I was wondering if you might indulge me by allowing me to bounce this off of you and perhaps you could give us some guidance. My husband and I purchased land in Leiper's Fork, in a development called Songbird Springs / Lyric Springs off South Harpeth Road. The lot is completely paid for - $140,000 and it's been cleared - $30,00. We had an erosion survey done as required by Williamson County - and our builder secured our building permits to the tune of $15,000. There has been an ongoing issue with us and the land developer, London Land LLC, based out of Minnesota and represented here in Tennessee by Panorama Reality regarding the roads to the development. We were told that the property was ready for building and that the road to our lot, Ivorybill Road, would be cut in anytime. The road construction began in May - and the road to our property was single lane, gravel, one side a bluff, the other a ravine - and at a 70 degree angle. Our builder was unable to make it up that road in his jeep, but was told he could access our lot by driving up the "original" gravel road, and cutting across two lots. We asked many questions of our realtor, who in turn spoke with the representative of London Land about what would be done about this impassable road, each time coming back with another story. We purchased the property in April, and it was disclosed to us in OCTOBER, after I called the owner of London Land LLC, Matt Leavitt in Minnesota, that this development is what's called a "large easement subdivision" and that the homeowners would be responsible for the roads. He promised that he would send us the covenants and the list of other home owners along with the association information, and that the provisions for the roads would be put in writing to us. The week before our realtor phoned and asked us to post date and sign the disclosure that was NOT presented to us at closing.
We are currently living in a two bedroom apartment - and most of our things are in storage. I am a registered nurse, recruited to Vanderbilt from the Cleveland Clinic by a physician I had worked with there. My family lives in Huntsville so moving to beautiful Tennessee, and working at Vanderbilt was a dream come true. My husband is a handicapped cancer survivor - He had cancer in his hip and had his hip completely removed in April of last year. He walks with crutches. He still has an open surgical wound and is recovering from that surgery - Our plan was to build a handicap accessible home - our dream home - and construction was to have started sometime in late summer, early fall of with completion in March. We have been told a multitude of lies regarding the property - many different stories including there was a one million dollar bond on the property with the county (Williamson) to put in the roads. We have subsequently found out this is not true. We paid $15,000 for our building permit, which took several months to obtain from the county, but apparently there are no requirements or regulations for "land developers" in order to proceed with selling a property - no apparent restrictions on access - so you as a consumer and tax payer can purchase a lot to build a home, that is basically un-buildable. We hired an attorney in October who asked the same questions we had been asking regarding the road construction, maintenance and cost - and have gotten no response. We have now incurred $3000 in legal fees. We still do not know who the other homeowners are, or more importantly what the association fee is. One of the roads, actually, the original "road" to the development is no longer passable due to the severe erosion.
Another concern is there may not be an engineering firm involved. The company excavating the roads is dumping large quantities of dirt and rock into a ravine with a creek bed which will supply water to our well which has not been dug yet. The ravine is adjacent to our lot - and there's the possibility of land shifting and erosion. We have acted in good faith - We have paid our lot off in full. We have a builder, plans, and permits - but have no road to get to our property. We love the town. We LOVE the lot. And we have utilized all of our liquid assets - My husband and I are distraught and heartbroken. We feel "hood winked". Is this something you may be able to help us with?
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