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Report: #193624

Complaint Review: Caldeen Construction - Cove, And LaGrande Oregon

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  • Reported By: Cove Oregon
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  • Caldeen Construction Dear Drive Or PO Box 1382 Cove, And LaGrande, Oregon U.S.A.

Caldeen Construction, Callie Calhoun Illegal lien and very poor building practices Cove, And LaGrande Oregon

*REBUTTAL Owner of company: DEFAMATION AWARD $55,000 for these postings!

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In late 2004 our family drove to Eastern Oregon in search of some property to purchase to build our dream home. We sealed the deal and purchased 4 1/2 acres in Cove Oregon. We searched for a builder and ended up meeting with Callie and Jon Calhoun of Caldeen Construction.

We recieved a bid from them in May 2005 and worked on getting a constuction loan, we signed a contract with them in June 2005 and they promised to get started right away. In July we sold our home and moved to La Grande to supervise the construction of our home. We were ignored and ignored and finally after many phone calls we were told to meet them at the property to stake out where we wanted the house to be. I met Jon Calhoun out there and we staked out and measered and left steel stakes in the ground.

Three weeks later Callie called me and told me to meet her out at the property at 6:00 pm becasue they were going to put in our driveway. I drove out to the propery and witnessed Bronson Lumber owner Mace on a DB Cat digging out our driveway in the wrong spot. I told Callie that our house was to be on the other side of the propery and she basically told me to shut up and watch that Mace knew what he was doing. When he was finsihed I said thats not going to even get near our house and showed them where the stakes were in the ground.

OOps this was there first mistake. In late August our driveway was finally finished in the right place. We were then promised to be moved in by Christmas 2005. The building permit was issued in September and things finally got rolling. While Jon was excavating for the foundation I came to the property with my children to see what was going on. Jon lauged and said that we should drill our well where the foundation was going because there was a spring. I questioned him and said won't that be a issue and he said no it happens all the time and contined working. The foundation was installed and they started framing. I must say they were quite dedicated to be out there framing after 10 pm in the dark with their headlamps on so they could see. The walls were stood up in the next week or two and the house wrap was installed. This is their second big screw up. They installed the house wrap on the inside of the OSB sheathing. It clearly was installed wrong and I was told I didn't know what I was talking about and that anybody who installs house wrap on the outside of a house (like the instuctions and building code states) is a idot and they are uneducated.

This lady is a b***h and I have every right to say that after all she has put my family thorugh. The trusses were next. We were promoised to be able to start roofing in a few weeks and this was in September. I got our crew scheduled and figured we should give them a few extra weeks due to the delays we had already encountered with them.

Our crew was ready November 18th and our house was not. This was 6 weeks from when the trusses were due to arrive. They had a hell of a time installing the trusses and overspanned most of them. One of their employees warned us that we should have somebody look at them because they were installed wrong. I asked them on two different occasions if they were installed right why it was taking so long. They promised everythign was correct and it took so long because there were soo many pieces. They finally got the sheething and the inspection done and we began roofing while it snowed. While roofing we witnessed several occasions where we questioned their work. We had a few small meetings and eveything turned into a argument. We were dumb and she was the professional and we didn't know what we were talking about.

We contacted another contractor to have him come and inspect the structure due to all of our concerns. He was baffeled at all the screw ups on our house and could not believe all the water under the house from the spring. We had a few more heated conversations with Callie and Jon and decided we had, had enough. We fired them on December 9th and asked them to leave the propery. JOn told me he didn't have to and I ended up calling the police and they made him leave. He left with all of his equipment and some of the materials from the property. We immediatly contacted a lawyer and had him write the Calhouns a letter asking for a amount due so we could pay them fair maket value and both move on with our lives. They in tern slapped a 79,000 lien on our property. I was blown away we had put up with so much crap, we were trying to give them an easy wasy out and they wanted to start a war. I questioned the lien because I had not been given prior notice. (I had done several liens for my previous employer and I knew how the process had to work) My lawyer asked me if I had been given the "notice of right to lien" I had kept every single piece of paper I ever recieved from her and I knew that I never got one or for that matter signed one from her business.

My lawyer contacted her lawyer for a copy of this so call notice that she claims to have supplied us. 1 month later after several threats of filing suit we recieved a copy. I questioned the signature because I knew it wasn't mine like she claimed. My lawyer contacted a forensic handwriting specialist and we sent off moeny to have it analized. It came back as being fradualt and not being my signature.

Unfourtantly Callie claims I signed it and until it goes through the court systems there is nothing I can do about it and the lien remains. It is invalid and unfair. We have hired a engineer who found several structaul problems with the house.

I could go on for days about everything they have done wrong.

My only advise is to beware. THey are fradulant theives and our home will cost us over 25,000.00 to fix their mistakes not to mention the lawyer fees, engineer fees, and all the money we are out because they are crappy contractors and we have been forced to live in a travel trailer during this whole ordeal. They don't know how to build and nothing that they do will pass code if properly inspected. Please be careful and check out all contractors on the contractors board web site. Oregon is ccb.com

It will tell you some information on the past problems a contractor has faced if there have been any reports filed.

Liana
Cove, Oregon
U.S.A.

This report was posted on Ripoff Report on 05/28/2006 12:19 AM and is a permanent record located here: https://www.ripoffreport.com/reports/caldeen-construction/cove-and-lagrande-oregon-97824-97850/caldeen-construction-callie-calhoun-illegal-lien-and-very-poor-building-practices-cove-a-193624. 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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REBUTTALS & REPLIES:
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1Employee/Owner

#1 REBUTTAL Owner of company

DEFAMATION AWARD $55,000 for these postings!

AUTHOR: Callie - (U.S.A.)

POSTED: Wednesday, May 14, 2008

We won a Money Judgment Award for Defamation in the amount of $55,000 for what the Judge wrote was clearly intentional and malicious postings on this site submitted by Liana Bennett.

Mrs. Liana Bennett is in her 2nd Bankruptcy currently and trying to defeat our Judgements through this process.

We had a Sales Contract to construct a new home for $251,009. The Bennett's took out a loan in which is known as a Construction - Permanent Mortgage. Among many documents I signed during closing, I signed a Disbursement Authorization document allowing funds to be directly deposited to the Bennett's account in return for payment upon requests from myself directly to the bank, SunTrust Mortgage Inc. I signed this document because I assumed the bank had verified everything in the Loan Application submitted by Rusty and Liana Bennett and as such, they were in fact qualified for this loan. I had no idea at this time they lied on their loan application.

In Sept. of 2005 we received our first draw. We submitted the draw request to the loan administrator we were working with (SunTrust Mortgage, Inc.), the bank had the appraiser come to the site and verify the work was completed then the bank wired funds from the Commitment directly to the Bennett's Construction Account set up for this purpose. The Bennetts wrote us a check. The Draw Schedule was approved by the lender and signed by us and would ulitmately be released for the percentage of work completed at the time of the draw request. The first request was for 11% of the Contract amount $27,610.99. All was good.

Nine (9) weeks later the structure was 4 days away from framing inspection, rough-in plumbing was being finished, rough-in heating was being finished, and the electricians were just starting. We requested a draw for 26% of the Contract funds. The bank once again sent their Appraiser out who verified the work and the funds were wired out of the Commitment to the Bennett's account. The Bennetts fired us and kept all of the funds leaving us a bill for all the materials we owed to the local lumber company and all the labor, etc. They ultimately claimed we had breached our Contract.

This has went to court and the Judge ruled we CLEARLY did not breach our Contract.

After being terminated, our attorney, in turn, filed a statutory lien against our own secured interests instead of sending a Notice of Default under the Contract, Construction Loan Agreement, and Commitment. We have obtained a wonderful Malpractice Attorney to represent his mistakes. He did not sue for the entire Contract amount. He also failed to list parties involved with the Contract.

The Bennetts lied on their loan application. Liana Bennett did not have a job when we were fired yet her loan application clearly shows her to be making more money than her husband at Les Schwab. I don't believe married couples can work at the same store and there is only one store in LaGrande Oregon. Then, in their assets column they claimed to own a home worth approximately $175,000. This would have been fine had they actually owned this home on or about 8/2/05 instead of somebody else owning the home. They listed funds from the Sale of their home and listed they still owned the home. They had been turned down for a loan at Community Bank before their new improved Loan Application at SunTrust Mortgage.

I have stated this in court and will state this again. I have never had a speeding ticket let alone the accusations Mrs. Bennett brings forth above in her Report. We had built 60 houses and had two complaints total. One complaint was resolved when the C.C.B. came to the house and the other complaint (a friend of the other one that complained) was resolved through the C.C.B. in which resulted in a $300 invoice for work done by one of our subcontractors (who by the way we no longer use). That's it! Out of 60 houses that is an excellent record.

Mrs. Liana Bennett has claimed Forgery and had an illegal lien in her Report. My lien was created when SunTrust Mortgage recognized and memorialized the Contract as an Obligation creating a mortgage for it. Unfortunately, the attorney I had clearly did not understand how liens worked when he filed the statutory materialman's lien against my own secured interests.

SunTrust Mortgage had ACTUAL notice of our interest as they secured the Obligation. Liana and Rusty are now living in a home they have never paid for a stick of lumber or labor for. The $27,610.99 was for foundation, driveway, trenching, etc. It was the nine weeks that followed that my husband and I paid for all the lumber, trusses, roofing material, etc. The building dept. went one further and has allowed them to live in a house that has not been completed allowing it to be habitable along with allowing them to get inspections under the building permit issued in our name and some of our subcontractors as well. This all being against my wishes as I wrote a four page letter demanding they immediately take the permits out of our name.

Liana's Forensic proof came from an internet-trained graphologist turned handwriting expert that lied under oath claiming she had original signatures from Liana Bennett. Peggy Walla was her name. She belonged to no court-recognized affliations for handwriting experts. The fact is, is she never had any originals. Driver's licenses aren't originals. She claimed the Construction Lien itself was forged. Liana Bennett's name wasn't even on the Construction Lien. This was an Information Notice. Peggy Walla wrote she was a private investigator with a license number. The licensed actually belonged to somebody she was employed by.

In comes our expert, Jim Green who has done dozens of Federal Cases, belongs to all four of the Court recognized handwriting affliations and is or has been invloved with the Oregon State Crime Lab, Homeland Security, FBI, US Postal, CIA, etc. etc. We provided original signatures to him for review.

The Bennett's claimed forgery all over an "Information Notice" to defeat the Statutory Lien filed by our attorney.

In regards to the trusses, they were exactly how they were supposed to be installed. We didn't give them the engineering because they hadn't paid for them. So, I agreed to turn the engineering over on 12/1/06 ONLY if the inspector could be there when I did, because we knew we were right. It was testified to by their own hired engineer that he didn't have a problem with the trusses. The building inspector, David Black also testified. Had there actually been a problem we would have had to fix it before moving on to the next phase. There were no problems and that is why the roof planes. If there were any problems the roof would have waves and such.

As far as any water under their house it would only be from them washing the ductwork in which Scott's Heating refused to do finish because of and returned their money. If there was a spring under the house, a French Drain on the back side clearly wouldn't resolve it. The Bennetts had our $65,000 draw request and they waited approx. eight (8) months to have somebody install a french drain in which they testified resolved the "problem".

Another item they left out in court was the fact that the full amount of the Draw request was no longer in the account to pay us and it was right before Christmas, and Liana still hadn't found a job in Union County when according to her Loan Application she would be making approx. $3500/mo.

My husband and I had never filed a lien, sued anybody or needed an attorney until this fiasco. I can certainly see why the Banks are in trouble. We did not default under our Contract and remain as the Builder under the Obligation. There have been no further disbursements to the Bennetts and I believe the bank will have a tough time reconveying this property without us releasing our interest under their Obligation.

Sincerely,

C.C.

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