Wednesday

 

WELCOME

Good day and welcome to my blog. For almost four years I have been fighting to get justice. I was cheated by a US Virgin Islands real estate broker out of $22,500. And for this “privilege”, $40,350 was taken from me as his commission. I have nine articles dealing with my efforts. A warning: They are all long and not very exciting.

 

#1 My first attempt to get the VI Real Estate Commission to do their job (good intro but quite dull)

#2 VI Territorial Association of Realtors (very long but at the end the broker offered me $10,000 to shut up)

#3 THIS IS WHAT THE BROKER DID TO ME (read it)

#4 Dual Agency - this is how the broker was able to do what he did to me (read it)

#5 the media doesn’t care (skip it)

#6 the media still doesn’t care (skip it)

#7 more media (skip it)

#8 VI Laws for the Real Estate Commission (skip it)

#9 My second attempt to get the VI REC to do their job (three and a half years later I got a letter)

 

Read 3 and 4. Skip the rest unless you have time to kill. After stalling for three and a half years, here is the email with the attached letter from the VI Real Estate Commission.

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David Mattera vs Farchette Hanley Closing Letter

 

Sharene Gumbs <Sharene.Gumbs@dlca.vi.gov>                      Fri, Jun 14, 2024

AttachmentsFri, Jun 14, 2024

to me, Christina, Melanie, chris@chrishanley.com

Good day Mr. Mattera,

 

I pray that this email find you well.

Please see attached a letter with the Commissions determination of this case dated December 15, 2023. My sincerest apologies for not getting this correspondence out to you sooner.

 

Please note that if your are considering responding to appeal the determination of the Commission, you have up to thirty (30) days to do so, referring to the date of this email correspondence.

 

Should you have any questions, please feel free to contact.

Kind regards,

 

Sharene Gumbs

Special Assistant to the Boards Administrator

p:  340.714.3522 Ext. 4251

c:  340.727.3004

w:  dlca.vi.gov

e:  sharene.gumbs@dlca.vi.gov 

Department of Licensing and Consumer Affairs

Office of the Commissioner

Property & Procurement Building

8201 Subbase, Suite 1

St. Thomas, VI 00802

 

“In Order to succeed, your desire for Success should be greater than your fear of Failure”

-Unknown

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The following is my response to Laurent Alfred, the chairperson of the VI REC. I have to send it through Ms. Gumbs. I seriously doubt if Mr. Alfred will respond to anything in my response but if he does you can read about it here.

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To Sharene Gumbs

Please do not apologize for the six month delay of this letter. You had nothing to do with it. Mr. Alfred last promised Senator Carrion’s Chief of Staff Sonia Andrew to send this letter, around the middle of last December. The delay between your email of June 14, 2024, and the date on Mr. Alfred’s letter of December 15, 2023, was due to Mr. Alfred having no intention of actually sending this letter but Senator Francis’s Chief of Staff Shawna Richards made it happen. Mr. Alfred had previously promised Sonia Andrew on multiple occasions that he would have a letter sent. He was not being truthful.

Please forward a copy of this response to all the members of the REC, Commissioner Hodge, and Atty. Fenzel. I will send a letter to the Governor, the Senators, and by putting it on my blog, the People of the Virgin Islands.

 

  

An Open Letter to the People of the U.S. Virgin Islands

To Laurent Alfred et al

I am writing this letter for two reasons. First, Mr. Alfred, I expect a response from you. However, seeing as your letter took three and a half years, I am not going to hold my breath. Second, I write this for the benefit of the people of the U.S. Virgin Islands to show them that they have no hope when they approach the Real Estate Commission for help.

For starters, I don’t think it was advisable for you to write this letter. Ignoring everyone has been your best strategy. Regardless, I will address the paragraphs individually. Your first paragraph has a simple theme. It says, “GO AWAY.” Your second paragraph says, “WE WILL TELL YOU NOTHING.” Your third paragraph says, “WE HAVE NO INTENTION OF TAKING ANY ACTION AGAINST MR. HANLEY BUT YOU’LL NEVER KNOW BECAUSE OF THE SECOND PARAGRAPH” Your fourth paragraph says, “EVEN THOUGH WE TOOK THREE AND A HALF YEARS TO SEND THIS LETTER, YOU ONLY HAVE THIRTY DAYS TO DO ANYTHING ABOUT IT.” The fifth paragraph is standard boilerplate for all DLCA. I’ve called those numbers dozen of times and either no one answers or on rare occasion someone answers who is of no help.

Lastly, I will address the upper left. I want an answer to this question. As you can imagine, I would like to have an original signed copy of your letter. You pretend to give the impression that you want me to have one by saying that you sent one via Certified Mail. So, my question is, why would you send that letter to a nonexistent mailbox at a house that I sold and haven’t lived in for over four years? I’ve waited a couple of weeks to see if the obviously returned letter would be correctly sent to my actual address. To date I have not received it and once again, I am not holding my breath.

 

You don’t change horses or rules in the middle of a race. I was informed on January 28, 2021, by Assistant Commissioner for DLCA, Nathalie Hodge regarding my filed complaint 1455-21-011-029/David Mattera vs Farchette and Hanley –

"The VI Real Estate Commission is the entity that regulates brokers and salespersons and the entity in which you file your complaint. Once you file the complaint to the Commission, the  Commission will subsequently give the Respondent a copy and request that they respond to your complaint in writing. The Commission will review both complaints and meet with you both in a Fact-Finding Meeting, deliberate then provide you with a determination."

If Commissioner Hodge was in error, she needs to be informed. And we must be informed of your new rules. However, until we receive any new rules, Commissioner Hodge’s rules are in place. Until a Fact-Finding-Meeting has occurred, a decision or determination cannot be made.

If you had chosen to follow the rules and conducted the Fact-Finding-Meeting, I would have asked for copies of the REC Rules and Regulation so that I could be aware of what I was able to ask for as a determination. Equally important, I would have asked for Mr. Hanley’s written response.

I and Sonia Andrew have asked repeatedly for copies of the current Rules and Regulations of the REC along with Mr. Hanley’s response. I asked Ms. Richards to see if she could obtain copies. By her lack of a response, I assume she has been unsuccessful. I am no longer asking for a copy of the current Rules and Regulations; I am demanding them.

During a mediation conducted by Michael Bindman for the Virgin Islands Territorial Association of Realtors (VITAR), Mr. Hanley explained to Mr. Bindman that he didn’t know why he was involved in a mediation because he had done nothing wrong. He then went on to say that I had told him during the sale that I was totally overwhelmed and was unable to handle anything and that I wanted him to do everything.

Mr. Hanley needs to learn that if you are going to tell a lie it should be a good lie; one that an average person might believe. At the time of the sale of my house I was working for the construction company, Rooftops. I spent my time reading blueprints, generating spreadsheets and was then involved with the negotiations for multimillion dollar projects. I only needed to work three days a week to finish my work. I was quite relaxed and under no circumstances would I have ever uttered the words that I was overwhelmed and unable to handle anything. If I could negotiate multimillion dollar construction jobs I certainly wouldn’t trust Mr. Hanley to negotiate the sale of my house.

I offer the public a quick reminder of the Sixth Amendment to the U. S. Constitution – part of the Bill of Rights.

“In all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy the right to a speedy and public trial, by an impartial jury of the State and district wherein the crime shall have been committed, which district shall have been previously ascertained by law, and to be informed of the nature and cause of the accusation; to be confronted with the witnesses against him; to have compulsory process for obtaining witnesses in his favor, and to have the Assistance of Counsel for his defense.”

Certain rights are guaranteed to American citizens by this amendment. Among them are - Trials are PUBLIC and SPEEDY. And citizens have the right to confront an accuser. I am quite certain that the written response that Mr. Hanley provided is “a pack of lies.” If I am not allowed to see and challenge his response, I believe you will be violating the spirit of the sixth amendment of the United States; the ability to confront one’s accusers. Because I’m sure Mr. Hanley has accused me of all sorts of horrible deeds. I have the right to confront his statements about me. I am no longer asking for a copy of Mr. Hanley’s response; I am demanding it.

Also included in the sixth amendment is the requirement for a speedy and public trial. Your three and a half year delay to simply send me a letter is not acceptable. And trials are public not confidential, seeing as you hope to keep this matter invisible to the public. Therefore, please point out in the rules and regulation that you will be sending me, where it states that disciplinary action at the request of a complainant is confidential. Shawna Richards and I spent some time discussing the lack of transparency of the Real Estate Commission. She intends to speak with Senator Francis about it.

 

 

Never having had a copy of the Rules and Regulations of the REC and therefore being unable to determine what I could hope to have included in a determination by the REC, I requested to have the $40,350 commission obtained by Mr. Hanley returned. I discussed this in a phone call I had with REC Commissioner B. J. Harris on June 22, 2023. She offered a simple and reasonable solution in which I would offer to Mr. Hanley to drop my complaint if he returned my money. I told her I would gladly cooperate with her solution. In a subsequent email she said the REC was working on it and would stay in touch. Noone from the REC ever communicated with me again until this letter, which is only eight days shy of having taken one full year since the email from Ms. Harris. Is this the REC’s concept of, “staying in touch?” And am I to assume that you have reneged on Ms. Harris’s offer?

In your letter you state that my request is outside of the REC’s authority and the REC does not have the jurisdiction to grant the compensatory relief requested. I don’t believe this is true, however I will accept it. And at this point in time, rather than having to guess what the REC is willing to do for me, I will alter my request to only what is allowed by Virgin Island Law. You stated in your email of May 3, 2023 -

“As you know, under 27 VIC § 422, the Commission is empowered to hold hearings and "to recommend the issuance, suspension, revocation or reinstatement of licenses", but is not empowered to order any other remedy to a complainant.  If you are pursuing any other remedy in this matter, I recommend that you do so by filing an action with the Superior Court.”  


Virgin Island Law lists seven offenses, any of which is grounds for the revocation of a broker’s license. They are bad faith, dishonesty, untrustworthiness, incompetency, misrepresentation or fraud, failing to furnish a copy of any written instrument to any party executing the same at the time thereof, and forgery. I am not accusing Mr. Hanley of committing only one of these offenses, I believe Mr. Hanley committed all of these offenses. Therefore, for my determination I am requesting that you obey Virgin Islands Law and permanently revoke Mr. Chris Hanley’s real estate license.

And to aid you in your determination, I asked Assistant Attorney General, Patricia Lynn Pryor if there is a mechanism whereby the AG could offer an opinion as to whether the actions that the law requires for revocation of a license have been committed rather than leaving it up to lay people who might not understand the necessary actions required to have committed each of the above offenses.

 

In closing I have a couple of questions that I doubt you will ever answer. First, I’m sure you are well acquainted with Virgin Island Law and are aware of the section that deals with the composition of the VI Real Estate Commission.

Title 27 - Professions and Occupations
Chapter 15 - Real Estate Brokers and Salesmen
§ 421a. Virgin Islands Real Estate Commission

Composition; qualifications of members

(b) The Commission shall be composed of seven (7) members appointed by the Governor, not more than three of whom shall be licensed real estate brokers.

 

 

Mr. Alfred, currently the Commission has only six members: You, Fred Vialet, and four licensed real estate brokers, listed below with their titles and websites. Four is greater than three. Any grade school child knows this. Could you please explain how the VI Real Estate Commission breaks the very law that creates it?

 

Yvonne Toussaint              broker associate remax st croix

https://www.remax-stcroix.com/yvonne-toussaint-esq/

      

Sharon Amey    broker/owner Dove Realty

https://doverealty.org/about/

 

BJ Harris                             broker/owner St. John Properties

https://www.stjohnproperties.com/agent/bj-harris/

 

Stephanie Hodge              broker/owner Blue Sky Real Estate

https://homebuyvi.com/our-team/caryn-hodge-duplicated/

 

 

You promised Sonia Andrew on multiple occasions that a letter would be written by DLCA legal Attorney Melanie Fenzel. And that is why you could say every time you spoke with her that the letter would take two weeks rather than if you just wrote it yourself in less than an hour. Ms. Fenzel is also included in Sharene’s email. However, now the letter is written by you. Something smells bad. Why wouldn’t Atty. Fenzel write it?

 

You hoped you had gotten rid of me. You haven’t. I await the documents and answers to questions above. I also await the scheduling of a Fact-Finding-Meeting via videoconference at which we will all have the opportunity to get the facts. I want B.J. Harris to attend since she is the only member of the Real Estate Commission who has demonstrated a willingness to listen and a concern for the public.

 

I have also asked Asst. AG Pryor if I can request their Consumer Protection Division to look into the practices of the Virgin Islands Real Estate Commission.

Sincerely,

David Mattera

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Melanie Fenzel responded to my letter within the hour. It took me longer to write my response to her. Her letter and my response are below.

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Melanie Fenzel

AttachmentsWed, Jul 3, 10:58 AM

to Nathalielalfredlaw@gmail.comKERRI@CHRISHANLEY.COM, me, Christina, chris@chrishanley.com, Sharene

Good morning, Mr. Mattera.

 

Please feel free to blame me in your letter to the Governor, Senators, and on your blog. It was my doing that I did not follow up with the office on the letter being sent. Mr. Alfred was unaware that it was missed. I will attest to the fact that any statement or accusation to the contrary and that the delay is attributable to Mr. Alfred is false and unfounded. Ultimately, what it comes down to is the fact that I failed Commissioner Hodge, you, Mr. Hanley, the Real Estate Commission, and Mr. Alfred by not having the letter sent timely. Again, anything to the contrary is inaccurate.

 

I take ownership of the letter arriving 6 months late, not 3.5 years when Mr. Alfred was not a member of the REC. Also, I personally went to the Frenchtown USPS post office in in December to send a copy certified mail, I am looking for the receipt. If it was not delivered or if I am thinking of a different letter that I sent, it too is on me. I should have been on top of it in December 2023. I can send a certified copy to you on Friday and to Chris Hanley if he wants one. The office specifically asked if a certified copy should be sent on June 14th and I said no, I thought it was unnecessary.

 

I will address each part of your blog below with Commissioner Hodge, Mr. Alfred, and REC.

 

In this email have looped in Commissioner Hodge, Mr. Alfred, Kerri Hanley, and left Mr. Hanley in copy.

 

Also, please find attached is a copy of the Code and the Rules & Regs available on LexisNexis and which should also be available at the Lt. Gov.’s Office, public library, and legislature as provided in Title 3 Ch. 35 of the VI Code, which does not govern the REC licensure.

 

Best regards,

Melanie

 

Melanie Anne Fenzel

Department of Licensing and Consumer Affairs

 

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Good day Malanie

It sounds like you made an honest mistake. Therefore, we don’t have to discuss the six month delay anymore. I tried using the links you sent me for LexisNexis. Unfortunately whenever I try one of the links I am asked for an ID and Password, so this has not been much help. Perhaps you could give me a temporary or guest ID and password. Please share this letter with anyone you feel should be made aware of it. I shared it with the people of the Virgin Islands on my blog.

I do have a question regarding Mr. Alfred’s letter though. Did you write the letter and Mr. Alfred signed it or did Mr. Alfred write the letter himself? In regard to the letter, I now have a copy of the “VIRGIN ISLANDS REAL ESTATE COMMISSION RULES AND REGULATIONS” that I got off the DLCA website that I also added to my blog under #8 Laws for the Real Estate Commission. I don’t believe that this was previously on the DLCA website just as I certain, the REC members names were previously not listed. It seems that I am having a positive effect on the REC. Looking through the rules and regs, it is apparent to me that paragraphs 2 and 3 of the letter are just made up. Nothing in the rules and regs say that these are true statements. And more importantly, the solution that Commissioner B.J. Harris made to me whereby I would drop my complaint if Mr. Hanley returned my money is not disallowed by the rules and regs nor does it violate any of the rules and regs. So, paragraph 1 is merely Mr. Alfred’s desire not to be helpful and should be tossed.

Next I would like to address a portion of the rules and regs that I spent a bit of time studying, that being the code of ethics. The following is a copy and paste of three of the articles and portions of the topics OFFERS TO PURCHASE and FALSIFYING CONTRACTS.

 

CODE OF ETHICS

CODE OF ETHICS: The following Code of Ethics has been adopted as a Rule and Regulation of the Virgin Islands Real Estate Commission:

Article 3

It is the duty of the broker to protect the public against fraud, misrepresentation or unethical practices in the real estate field. He should endeavor to eliminate in his community any practices which could be damaging to the public or to the dignity and integrity of the real estate profession. The broker should assist the commission charged with regulating the practices of brokers and salesmen in his Territory.

Article 11

In accepting employment as an agent, the Broker pledges himself to protect and promote the interests of the client. This obligation of absolute fidelity to the client's interest is primary, but it does not relieve the Broker from the obligation of dealing fairly with all parties to the transaction.

Article 20

In the event that more than one formal written offer on a specific property is made before the owner has accepted an offer, any other formal written offer presented to the Broker, whether by a prospective purchaser or another broker, should be transmitted to the owner for his decision.

OFFERS TO PURCHASE: A broker or salesman shall promptly tender to seller any signed offer to purchase the property involved...

FALSIFYING CONTRACTS: No broker nor salesman shall represent to a lender or any other interested party, either verbally or through the preparation of a false sales contract, an amount in excess of the true and actual sellinprice. Such practice constitutes a gross misrepresentation.

 

 

Article 3 talks about fraud. Article 11 describes Mr. Hanley’s fiduciary duty which he totally trashed. And article 20, topic OFFERS TO PURCHASE, and topic FALSIFYING CONTRACTS would be brought up when dealing with Mr. Hanley lying about a second offer on my house.

Fraud was the crime that was first suggested by Renee Petersen from the Attorney General’s office when I spoke with her regarding my problems with Mr. Hanley. Later when I contacted Assistant Attorney General Pryor, we talked about the possibility of a criminal case based on fraud. She went so far as to explain how I would proceed by reporting the crime to the Virgin Islands Police who would assign an investigator. She urged me not to proceed but she did send all my documentation to the DOJ investigators. Eventually common sense won out because involving the Attorney General’s office in a squabble between a real estate broker and a client is a terrible waste of the Territory’s time and money. Although I did picture Mr. Hanley in an orange jumpsuit.

 

 

I’ve stated this before, it is within the authority of the REC to help people. Instead they wring their hands and whine about “obsolete” rules and regs. If they don’t like them, all they have to do is change them. This is a copy and paste from article #9 of my blog -

“… this is a good time to make something perfectly clear. Ms. Harris refers to these obsolete rules and regulations. Mr. Alfred is referring to these same rules and regs when he tries to explain why they can’t help me. This needs to be clearly understood. THE REAL ESTATE COMMISSION WRITES THEIR OWN RULES AND REGULATIONS.

 2019 US Virgin Islands Code
Title 27 - Professions and Occupations
Chapter 15 - Real Estate Brokers and Salesmen
§ 422. Duties of Real Estate Commission

·                  In addition to any other powers and duties that may be provided by law, the Commission shall administer the provisions of this chapter, except as otherwise specifically provided, and without limitation on the generality of the foregoing shall have the powers and duty to—

o        (6) adopt, amend and repeal rules and regulations and bylaws not inconsistent with the provisions of this chapter relating to the organization and operation of the Commission and the licensing under this chapter of real estate brokers and real estate salesmen, which rules, regulations or bylaws shall be approved by the Governor.

 

And I certainly doubt that the Governor will refuse to accept a change in the rules and regs if it is done for the good of the people. If the REC feels that they aren’t empowered to help people, all they have to do is to amend the necessary rules so that they are empowered. Case closed.”

 

 

I consider the Real Estate Commission to be a scam. Follow this logic. The REC says that they are only empowered to revoke licenses, no other remedies are permitted. Based on this, a complainant is only able to ask for one of two possible determinations, either the revocation of a broker’s license or “something else”. The vast majority of people are going to ask for something else, like the new refrigerator that their broker promised that would come with their new house, or needed repairs to a cistern that the broker assured them was in good shape, or some other financial pain inflicted by a broker like being cheated out of $22,500. Therefore, the vast majority of complainants should end up receiving the exact letter that I received telling them that NO HELP IS AVAILABLE and to GO AWAY. And for this large group of people, the REC should not have to write any special or unique letter. It should already be written and available as a form letter. The fact that they do not have this form letter means that no one has ever gotten to the point that I am at. And seeing as I needed the assistance of one former senator, two current senators and the commissioner of the DLCA plus wasting three and a half years of my life, makes it absolutely obvious, no one has ever gotten to the point that I am at. They have never responded to a complainant before. All other complainants were simply ignored until they went away.

I know of a friend of a friend who was cheated out of a finder’s fee of a few thousand dollars by a broker. This woman had documentation to prove it and submitted a complaint to the REC. She tried for over a year to get help from the REC and eventually gave up. Logic dictates that the REC has NEVER helped anyone. And to prove this, I intend to ask the Governor to share with the people the yearly reports that he receives from the REC listing complaints and resolutions.

2019 US Virgin Islands Code
Title 27 - Professions and Occupations
Chapter 15 - Real Estate Brokers and Salesmen
§ 422. Duties of Real Estate Commission

Universal Citation: V.I. Code tit. 27, § 422 (2019)

·                  In addition to any other powers and duties that may be provided by law, the Commission shall administer the provisions of this chapter, except as otherwise specifically provided, and without limitation on the generality of the foregoing shall have the powers and duty to—

 

o        (3) keep records of its proceedings;

o        (5) submit to the Governor through the Commissioner of Licensing and Consumer Affairs annual reports containing a summary of its work, a register of all persons licensed under the provisions of this chapter, and such other data as the Governor or the Commissioner of Licensing and Consumer Affairs may request or as may be deemed proper by the Commission;

 

 

 

There is another subject that I will include in my letter to the Governor. It has to do with what the people of the Virgin Islands must be able to expect from the Real Estate Commission. Most people have heard the stories of King Solomon who was the biblical king of Israel, charged by his father, David, to exercise righteous judgment over the people. He held court and made decisions using wisdom and compassion.

Most people who approach the REC are going to be ordinary citizens who have been mistreated by an unscrupulous broker or agent. They will not be lawyers, rocket scientists, or idiots like me who have years to waste. These people desperately need a Real Estate Commission that uses wisdom and shows compassion to help them get their lives back on track.

 

 

On the DLCA website, one of the legal division’s responsibilities is listed as, “…representing the Department and consumers on legal matters.” I am asking for you to be present at the Fact-Finding-Meeting videoconference that Mr. Alfred will be scheduling. If necessary, I could make the request to Commissioner Hodge. In my letter to Mr. Alfred, “I asked Assistant Attorney General, Patricia Lynn Pryor if there is a mechanism whereby the AG could offer an opinion as to whether the actions that the law requires for revocation of a license have been committed rather than leaving it up to lay people who might not understand the necessary actions required to have committed each of the above offenses.” I feel it would be a better idea that the DLCA legal counsel be present rather than trying to involve the AG’s office.

 

Finally, though it’s been asked for many times by different people, it has never been delivered. Could you please email me a copy of Mr. Hanley’ response?

Sincerely,

David Mattera 

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Melanie Fenzel

Mon, Jul 8,

to me, Nathalie, lalfredlaw@gmail.com, Christina, chris@chrishanley.com, Sharene, KERRI@CHRISHANLEY.COM

Good day, Mr. Mattera.

You are entitled to file a writ of review with the Superior Court under 27 V.I.C. 1421-1423 and the corresponding court rules. You can contact the VI Superior Court for more information.

Note: I am certain that the names of Commission members have always been listed. The rules & regs have been there since I remember.

Best regards,

Melanie

Melanie Anne Fenzel

Department of Licensing and Consumer Affairs

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Previously I asked Mr. Alfred a bunch of questions. Knowing that his only goal is to make me go away, I never expected a response from him. However, when Melanie demonstrated that for the six month delay of my letter, she was willing to fall on her sword for Mr. Alfred, she seemed honorable so I cut her some slack. Believe it or not, I was hopeful that Melanie might answer some of my questions. When will I learn? The simple question of who wrote the letter she absolutely had to answer but she didn’t. Her comment about the names of the REC members is a lie. In 2020, I desperately looked for those names. I scoured the DLCA website from top to bottom. I found the VI Board of Real Estate Appraisers members easily. The REC members were not anywhere to be found. I mention this in article #1 of my blog that I guarantee every current REC member has read. Magically, those names appeared.

 

In my response to Mr. Alfred I described the individual paragraphs of his letter -

First paragraph has a simple theme. It says, “GO AWAY.”

Second paragraph says, “WE WILL TELL YOU NOTHING.”

Third paragraph says, “WE HAVE NO INTENTION OF TAKING ANY ACTION AGAINST MR. HANLEY BUT YOU’LL NEVER KNOW BECAUSE OF THE SECOND PARAGRAPH.”

 

I described the fourth paragraph as, “EVEN THOUGH WE TOOK THREE AND A HALF YEARS TO SEND THIS LETTER, YOU ONLY HAVE THIRTY DAYS TO DO ANYTHING ABOUT IT.” In Melanie’s response to me she requotes this fourth paragraph instead of answering my questions and requests. Her deceptive helpfulness that a court of law might help me is cruel.

 

Mr. Alfred’s first paragraph feigns helpfulness by suggesting that to get what I want I must take Mr. Hanley to court. I explained in article #1 of my blog that a helpful lawyer told me after reading all my documents that if I took Mr. Hanley to court he expected that I would win $22,500. This number is arrived at quite easily. I would be taking Mr. Hanley to Civil Court. Civil Court only deals with money, not crime. The number of $22,500 is simply the difference between what Mr. Hanley lied to me was the price I was offered for my home of $695,000 and the final amount of money I received after his unallowed negotiations of $672,500. The lawyer went on to say that his likely fee would be about that same amount. The REC knows that taking brokers to court is a really bad idea for a complainant; and yet they continually advise it as if they’re being helpful.

 

When Melanie Fenzel wrote that I can file a writ of review with the Superior Court, she is acting far worse than Mr. Alfred's feigned helpfulness. She is now into malevolence or purposeful evil. The following is from the Superior Court’s website.

Rule 15. Writs of review

(a) A writ of review may be granted by the Court upon the petition of any person aggrieved by the decision or determination of an officer, board, commission, authority or tribunal. Such petition shall be filed within 30 days after the date of the decision or determination complained of and shall recite such decision or determination and set forth the errors alleged to have been committed therein. The petition shall be signed by the petitioner or his attorney, and shall be accompanied by the certificate of the attorney that he has examined the process or proceeding and the decision or determination therein sought to be reviewed, that the same is in his opinion erroneous and that the petition is not filed for delay.

(b) Before granting the writ the Court shall require the petitioner to post a surety bond subject to its approval and in the amount to be fixed by the Court in order to ensure that the petitioner will obey the determination on or decision sought to be reviewed and perform his obligations there under in case it is affirmed by the Court upon review.

(c) If the Court grants the writ and the petitioner files the bond required by this rule, the clerk shall issue the writ directed to the officer, board, commission, authority or tribunal whose decision or determination is to be reviewed or to the clerk or other person having custody of his or its records or proceedings requiring him, it or them to return the writ to the Court within 20 days together with a certified copy of the record of the proceedings in question in order that the same may be reviewed by the Court.

(d) The Court may, upon application by the petitioner, include in the writ a clause requiring the respondent officer, board, commission, authority or tribunal to desist from further proceedings in the matter under review until the final determination thereof by the Court.


Mr. Alfred sought to get rid of me by inviting me to waste my time. However, Atty. Fenzel seeks to get rid of me by causing myself harm. If I were to begin by paying a lawyer a large sum of money in order to start looking at things, what then? A decent lawyer would not be willing to file a certificate stating that the Commission’s determination is erroneous. However, if things did move forward, I would have to post a surety bond. And at this point, I would be into this mess by thousands and thousands of dollars; all before I lose. How do I know I will definitely lose? Easy, THE REC HAS DONE NOTHING WRONG.

 

Why would I say this after all my complaining about the REC? Well, it depends on how you define the word, “Wrong.” There are many ways something can be wrong. A judge only cares about one of those, “Legally wrong.” If you read the laws creating the REC and I urge you to, (all shown in article #8 of my blog) the law doesn’t state that the REC is actually required to do much of anything. The law leaves it open that they could do all sorts of wonderful things but they’re really not required to do anything. So, what’s a judge going to say other than, “Case dismissed”? And Melanie knows this.

 

That covers, “Legally Wrong.” There’s another kind of wrong that the Senate and Governor were thinking about when the laws for the REC were written. And that is, “Morally Wrong.” If you read the Rules and Regs of the Real Estate Commission (at the end of article #8) and go to the end of those, you will find the “CODE OF ETHICS.”  Ethics is a word that gets tossed around a lot when people talk about the real estate industry; I wonder why. The REC could enforce ethics on the brokers and agents that they license. The laws give the REC a wide range of options including the latitude to write their own rules. All of this was written in the hope that the REC will do the right thing and protect the People of the US Virgin Islands.

 

Unfortunately, the REC acts devoid of morality. They seek to crush the patience and willpower of complainants until they slink away. And in doing so, they have no problem with the anguish and financial harm that they cause. Specifically, in my case, I ask myself, why would the REC, a group of unpaid civil servants, seek to destroy my hope for justice, all to protect a broker who, in my opinion, committed a felony in order to receive $40,350 of my money? I just can’t figure this out.

 

I’m going to mention all of this in my letter to the Governor. The REC has essentially no oversight. The REC is within the Department of Licensing and Consumer Affairs (DLCA). However, the DLCA has no authority over the REC. This was explained to me by Commissioner Evangelista in the ZOOM meeting that was set up by the wonderful people from Senator Carrion’s office. The whole transcription is in my blog article #9 right after the screen shot showing the attendees.

 

“Commissioner Evangelista - Because contrary to what people think, I actually have no real direct power and control over the board. They are who they are…      But when something is not within my jurisdiction, I don’t actually overstep but because your grievance has been so       has been dragged out so long, I’m actually going to intercede at this point.”

 

Does anyone have any authority over the Real Estate Commission? The law that sets up the REC allows the Governor to remove members for cause. But how would the Governor ever know that there was any cause since the REC strives to keep all their insidious dealings hidden? I hope my letter will show the agony that a member of the public is forced to endure merely to get a letter after three and a half years that says, “GET LOST”.