I am filling out this report knowing there will be much retaliation between Route 66 and Robert B. Construction towards our family. We have been warned indirectly by another that there will be much trouble for us in this small town of Pacific MO if we do not keep quiet. The retaliation hasn't stopped and will probably worsen once Route 66 Realtors realize this report exists. We live with much stress and harassment due to this experience. Our lives are not at peace and probably will not be for a long time.
During the building process of our house we received threats of paying extra mortgage payments and interest payments if we did not close by June 15. Our house was suppose to close on April 15 but could not due to weather and flood delays. We were told if we did not change the new closing date from July 15th to June 15 Robert B Construction could move up the closing date with out our agreement. It was impossible for Robert B. To finish the house by June 15th.
In the few weeks we have moved into our house officially complaining to the Attorney general, BBB and talking about our experience, child protection has been at our door, animal control the following week, and a complaint through our neighborhood association to mow the wild grass on our property after recently moving in.
As soon as problems arised with Robert B. Construction forgetting to bid a quarter to a third of the cabinets on our print a cover up enused saying the cabinets in these areas of the print did not exist. Our realtor of Route 66 Della Cooper and her husband Gene Cooper, our broker Monica Barrow, and our builder Benji and Nathan Barrow all said the drawings on our print are not cabinets. We suddenly lost all representation through our realtor and broker of Route 66 at this time. Our realtor and broker completely sided with Robert B. Construction from this time to closing.
Going to each meeting it was my wife and I against our realtor and broker of Route 66 and our builder Robert B Construction.
As we asserted our rights and complained, retaliation became very aggressive and nonstop. We could not keep up.
Some of the concerns explained to us by Monica Barrow as she combined the two companies (Route 66 Realtors and Robert B Construction together) were we are losing money on your project, and we have dealt with difficult customers before and you have made many changes to the cabinets.
My realtor said she did not care about the health or pregnancy of our unborn baby and that this was not her problem when my wife expressed concerns of premature labor and blood sugar issues not being able to keep up with her and the builder's unfair and unnecessary demands. Our baby was 4 weeks premature.
Doctor appointments had to be rescheduled around unecessary deadlines. Tests could not be taken. Birthdays were difficult to celebrate. A visit from a relative to celebrate a 40th birthday missed. Parties and social events for our teenagers had to be cancelled or were forgotten frantically trying to keep up with Route 66 Realtors and Robert B. Demands and consequences.
Accidents with our children ensued because we could not keep up.
My wife pushed on despite symptoms of breathing, suffocation, premature contractions, and her memory failing more so. She wasn't able to rest or properly take care of her blood sugar levels. Our baby now is suffering from neurological symptoms we are trying to treat and deal with. Our other child that has a birth defect is developmentally falling behind due to not being able to continue her home therapy - my wife working with her.
Again Monica Barrow our broker said her pregnancy was not her problem.
Our broker assisted in blocking very affordable choices of carpets and cabinets in our house. We received lesser quality carpet and cabinets not of our choosing because Monica Barrow and Della Cooper were not representing us and helping us to resolve challenges fairly and amicably with our builder, Benji Barrow. The challenges had to be resolved benefitting the builder one hundred percent or the solutions were not accepted. We have no idea what type of carpet we have or the warranty on it.
Both companies decided if they were going to give us a break in this game or help us a bit.
We have been advised to not get water on the laminate by many contractors and subcontractors in the cabinets because it will bubble. Many said this cabinet line we were about to receive is very low quality "crap" if you will. The laminate in our cabinets has been bubbling since the second day we have been in the house despite purchasing material to protect it.
Our builder, Robert B Construction, and broker, Monica Barrow, said we needed to communicate through our realtor Della Cooper.
Della only returned our calls when it benefited her, her broker or the builder - Not us. Sometimes she never returned our calls or emails. We were being completely ignored. We only heard from her if there was a deadline of signing some paperwork to gain access to the garage to paint or drop off lights and flooring we purchased for the home. Della would leave us a message of the time we needed to be at her office and the builder would email us a different time. We would miss the deadline and would be locked out of our garage not able to paint or deliver wood flooring. Do we risk trying to get in our garage risking getting arrested or do we leave the wood flooring on the porch hopefully not raining from Saturday to Monday?
Della Cooper lost paperwork saying she didn't have it - could we drop it off again. She ignored a carpet quote we submitted. Paperwork got to the builder if it benefited Route 66. If not, it was lost.
She asked for financial records for our mortgage.
Our lender sent her a committment letter. This was not sufficient. Route 66 needed more information. Our lender said Route 66 was giving us the run around.
All of our efforts to comply were being sabotaged and often we had to redo requests and work.
I had to fill out lein wavers for product we purchased. Della Cooper said she had copies she could give me. After asking several times, she said she didn't have any we needed to get them from the title company. I found out later on when giving me a copy we needed for closing she had them along due to the date on the fax of when it was faxed to her from the title company. The lein waver copy I received from a neighbor also was not good enough.
Della did not assisting or guiding when problems arose.
Meetings with our builder Benji Barrow, Monica Barrow our broker, and Della Cooper could consist of many work orders to sign. One of them was a cabinet order if we signed this there would be no installation by the builder if our cabinets didn't come in on time, I had to install them but needed access to the house a key, and construction insurance and the tub surround, laundry room or mud room cabinets would not be included. There was often many stipulations when signing work orders and porkbarreling added to them. We felt much duress while signing work orders. We had no trust, and again no realtor representation.
Our contract we signed with the Builder and realtor was biased to the builder and realtor. I made the mistake due to having wonderful realtors in the past of not having a lawyer peruse it.
Della Cooper was dishonest saying she gave us the rules and restrictions of our lot and neighborhood. When purchasing the lot we wanted to avoid being in an association in order to put our above ground pool in. Purchasing a four acre lot similar to size in MN and having no association in MN, we did not realize we were in an association till we checked it out ourselves. We asked our neighbor for the rules and restrictions. Della says she gave us a signed copy but she says she lost it and doesn't have the copy she gave us. She also said that we illegally went to association meetings when we were invited to go. She said we already spoke to the association about putting in an above ground pool. We did no such thing. These are untruths.
She explained to us it was okay to back date documents which we back dated twice. The builder and realtor forgot about our closing date of April 15 and had us sign on April 16th backdating to April 15th.
For three months from December to February we were contractually not represented by Route 66.in order to catch up and cover this mistake Della had us back date forms six months prior to October 26th. She said along the lines this was okay, not unusual, and this is the way we do business when I question the back dating.
On April 16th she asked us to sign forms in regards to her licensing. We cannot get copies of these forms even though we have asked.
Since we had to communicate through Della to get to our builder, Beni our time was lost, communciation breakdowns and misunderstandings occurred.
My wife gave them universal model numbers to the counter tops for our cabinets. It was explained to us that these numbers do not exist and they are incorrect. She called up three places to double check they were the correct numbers and numbers used by all vendors.
Our realtor and builder came up with the cabinet layout for the cabinets they were forcing us to have from their vendor. When it was ready to order the cabinets, a week after a made up deadline, our builder and realtor said they didn't have the layout and we had to provide it for them or the implicated consequence would have been completely wrong cabinets for our kitchen and bathrooms in which our cook top stove, and double wall oven would not have fit.
Robert B and Route 66 would meet on certain nights. We drove by on our way to our house knowing another long email would cross my computer screen at work with more demands to follow and consequences. There were issues with the flooring. Always problems and issues to many to be by accident.
We came close to losing our new home figuring out places to live. My wife and three young kids in a shelter, my wife looking for work in her 7th month of pregnancy, figuring out where I could stay and the boys as we needed to be out of our basment apartment by a certain date and could no longer stay. Another idea was moving more belongings into storage and renting a motel week by week till we found more permanent housing. We already had four storage units of our belongings.
We stayed in a dark basement apartment for one year moving from another state not knowing anyone and this is the welcome we have received.
We were being harrassed and now receive much retaliation moving into our new home. If we hadn't followed like pawns in a vicious chess game we would have lost this house and the $70,000 we had invested including material we purchased, all the work orders paid out and down payment.
We found out we were possibly being watched and had to be careful.
We had to be obedient or severe consequences would have occurred.
Because our broker Monica Barrow was concerned about her husband's construction company not making the expected money on this deal, every action and word they did was very well orchestrated, planned and calculated.
To replace the cabinets and carpet the money they stole from us will take many years for us to recoup with working a second job at night and another one during the day. With five children, of course this is impossible to do. Our task of building our second dream home was a nightmare, nightmares I still suffer from.
Route 66 Realtors and her husband of Robert B Construction would rather have done our family in then to have us give them reputable future business for Route 66 Realtors and Robert B. Construction to make up for the expected losses of our home delayed due to weather and flooding.
Our broker, Monica Barrow, said she cannot stand that women referring to my wife.
Route 66 and Robert B. Construction usually does good business, so we are surprised at how we were treated. We want reconciliation, and to have monetary value to replace our cabinets and carpet.
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