Janelle Ross And Gabe Dunivin Bad landlords!! Scammed and conned us to move into their house!! Prescott Valley Arizona

We posted an ad on Craigslist back in May looking for housing in this area. We were living in Salem, MA and due to my health, needed to move to warmer climate. In June, we received a response to our ad from a woman and her husband who had a "nearly finished remodeled house". We contacted them, had many long conversations and agreed to the terms of the lease/purchase option, packed up our stuff, our 4 kids, 2 cats and a dog and made the cross country drive out here. We spent 8 days on the road, with my health slowing us up here and there, and finally made it out here on 7/29. We were met outside by the owner and her husband and they gave us a grand welcoming. Then they took us into the house. The house that was supposed to be almost finished?

It was no where near being finished!! Everything was down to drywall, no kitchen, no fully functioning bathroom, nothing. And they offered US the excuses as to why it wasn't finished. We were all devestated!! But we decided, as a family, to pitch in and make this house our own. We worked many, many, many long hours doing drywall, painting, hanging cabinets, installing counter tops, digging holes, just anything we were told to do by the owners to do, even when they weren't here. The first night we were here, the upstairs bathroom flooded the downstairs because the plumbing wasn't installed correctly!! Slowly but surely, the house started coming together. It was a great day when we got a fridge and didn't have to use an ice chest anymore. And the day we got a stove installed? We were speechless. No more cooking for our kids on the grill. We left to go to California to get the rest of our belongings on 8/12 and were promised, assured, etc that the house would be "ready for you to unpack the U-Haul".

Well, we got back here on 8/14 and STILL couldn't unpack anything because the carpets weren't finished being laid down from the flood. Again, we were patient and understanding with the owner. We were able to start unpacking on 8/18 and on 8/20 the downstairs bathroom was finally finished and they took off for a few days for a vacation. That was fine with us because we had been up in the very early morning hours since we got here to start work, wait for the electrician, A/C guys, etc, even when the owner wasn't here. We needed a break from them!!! They got back on 8/25 and the owners husband had to serve 10 days in jail. Still, we showed understanding. She finally came over here on 8/29 for us to FINALLY sign the lease, but it was not what we had agreed to when we made the move out here. She didn't care. Just kept telling us "it's my house, that's the way it is and if you don't like it, you can leave". We told her we needed a few days to look over the lease and talk to some people. On 9/1, she sent her parents over here with a 5 day notice, that conflicted with the lease that she gave us on 8/29. Then we got into email exchanges with her where again, she changed what she wanted. Finally on 9/10, we received a summons to court. She is suing us for a forcible detainer, even though we gave her part of Septembers rent!!! We also found out that there hasn't been a final inspection done on the house here by the town and in talking with the building department, we were told that she shouldn't even have renters in here to begin with! The inspectors wrote down 4 pages of life and safety issues!! We've hired an attorney and are confident that we will prevail. We do have our concerns though because we have found out some pretty disturbing things about these people and their violent, criminal backgrounds.

They are pretty much scam artists and we feel like they lured us out here to live in their money pit so that they wouldn't have to pay the mortgage on it. We have tried everything to to work with them but we refuse to be conned and scammed by them. They even came by yesterday, even though I was very ill in bed, with a private investigator to take pictures of the house and property. They even went so far as to keep making comments about needing to fix that, it not being a life and safety issue, and "we'll take care of that after Thursday (the day we would be removed from the home, if they prevail in court)". We feel that we are being harassed and this too will be addressed in court. We have so much supporting documentation to prove our case, but we aren't sure what they may have up their sleeves.

We are afraid that we are going to have to move within 48 hours and not have anyplace to go!! I am very sick with stage II Sarcoidosis throughout my body. This stress is really affecting my health. They are aware of my health but are purposely doing things that they know are going to make me sick. We aren't bad people. We are just people who believed the lies of others and moved out here to our dream house without having something in writing from them first. They really took advantage of us and are looking for all kinds of money now for damages that were caused during the remodel, but they want us to pay for them.

We are out here all alone. No friends, no family. We are hoping that someone will listen to our story and help us. We have tried contacting the local newspaper, and even a televison station, but noone wants to listen to us or our plight. We don't know what we will do if we have to move after Tuesday. We have a large family and need a large house. My husband works from home so he needs an office space. We are just so saddened, sickened, appalled, weary and angry about what is being done to us by these people. They use and abuse the system, collecting welfare, getting financial aid for school, and all because the husband won't get a job and the owner doesn't report the earnings from being a "self employed personal trainer and nutritional consultant"!!! You'd think that she would have a rock hard body and eat so healthy but she sucks down beer like water, smokes pot and eats fast food like it's going out of style. So she's scamming and conning her clients as well!!! If anyone out there is willing to help, we would be so appreciative. This has been a nightmare for us all!!

Heartbroken in AZ
Prescott Valley, Arizona
U.S.A.