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Report: #1200884

Complaint Review: Homevest LLC - Greenville Texas

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  • Reported By: Megan Housing Fraud Victim — Greenville Texas
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  • Homevest LLC 2105 Stonewall St Greenville, Texas USA

Homevest LLC AKA Homevesting, Tamara Sexton, AKA Tamara-Sexton Washburn Housing Fraud, Breach of Contract, Crimes Against Veterans, Crimes Against the Disabled Greenville Texas

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Property address in question is (((REDACTED))), Ladonia, TX

Tamara Sextion, also known as Tamara Sexton-Washburn who operates under the limited liability company HomeVest, also known as Homevesting, has committed housing fraud as well as breach of contract against myself and two roommates. I am a graduate student, one roommate is currently an active duty service member deployed overseas, and the other is a 100% disabled veteran medically retired. 


We applied for the property sight-unseen because we were moving from Florida to Texas. We went through the entire application process and mailed our money orders long-distance to Amy Wade at Tarpley Realty, Greenville, TX. The property listed by Amy Wade, had been presented online with misleading photos that made the property look clean and in good repair which upon our arrival we discovered it was not. During the viewing, Tamara Sexton who is also the owner of the property informed us that she acknowledged she was still removing her personal items from the property and was even still removing items from the dishwasher during our walkthrough. We agreed to go ahead and rent the property, under the reasonable assumption she was still vacating her items and when done would clean it and make it ready for our occupancy just as any reasonable and ethical landlord would do. During the viewing, I specifically stated that personal safety was a significant concern and looked Tamara Sexton right in the eye and asked her had there ever been any threats to personal safety during her time of property knowledge at the property, or any events there which would in any way suggest it was not a very safe place to live. I was very adament about this point, and had been via text message prior to making the trip all the way from Florida. She said, "No nothing, in fact the house sat vacant for a long time and it was never vandalized or anything."

 

We would later learn she had looked me right in the eye and lied. Had she been honest about the property history, we never would have entered into a lease agreement for the property. As the situation happened though, her lie lured us into a false sense of security and on the good faith she would continue removing items and make the property ready for our occupancy, we unfortunately entered into a lease agreement with her on that same afternoon.

We entered into a lease agreement with Tamara Sexton and Homevest on January 3rd, 2015 with the reasonable assumption she would continue removing items from the property and clean it. The following day we made a trip to the property and saw nothing else had been removed and it also had not been cleaned. We immediately sent a text message to Tamara stating that we would be delaying our move-in date and would she please be sure to remove all personal items from the property during that time including trash, food, childrens, toys, etc. She replied that she would be at the property that following Monday at 7:15am to do so. 

She did not. 

Monday afternoon we arrived at the property to see food still in the refridgerator, personal items still present, and garbage still present at the property, in addition to it not being cleaned. So this was a breach of our written agreement that she would make the property ready for our occupany and by a certain time. We had paid Tamara for 31 days of rent in January in addition to the deposit, and it was now the 5th and her obligations had not been fulfilled. 

In addition to these issue, we went to the water company that same afternoon to turn connect service and were denied based on the report that Tamara had outstanding utility bills at the property which were overdue and we would not be allowed to have service until this matter was settled, but also that it was not our responsibility to pay her overdue bills so we should contact her and make sure she fulfilled her obligations as our landlord. We attempted to reach Tamara by phone to discuss the troubling situation at hand. She refused to answer. This unethical avoidance behavior on her behalf has continued. The most peculiar issue with the utilities was that the water company informed us that they had already disconnected service to the property, yet we were certain the water was in fact connected. I invited the meter reader employee to accompany us to the property to investigate. The water was in fact on, and he reported to me with certainty at that time he had personally shut it off and if it was on he believed it had been turned on without authorization from the City. Believing the owner, or an associate under her direction, had connected the water manually to conceal their own default on utilities, we immediately made a trip to the police that service the area located 45 minutes away from the property to file a report.

 

During our report to police about the issues we had experienced, as well as the owner refusing to answer our calls for help, we were informed by police that in fact there had been a violent crime of forced entry and burglery on the property a few weeks ago during the time Tamara Sexton owned it, and he stated to us that he knew she was aware of this crime because he had been the same officer that took the original report. That is how we learned she committed fraud by giving blatently false information about the property, taking our money, and disappearing. 

By the second day when she was unreachable and also did not return our calls, and the utility company denied us water service for the second time, we decided it was time to exercise our right to declare our lease agreement with her a voidable contract. I submitted a detailed Email Tuesday afternoon stating that all three of us were declaring her to have committe fraud and to be in breach of contract. She still did not directly respond to us. Instead she paid the water bill and had the mayor of the town call us on her behalf to inform us the water issue had been rectified and he would be willing to connect service at that time if we still wanted it. Why was she still refusing to contact us herself? We do not know. 

After continuing to contact Tarpley Realty (they also refused to answer their phone or ever respond in any way) as well as the owner Tamara Sexton multiple times expressing the fact taking our money and disappearing without providing the services promissed and leaving us homeless was a serious breach of contract, ethics and even criminal, we finally received a brief informal Email response from Tamara accepting no responsibility or explanation for any of her wrong-doing, and stating she believed the contract not to be voidable and 'yelling' at us in capital letters with exclamation points. Then she disappeared again and refused any response at all whether by phone, Email, text, or to answer her front door at any point until Thursday afternoon.

This past Thursday afternoon, after continually being avoided by Tamara and all parties affiliated with her including the Tarpley Realty representative that was listed on our lease as being our property manager: we went to the property to install our own safety locks with the intent of taking occupancy and turning utilities on in our names until which point we could successfully sue for the return of our housing funds. Having sacrificed $2400 for housing and receiving nothing in return left us in the position of having to live in a hotel with no permanent residence at all, indefinitely,which was impractical as well as unaffordable. The moment we arrived at the property, still not cleaned, we informed Tamara via text message that we were taking possession of the property and installing our own safety locks due to the recent home invasion at the property and her lack of appropriate protection, etc. She immediately replied, that while she still considered us responsible for the lease as well as rent, she had already gone and found other tenants to rent the property, had already scheduled an appointment to have the locks changed without our knowledge, and had no intention of providing us a refund, and also that we were not allowed to install our own safety locks. 

I immediately responded back to say that it was illegal to fraudulently take someone's money and enter into a lease with them, and then without acknowledging the void of that lease or a refund, re-leasing the property to another party and taking their funds for the very same rental period. She then replied, "Well my suggestion is that you move in for the rest of the month and then leave. I have good tenants willing to move in on Feb 1st." I informed her there was absolutely no way we were willing to do that, and purely for her own profit and convenience, still not knowing whether she would demonstrate enough ethics to even return our deposit at that point. No deal. After informing her we were on our way to the police to show them her texts declaring she had already planned to change the locks and re-rent the property without giving us a refund; she texted back saying she would agree to a mutual termination of the lease and refund our money quote 'sometime next week after the money orders had cleared' that we had used to pay her. I told her that was a deal. She then said she would prepare the necessary paperwork and send it to us that evening; she actually did not and sent it the next day but we did receive what she called a termination. 

However, much to our dismay, the 'termination' she had prepared was a very unethical document that held no resemblence to the agreement we had made. In fact, the document actually was a termination in name only and in reality called for us to sign an agreement stating we would acknowlege that the current lease was still in effect (opposite of what we agreed to) and made no mention of either the amount, or a timeframe, when we would receive our refund. It obligated us to many different things including leaving the property clean, paying all utility bills, which are things she had not done, and then also paying rent. It also stated that, prior to receiving our refund, we would relinquish all of our rights to the property and agree to allow the owner to show and re-rent the property effective by midnight that same day. It was not at all what had been agreed to. It was a hugely bias, not even legal, document in which we signed away literally all of our rights, assumed all of the owner's responsibility and costs, and really received nothing in return. It was so outrageous a document that we immediately took it to a local higher authority for review. 

The situation has now deteriorated to the point that multiple local agencies are involved in trying to mediate on our behalf. And no communication between us and the owner exists. Additionally, state and federal agencies have been contacted whom have informed me I should pursue the matter at a local level first and then let them know immediately if the situation is not rectified in a timely manner  and they will become further involved at that point in time, and we can pursue the crime of fraud, particularly considering a disabled veteran has been taken advantage of and left with no place to live due to the actions of Tamara Sexton. Tamara to date, has offered absolutely no apologies for what she has put us through. Nor has she demonstrated an ounce of remorse which would suggest she understands it is not acceptable behavior.

My main concern in posting this information to this site is that hopefully in publicizing her crimes; enough people will repond by contacting Tamara Sexton and Tarpley Realty and urging them to correct the attrocities against us by refunding our money without any further delay. Also, to make public what has happened to us hopefully will force this unscrupulous business person to recognize the fact it is not at all an acceptable way to treat people, and actually stop her from victimizing additional innocent people...especially veterans. If you are a person that knows this woman and has information about her criminal actions that could successfully demonstrate a pattern of unethical business dealings please contact us because as we prepare for court such information could really help in building the most solid case possible against her. Also, if you are simply a concerned citizen or a person that believes they can help to stop this woman from continuing to commit similar crimes in any sort of way, please feel free to contact me. If you are a city official, regulatory agency, lawyer, or any other type of reprensentative interested in offering services please let us know. 

Members of local and long distance media are welcomed to contact me and view any evidence I have regarding our case for the purpose of warning future potential victims how to protect themselves against similar housing scams. This particular owner is known to advertise for the purpose of attracting long distance renters to the area and utilizes many housing websites to do so including Realtor.com, Zillow, Trulia, and Hotpads.

*All evidence of the claims I have made is available in writing via Email and Text communication, anyone interested in viewing it is more than welcomed to do so unless I am advised in the future by an attorney to keep that information private because the case is moving to trial.*

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This report was posted on Ripoff Report on 01/11/2015 11:21 AM and is a permanent record located here: https://www.ripoffreport.com/reports/homevest-llc/greenville-texas-75401/homevest-llc-aka-homevesting-tamara-sexton-aka-tamara-sexton-washburn-housing-fraud-br-1200884. The posting time indicated is Arizona local time. Arizona does not observe daylight savings so the post time may be Mountain or Pacific depending on the time of year. Ripoff Report has an exclusive license to this report. It may not be copied without the written permission of Ripoff Report. READ: Foreign websites steal our content

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