Clayton Homes / Vanderbilt Mortgage Rip off first time homebuyers Maryville Tennessee

My husband and I purchased our first home Jan 2000 through the Rockwall division of Clayton Homes. We had been trying to qualify for a house loan, but being young, newly married, and rather poor in finances all we could afford was a mobile home. We felt like the company had our best interests in mind. So wrong!! How many lies were we told? I do not know. I do know they told us we could afford a repo and set us up to look at it in another location. (it was on another Clayton lot). We went, we thought it was okay, and after being assured the brand was very sturdy and nice, etc we decided to get it.

We should have known from the start there would be trouble! When we viewed the house it was in a state of *refurbing*. After we went back to verify the progress we saw supposedly new carpet and lino throughout. When we inquired about it we were told that the other was *old* and stained so they took it out. I have my doubts now. We liked the previous carpet as it was a beige berber. They replaced it with some burgandy cheap pile, which I have to agree looked new. I wonder if they used the good carpet for another house and gave us cheaper versions. Probably never know on that account. We looked through the house which was still in a state of repair and decided we couldn't get anything else so we'd but it.

Back at out regular location we looked over the papers. We would be charged $25,000 for this 1988 repo singlewide and was assured it was a steal!! Ahh...how dumb we were! We were even given decks for each door and new a/c unit, etc. The interest applied was a whopping 12% making our payments on the house alone $368! Everyone there told us it was the best they could do because we had little credit, low finances, etc. It seemed good to us at the time. Went through the deal, on tape (is that even normal procedure to have everything recorded by cassette tape?) and settled into our very first home.

Problems arose ever since we moved in. Toilets were not hooked up correctly so when we turned on the water they spewed everywhere, missing screens which were supposed to be replaced and never were (always some excuse for that too), had to replace our old outdated water heater once it busted, the sewer line under the house had so many problems. It kept leaking and it would smell just awful around here. Even so, when they came to repair it we thought okay, that's a natural phenomenon of settling, etc. They had repainted all the inside walls, but what they call tape and texture really is just paint laid on thick. Underneath is the vinyl covered wall plates..you know like wallpapered covered panels. I am not sure they prepared the walls right to accept the paint because even hitting it with the rubber part of the vacuum cleaner peels it off. There are cracks along the meeting panels where there should have been tape. We complained about that and they came out to paint it again (said it was due to moving the house) and they used a glossy white paint instead of flat so you can tell a huge line down each wall where the panels meet.

Several windows leak, the front door leaks into the screen door so that the jamb is deteriorating. The back door leaks. We noticed outside the hardboard panels are just rotting away. Literally rotting away. We tried caulking to no avail. Pieces just flake off and it looks like wet cardboard does. We asked a different home seller about it and he said it gets what he refers to as *cancer* because once it gets wet, it just falls apart. Now, apparently, these days they use superior grade hardboards or hardiplank and this was *old* stuff back in the day. Of course we called and wrote letters to complain about it. They sent an inspector out and he only approved replacing 4-5 panels!!! I think ALL should have been replaced because what is the point mixing new materials with old? So a crew comes out and they replace the boards, and also the whole area around the kitchen sink window because it was rotted away, and since it was so hard to get screens they offered to seal the roof instead which we agreed. You'd think after that it would be cured? Nope. I don't think they caulked the seams, just painted it. So we went and caulked again--the whole house. We must have done it about 5 times since buying it. Finally giving up on the caulking, we bought some panel board and cut strips to nail over the seams. So we caulked the seam, nailed the strip down the length and then caulked both sides of the strip. HA, it just keeps pulling away. We caulked around all the windows as well trying to eliminate drafts and water seepage. *trying!* We've replaced other places on the exterior trying to stop the corrosion, but I hate putting more money into the house when it's not worth it!

The light switches and outlets have all come out of the walls..they used some weird anchoring system. We had another leak under the house from the sewer pipe and when my husband went under to examine it he saw a piece of line needing replacement. After the job, he showed me the old piping and whoever put the insulation under the house had stapled THROUGH the hose so I guess the pressure slowly ate away until it could leak enough for us to notice it. I do not think our house is even insulated. I have seen it under the floors, but in the walls? My son busted a hole in his wall under the window--clean through the sheetrock. Upon inspection I cannot see any insulation whatsoever! No wonder our utility bills are so high each month!

Upon all of this, we had contacted Clayton and Vanderbilt and told them to just come take the house. I told them I would just let it repo. That's when they sent the crew out to replace the panels and the kitchen spot. It eats too much of our money, so we tried to just get out of it by trading it in. More woes to that! Other housing businesses said it appraised at $17-18k but they'd only offer maybe $13k. We owe $22,000 because our rate is so high we pay off more interest than principal. So, to get another house, we'd end up taking a loss on this one and having to include it on top of another. Almost everyone we talked to at various manufactured housing companies said we shouldn't have paid $25000 for the house and shouldn't have had 12% interest. Basically we are trapped. I wrote Vanderbilt and asked them to drop the house amount down to it's appraised value and they said they couldn't do it. Called Clayton and they told us the house is worth $18k because they sold it and it's a good brand (It's an Oak Creek), but when we told them they could just take the thing, they wanted no part of it. Probably because they know it's poo! While looking at other housing options we found out that a lender will not give you a loan for more than the house/property is worth. Which I assume is why we have appraisals. We wondered why, then, did we get a $25,000 house if it wasn't worth that? Aww..but then we see that our mortgage company Vanderbilt is owned by Clayton. So I guess they had some deal going on. Upon further research of how we could have paid so much, I found a site online where you can track mobile home ownership, etc. I forget the name now, but can repost when I find it again. I looked up our home serial number and the people who supposedly had it repoed bought a new house right after this one was transferred. So, that leaves us to wonder if it was in fact a repo, or if were a trade in instead and so on top of the amount we would pay off the life of the loan in interest, they made money from the sale because I am sure they gave next to nothing for a trade in!

Just a big hassle. We will never get out of this and we don't want another mobile. BUT that's all we can see to do. Take the hit and get rid of it before it falls down. As it is, it will depreciate too much for us to ever recover our losses to trade in. We tried selling it and the land (we have the land in a separate loan) and had a very intersted buyer much to our excitment. We asked Vanderbilt what we should do to transfer it all over and they said the buyers should visit the Clayton we bought our home from (in Rockwall, TX) and they could do all the paperwork there. Well, that company ruined our sale because they told the potential buyers that our home was only worth $7000! Yet they told us it was worth $18,000? So the buyer backed out because we were asking the amount we owed which at this time is $22,000. So it's back to square one for us!

I saw that there are lawsuits against Clayton. My husband is going to the sales center and asking for copies of our paperwork to see if anyone forged our signature on anything. We had a realtor friend look over the documents that we have and he found several very curious items. For one, we have a blank power of attorney form which we signed? He said we should either file with the agency regulating them or speak with a lawyer (but of course we haven't money for a lawyer!). I would be just as happy for them to come take the house. They can resell it or whatever, but as long as it is out of our names. They can even keep what we have paid on it so far, plus what we paid in downpayment money. Just take it!!! I think that's a pretty fair trade after all we have been through!

Hilary
Klondike, Texas
U.S.A.