Our life long dream has been to own a few acres of land where my husband and sons would build us our dream home. We refinanced our current home of 26 years in Santee, pulled out 235k in cash and purchased 2.5 acres of vacant land on Muth Valley road in Lakeside in Mar-06. Century 21 (Agent Michael Robe) acted as a Dual Agent for us and the sellers.
For one year we lived quietly on our property in a 32 ft tailer without electricity. We paid thousands of dollars to engineers, architects, grading on the property, county permit fees, instalied a well for water. We had submitted our building plans to the county and were waiting for approval.
One day a neighbor came by and approached my husband while he was installing 260 feet of fence across the front of our property. This neighbor owns 7.5 acres of land adjacent to ours He is also on the Lakeside Board of Development and Land Use. He told my husband that he can't put up a fence there because he has been crossing the front of our property for 20 years and has a Prescriptive Easement across the front of the property. We would be blocking his access with the fence. My husband asked him for proof as the county records showed no easement across the front of our property. The neighbor stated he had no proof. My husband then told him to get off our property. As he was leaving the neighbor threatened my husband by stating "you won't be living on the property much longer".
A few days later while we were at work, our neighbor took his back hoe and plowed down our new fence. We took him to small claims court and civil court and got a restraining order against him. Later that week we received calls from The County Zoning Department, Environmental Health Department and Animal control. The departments stated someone had made several complaints against us which were found to be untrue. We were told we had to move our trailer off our land until our building permit was issued. We were forced to move into an RV park for one year as we rented out our house in Santee and coudn't move back in yet.
I called Century 21 the following day and I spoke with Michael Robe. I asked him if it was true that our neighbor called him during escrow to inform him of his Prescriptive Easement claim. Michael Robe stated that it was true that the neighbor called him to inform his claim during escrow and that the neighbor insisted he notify the new property owners (us) of the prescriptive easement. Robe stated to me that he has been in the business for years and has a lot of real estate knowledge. He stated that once the property changed hands, any claim to easement would be invalid and he informed the neighbor that he did not have a prescriptive easement and told the neighbor to "get over it". The neighbor became angry and called Robe "every name in the book". Robe stated he then hung up on the neighbor.
Michael Robe called me several times at work over the next 6 months checking in with me about the situation with the neighbor to see how things were going. He stated he would help me out by testifying in court if needed.
We later learned that Susan (who was my neighbor's fiance/girlfriend at the time) was informed by Michael Robe about the prescriptive easement claim when she was (coincidentally) bidding on the same property as we were through the same Real Estate office (different agent).
Susan may have been able to purchase the property at a much lower price if we dropped out of the bidding after learning of the neighbor's easement claim. The facts are that Michael Robe never told us about the neighbor's prescriptive easement claim during escrow or at any time or we wouldn't have purchased the property.
Michael Robe once called my husband on his cell phone and stated that the neighbor had come into his office and was ranting and raving about why they had sold the property to us and not them (meaning himself and Susan). He argued with them again about the easement issue. Michael robe stated he thought the neighbor had some screws loose and warned my husband to be careful and that the neighbor may be dangerous.
We attended court ordered mediation for 6 months with the neighbor to no avail. The neighbor sued us for Quiet Title in Jan-08. We counter sued him for Quiet Title and recently filed a lawsuit against Century 21 and Michael Robe.
We have suffering great financial loss now and our dream of building our dream home is uncertain. Century 21 All Service (Michael Robe) represented two properties for the sellers 1) the sellers main home which was on 2.5 acres and adjacent to our property for 875k and also our 2.5 acres of vacant land which we paid 235k.
Michael Robe called my cell phone last week (which I have on tape) and seemed to be trying to push me to drop the lawsuit. Also in his message he stated the sellers called him to ask him why I have been leaving urgent phone messages for them. (I was hoping they would sign a declaration stating they gave the neighbor permission to cross their property (the neighbor once stated to a judge during a court hearing that he had permission to cross). Robe stated he told the seller NOT to return my calls because we were all involved in a lawsuit. (This is false-we have NOT named the sellers in the lawsuit as yet).
Century 21 had previously offered to fight the neighbor in court and obtain the quiet title to our land for us however they have to date made no effort to do so.
Century 21 all service has ripped us off big time. They have caused irreperable damage to us and won't lift a finger to make things right.
And that's just plain wrong!
Allison
SANTEE, California
U.S.A.
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