“Woman
shows sign of trouble”
Linda Acosta says she was lied to and damaged by Harris
& Taylor (Century 21) Real Estate;
real estate company says lies were
“honest mistake”
![](images/linda-sign2.jpg)
Linda Acost trying to remain positive
By Edward
Snook
Investigative Reporter
Gold Hill,
Oregon
– Linda Acosta and her late husband Bob purchased their home in
November of 2001. They were assured by their real estate agent Jeannie
Moore that their property was backed by Bureau of Land Management (BLM)
property. This supposed fact gave them the assurance no one would be
building behind them. This is what they wanted and believed it was what
they purchased until they found out, after spending considerable time
and money on the property that Harris and Taylor Century 21 Reality
had lied to them. Their property actually was backed by private land.
There were other lies told
to the Acosta’s such as that the roof was in good shape when it
wasn’t, bad drainage problems, etc. As the Acosta’s were
in California they trusted that Jeannie Moore was telling them the truth
about the conditions.
Daily
Courier Damage Control!
In October of 2005, Linda
Acosta was contacted by reporter Howard Huntington of the Daily Courier.
Huntington wanted to do a story on the sign Acosta had placed on her
property and the reasons for the sign. The entire story had already
been covered months prior by the US~Observer, so why did the Courier
need to do an article. A prudent guess would be that someone from the
real estate company contacted someone at the Courier to do damage control
for them. Huntington’s article was published by the Courier on
November 4, 2005 and as expected it contains numerous lies, making the
real estate company look much better than they should.
First off Huntington gives
the sale price of $395,000 and states that the “sale included
two adjacent, three-bedroom homes.” There is only one three bedroom
home. The other is a two bedroom apartment that was built over an existing
barn/garage. Huntington’s intentions are all too obvious.
Huntington’s article
continues, “Century 21’s attorney, Mark Clarke of Medford,
said in a letter to the Daily Courier that the sale price was consistent
with the local market.” What in the world does this statement
have to do with anything? The Acosta’s purchased a property that
had been on the market for a long time and it was sold to them as backing
up to BLM land. They had poured well over $125,000 into the property
when they discovered they hadn’t purchased what they were sold.
Ms. Acosta has continued improving the property to this very day simply
because she has no other choice. After the death of her husband Robert
Acosta, Linda is now on her own and in no shape for the enormous task
of finding another property, moving and having to start all over again.
And what in the world is attorney Mark Clarke doing writing a letter
to the Courier when his Oregon State Bar rules state that he cannot
use the media to enhance a case. So much for rules… The lies continue…
“Another Century 21 attorney, Arne Cherkoss of Medford denied
all of Acosta’s allegations. He said Acosta did not use the procedures
in her contract for resolving disputes and rejected Century 21’s
offer to deed to her a strip of land connecting her property with the
BLM’s. No offer has ever been made to Ms. Acosta and apparently
Ms. Acosta has followed proper procedures because the issue has already
been ruled on in court. In fact, Century 21 conveniently came up with
paperwork after a Medford judge had ruled against them. When they asked
the judge to re-consider based on the “newly discovered document”
the judge denied them and stated that he wouldn’t rule on possible
fraud because he didn’t have to.
Huntington should donate
some time to the US~Observer in exchange for us teaching him to properly
investigate and print facts as opposed to lies. As for Ms. Acosta she
recently informed us that she intends to keep her sign up until Harris
& Taylor Century 21 Real Estate Company is held accountable. Acosta
stated, “if this sign isn’t large enough I’ll purchase
one that is.” As for threats from the company of them filing a
law suit against Ms. Acosta for posting the sign she says she is quite
ready.
Since the Observer began
publishing articles on the Acosta case we have had numerous horror stories
reported by people who claim to have been lied to by Harris & Taylor
Century 21 Real Estate Company. The following is one such case.
A
New Case of Severe Abuse
In December of 2004, David
and Paula Knobloch purchased their home on Cloverlawn Drive in Grants
Pass, Oregon. Harris & Taylor Century 21 Real Estate was the company
selling the property and Toni Epperson was their agent.
Paula Knobloch, who had
just been diagnosed with cancer, would soon experience problems nearly
equaling her bout with the cancer.
On the weekend
the family moved into their home they ran out of water and sediment
began coming through the pipes in the house. They immediately called
their realtor and according to the Knoblochs they were told that it
was probably a temporary problem from the pump etc., not being used.
The water did return, however they still ran out of it in short order
over the next few weeks. They then contacted a local water service and
were informed that they should have the well tested and they should
also test the water. Paula had been sick during her time at the new
(to them) home and had attributed the illness to her cancer treatments.
As soon as the water test results came in the family was informed that
the well was contaminated and that it was producing less than two gallons
of water per-minute. They started drinking bottled water and immediately
Paula started feeling better. Her doctor later informed her that she
was fortunate to have found the problem when she did. As for the low
gallons-per-minute issue the Knoblochs state that they were told by
both Toni Epperson and the sellers that the well produced at least 5
gallons-per-minute or better.
The Knoblochs had no idea
that their problems were only beginning. They found carpenter ants,
yet they were informed on a walk-through prior to closing that this
was normal to have some ants come into a home once it was vacant. Their
realtor assured them by stating in front of several witnesses that there
had been a pest inspection on the house.
Next, the Knoblochs began
having septic and electrical problems and they recently found that there
was flooding going on in a portion of the basement when they had a heat
pump system installed. As soon as the heat pump began working Paula
once again became ill and it was soon discovered that there was mold
in the basement that was caused by the moisture.
When the problems with the
septic continued the Knoblochs decided to attempt to find the company
that had worked on the system for the previous owners. They located
the company and were informed that the previous owners were told they
would need a new system before long. Like all the other severe problems
this was never disclosed to the Knoblochs.
Just like the Acostas, the
Knoblochs inform us that they were either ignored or lied to when they
attempted to get Harris & Taylor Reality to address their problems.
As a result they are currently looking for legal counsel to represent
them against the obviously unethical realtors.
Editor’s
Note: Don’t miss our next edition wherein we will address this
tragedy in more detail. Anyone having problems with Harris & Taylor
Real Estate is urged to contact Edward Snook at 541-474-7885.