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.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
David Mattera vs Farchette Hanley
Closing Letter
|
|
|
||
|
||||
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.
|
|
|
“In Order to succeed, your desire for Success should be greater than your
fear of Failure”
-Unknown
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
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.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
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
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
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
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.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
|
|
|
||
|
||||
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
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
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 selling price. 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,
|
Mon, Jul 8, |
|
||
|
||||
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
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
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”.