drive slowly away. One morning I went out and found my horse's winter blanket was clipped to the mesh fencing. He had been standing there for some time stressing, unable to move or get to water. There are other things that I won't get into. We don't want to have a mindset of paranoia; but what we do know is that there is a lot at stake with some powerful people in the county. Top ranking Realtor / Brokers who face losing their licenses (livelihood/ income), potential criminal charges and public humiliation.
