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Reply to Texas Atty's Post: This is very long, be prepared:
My husband contacted a man named Roy Holley, recommended to him through the person we were going to rent a lot from. He came to my house, looked at it and the axels (I told him the frame was bent) and we agreed on a price of $1500 for tear down and set up. He asked for half up front and half after set up. I agreed, because I knew this was what other dealers had asked for and I called about 15 of them. I wrote him a check, which he took straight to the bank and cashed. I asked him to also meet us at the lot the trailer was going to, and to drive the route between the two points to make sure there wouldn't be any unexpected problems on his end, and any unexpected expenses on my end. I had to take out a couple of loans just to get the money to begin with, and I didn't want anything to happen that I couldn't pay for. He agreed that everything was okay, and he would be out Saturday July 5 to move the trailer. He assured us he was legal to move a trailer in Ohio and he would have a permit. On Saturday, he never showed up. He said he would be there at 8, and my husband finally got ahold of him at 1, and he insisted that he was coming, but he never did. This went on for several days, and he finally showed up to move the trailer. He tore up one end of it while he was moving, but he said he would take care of it. I have pictures of the damage, and in one spot you can see straight into the trailer. He then moved the trailer about half a mile down the road, and demanded my husband give him $1000 or he wouldn't go any further. I was at work during this part. My husband of course refused, stating that he didn't get the second half until the trailer was set up, and also that was more money than we agreed on. Roy said it was to cover his gas and other expenses. I called him and he insisted that he didn't ask for $1000, but only for $200 to repair an axel that was bent. I told him that was fine as long as it came out of the total we owed: $750. That night he met me after work and I gave him $200 cash, which I had him sign a reciept for. The next day he would be there at 8 to move the trailer. During this conversation, again the question of whether he was legal came up, and again he said he was. The next day at noon he showed up to replace the axel and finally move the trailer. After about an hour, my husband called me and asked me to bring him our kids' carseats. I informed Roy that I would be leaving for about half an hour, and not to leave if he got it fixed before I got back. He said, "Don't worry, we're gonna be here a while." When I was about 10 minutes from where the trailer sat, on my way back, I got a phone call saying that Roy had been pulled over. I figured it wasn't that big of a deal since he was legal, right? Though I was mad that he didn't wait for me. The state police officers that pulled him over told me he had no proof of insurance, no permit, and no license to move a trailer, and he was also swaying all over the road because HE DIDN'T REPLACE THE AXEL! Roy assured me that he was in fact legal, he just didn't have proof with him. I was too angry to say anything, and upset about being homeless another night - so when he left and said he would be back at 6:30, but never showed up, I just called him and told him to be there in the morning. He then said he needed to get a permit, but at the same time told my mom he was legal. I finally had had enough, and found another person that was willing to take payments to move the trailer. He said we would need to go to the courthouse to get a permit to move, and it was only $5. I did just that, and then found out that the back taxes had to be paid current before we could move out of the county. That was $1300 we didn't have. My mother (the actual owner of the trailer) had been paying payments on the taxes, but they said that wasn't good enough. The county auditor asked me to wait, and an hour later a secretary called me back to tell me the bank was on the phone for me. At this point it was 2:30 on a Friday afternoon. Katrina at OVB informed me that if we didn't get the taxes paid for, and the trailer moved before the end of the business day, they would come to collect "their asset that is sitting on the side of the road, unsecured." I told her where it was at, I was able to check on it 4-5 times a day, and the sherrif was also asked to look in on it, since it was sitting in a spot normally patrolled by them. The bank was not agreeable to this, and they came and took our home to a mobile home lot in Gallipolis, OH. Their "secure" site was not very secure, because I was robbed while the trailer had sat there. I lost thousands of dollars worth of belongings, as well as some of my kids' things that couldn't be replaced. The bank insists that they arent responsible, but the police tell me otherwise. Anyway, that is another issue in itself.
What everything comes down to is this: If Roy hadn't lied about being legal, I would have found out that the taxes needed to be paid before it was ever moved the first time. The bank would have never had a reason to take the trailer if it hadn't been sitting on the side of the road "unsecured". I never would have lost the things that I did, and my family wouldn't have been homeless if it wasn't for Roy's lie. Everything that happened was a direct result of his lie, and really I think we should be entitled to more than what we paid him, but I just want to pay off the loans that we took out. We filed a civil suit today, and are waiting to hear when our court date is. What should I do to help make sure we get our money back?