I contacted Mr. Hills on behalf of my client regarding a bridge loan for a motel property. During the intiial conversation I communicated the time sensitive nature of this loan, as the property in question had a foreclosure filing with a deadline of August 9, making it clear to him that we must close on the loan before that date. Mr. Hills proceeded to accept these parameters and a complete application package from me. Within 2 days Mr. Hills issued a letter of interest with terms. My client accepted. Mr. Hills sent out an application which my client completed and returned to him along with a $10,000 refundable deposit (July 9). Over the course of the next 4 weeks I repeatedly contacted Mr. Hills regarding the status of this loan application. For the most part he did not respond and when he did I never got direct answers as to when a commitment letter would be issued. On 4 separate occasions I asked Mr. Hills if he had everything he needed and was told yes. On July 29 he requested a schedule of other real estate owned. I provided it but told him he could not collateralize any of the other properties and asked directly if he could still do the loan; again I didn't get an answer. On the day that our window of opportunity expired, August 7, Mr. Hills left a voice mail for me stating that there may be an opportunity to do the loan by collateralizing the other properties. He was told twice this couldn't be done prior to that; my customer demanded his deposit back. Mr. Hills refuses to send the deposit, less any incurred expenses, back to my customer despite repeated requests. It is clear to me now Mr. Hills never intended to fund the loan but only to collect the deposit and then use several excuses and wording on the LOI to keep said deposit. Mr. Hills lied to me several times during this process, continually broke promises, and constantly behaved in an unethical manner. We are currently pursuing every avenue possible to get my client's money back.
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