I recently learned that Shannon Hayes had reported me as a "rip off" and "con-artist" because I broke a rental/lease agreement with her. Amazingly, what she fails to relate is all of the reasons for that decision.
I had lived in the same house for 3 years when my landlord died. At that time, his relatives took over his estate and I needed to find a new place to live. Prior to renting that home, I had lived at the same location for 13 years. She has alleged that I "jump from house to house" which is obviously not the truth.
By bad luck, I happened to drive by her house one day which was For Sale By Owner. I contacted her, looked at the house and asked if she would be willing to rent it for a period of 6 months during which time I would decide whether to try and purchase the home or not. The house was old and needed a very serious face-lift, but I was told that structurally it was in good condition. When I questioned some sloping of the floors, Shannon's boyfriend, Donny, a "Contractor", told me the floors simply needed "jacked up" and that he could take care of that part. I specifically asked if there had ever been any termite damage or the like. Both Shannon and her father, Kenneth Imhausen, denied such.
After moving into the home, my finance and I spent a great deal of time cleaning it and fixing it up. The home was filthy and smelled horrible when we moved in. We were told that animals had lived in the house and the carpeting in the front room would need to be ripped out in order to eliminate the smell. The rest of the house was hard-wood flooring, so that would have been a fairly simple thing to repair, but we had to wait on Donny to jack up the foundation before anything could be done.in the meantime, we had a security system installed in both the home and the shop building that was on the property, painted several rooms and put border up in one room, installed door bells, had a telephone line ran to the shop, had trees cut down that blocked the driveway, had ceilings and walls in several closets repaired and painted, repaired the lights and electrical problems in the shop and cleaned up the property itself. This is by no means an all-inclusive list, just a little of the work that was done, all within the first month we lived there. Additionally, we began to rip out the ceiling in the upstairs bathroom to start remodeling it, as we had agreed to do in lieu of paying a deposit.
Although we had contacted Donny and Shannon numerous times about the flooring, trying to get them to fulfill their end of the agreement and get the floors taken care of, we could not get them to come to the house. We eventually hired a contractor to come to the house to give us an estimate of what it would cost to have the floors jacked up. When the contractor arrived, he crawled up under the home, took pictures and informed us that there was such significant termite and powder post beetle damage that the supporting beams were literally sitting on dirt and there was essentially nothing holding the house up. He estimated the cost to repair it at anywhere between $30-60,000.00. My two children were sleeping in upstairs bedrooms. The contractor informed me that it was unsafe living conditions as the house could collapse at any time.
After numerous attempts, we were finally able to get in contact with Donny (although we had been attempting to reach Shannon as she was the one who actually owned the home). We informed him that we were breaking the contract and would be moved out by the end of the month as well as all of the reasons for such. He demanded that we pay a full month's rent even though we had only lived there for two weeks of that month. We agreed to pay for the time that we had resided in the home, but not the entire month. However, after moving some of our personal belongings, we returned to the home to find the locks changed and many of our possessions, including my children's beds, bedding and clothing, locked inside of the shop building. I again contacted Donny and Shannon who refused to allow us entry. At that point, I put a stop payment order on the check I had previously given them. Then, I contacted the police department and the Prosecutor's Office and was informed that they had no legal right whatsoever to hold any of our possessions and that I had a legal right to obtain them in whatever way necessary. I then called Donny and Shannon again and informed them that we would be removing the remaining items from both the home and the shop, even if that meant breaking through the locks. At that point, Shannon agreed to meet me at the residence and allow me access.
I agreed to give her a check for the remaining balance with the verbal understanding that she would hold it until I informed her the funds were available in my account. She, however, cashed the check anyway, which resulted in it bouncing. I sent her a money order to cover it, but she refused, claiming she was going to file it with the Prosecutor's Office as a bad check. Since that time, I have made payment to the Prosecutor's Office to take care of it. Despite all of this, she still has the audacity to call me a rip off when in fact, they were the ones taking advantage of us by trying to dump this uninhabitable home on us for a very high price without disclosing all of the problems!!!
Shannon's father, Kenny, is on probation, has a gambling problem, an alcohol problem and has to undergo random drug/alcohol testing. When I contacted the Prosecutor's Office, they informed me this was only one of many problems they had with Shannon. They would not disclose what types of legal problems, only stating that it had something to do with passing bad checks amongst other things. She has a very bad reputation in Bloomington!
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