Eastwood Homes Eastwood They kept our $4k deposit after important misrepresentation came to light. Told us they have to make a profit and it was our responsbility to know. Charlotte NC

We signed a contract w/Eastwood Homes on 4/9/19 to purchase a model home in Denver, NC.  It had been maintained and shown for SEVERAL months by Eastwood. A PATTERN of RED FLAGS began (unable to verify appliances after switching brands, bidding on their own auctioned furnishings, removing lighting and speakers that were supposed to remain but admitting they knew not why it happened)...but HERE I focus solely on the deal breaker.

On a visit to the property nearing our closing date, I saw that the neighbors had installed a white privacy fence nearly 2 feet closer to our house than where the Eastwood agent had EXPLICITLY shown the boundary to lay. On our FIRST visit she verbally AND physically pointed out groomed lawn and backyard landscaping as delineating edge of property - visual markers that had been MAINTAINED this way for several months, and which helped to advertise the property to anyone viewing it and also contribute to what is well-known as curb appeal.

I immediately brought this misrepresentation to their attention.  Eastwood was UNABLE to confirm whether the neighbor’s fence was on our property so they had a survey performed a few days later.  They then informed me by email the neighbor’s fence was correct and immediately asked when we would be closing!???





They were unable solve a problem they created, so we requested to get out of the contract - fully expecting a refund of our $4,000 deposit since these funds were given to them on the basis of a material misrepresentation.

We were emailed a Mutual Release form indicating Eastwood would retain $5,000 (not even the correct amount!). We did not sign it. I emailed and phoned until I got a hold of a VP, who I will refer to as Bryan D.  After a heated conversation I was TOLD by him that we were not keeping our end of the contract. In that conversation, Bryan D. said a few noteworthy things that clarified their priorities:

1)He reminded me that we were under contract, and insisted it was not possible to change the form.  I explained that the form is DESIGNED with fields that someone fills in - in this case, the wrong amount of $5,000 was entered to be retained and $0 returned to the buyer - was that wrong amount “impossible" to change as well?  His own excuse would have meant they were unable to correct any kind of mistake.

2)He also explained to me that the business had to make a profit. I advised that was a poor choice of words to use with a client who is already losing thousands of dollars at their discretion.

3) He offered to have ANOTHER property survey performed!...which only begs the question: Was the one they had JUST conducted for me not reliable enough?



If they cannot trust their own performance, why should I have to pay for their mistake?

Next we received an official letter indicating we had not kept our end of the contract.

I opened a case with NCREC which was delayed for several months by Eastwood’s attorney.  The case was ultimately handled with a bias in favor of the company, wherein they received a warning and the case was closed. NCREC even allowed them 140+ days to respond, where 14 days was supposed to be the limit. I was held to that limit though. Eastwood was allowed to completely avoid providing a rebuttal narrative of the events and merely blamed us for their mistake.

  I emailed several people at Eastwood and their Attorney “A.N.” replied with "....my client has moved on. I suggest you do as well."

In all this, the primary arguments that Eastwood has made against is that our “lack of understanding of the survey was not legal justification...to walk away” and that the pins “obviously” mark the true property line.

HOWEVER:

1) We UNDERSTOOD the boundary that was explicitly described and pointed to by Eastwood’s own employees

2) The property pin MARKERS that Eastwood's attorney said we should have used for our judgement were NOT PRESENT until the neighbor’s fence went up. They exposed their ignorance of this fact and avoided dealing with the blunder.

3) We had never SEEN a plot drawing until 6 weeks after the contract was signed,

4) The plot drawing that WAS emailed to us provided absolutely no clarification and was illegible where it mattered the most. I still have the original email and attachment.

5) The online plat info to which our contract referred still does not display info that would help us to know any different.

6) Eastwood NEVER DENIED THE ABOVE POINTS in our case against them with NCREC or BBB!

YET - we were somehow supposed to know BETTER than the PROFESSIONALS when THEY THEMSELVES would have to confirm the truth by means of performing multiple surveys?

In Spring of 2020 I paid an attorney to send a letter demanding refund on basis of material misrepresentation. No reply was received from Eastwood.

On 9/18/20 I filed with BBB. It is currently classified as "answered" but should be "unresolved"

An attorney told me it would cost more to sue them than what I would get out of it.

Given the above verifiable facts, what basis is there to expect fairness from them?