‘A-class’ con artists dupe condo buyers

IT IS NOT just low to middle income-earners who are robbed of their dream homes by scheming real estate sellers. The well-to-do also fall victim to con artists of high-end reputable developers as this case shows.

In 2007, Fil-Brit couple Andrew and Leonila Gudgeon relocated from the United Kingdom to the Philippines for what they hoped to be their patch of tropical paradise in which to raise their two kids in the genteel surroundings of Bonifacio Global City – only to fall victim to a scam perpetrated by officials of an industry-respected developer.

Andrew Gudgeon took on a chemistry teaching post at the Ateneo de Manila University while his wife decided to take up further nursing studies as they planned ways to stash their entire conjugal savings in one safe investment.

Enticed by billboards and sales serenades of what we will tentatively refer to as the “A” (as in “top”) land firm, the Gudgeons thought that parking their entire lifesavings in “S” condominiums  – a flagship residential project of the “A” company – would be as safe as placing a time deposit in a bank untainted by money-laundering.

They thought wrong! The couple went to the “A” office to buy up to five “S” condos. They were initially told by a customer relations officer that all condo units had been sold out.

But when the couple expressed their readiness to make full payments for up to five condos from any “S”-branded project, the division manager “PA” and her assistant “MM” said they could sell them three “S” units and two other condos in another fast-selling “A” project.

The Gudgeons were apparently profiled as “rich foreigners” awash with cash, and the con was on! The couple fell for the siren call.

In accordance with a payment schedule provided by “PA” and “MM,” the Gudgeons visited the “A” office to issue their check payments corresponding to either their reservation fee or full payment for each of the five condos.

The couple signed documents handed to them by “PA” and “MM” that were supposed to be the Reservation Form, Contract to Sell and/or Deed of Absolute Sale.

No receiving copies were given by the duo who assured the couple that they would just take care of the paper work to expedite the transfer of the titles to the Gudgeons and that such titles will be personally delivered to the couple’s residence in Bonifacio Global City.

However, a few weeks later, after the Gudgeon’s first full payment for a condo in late 2007, “PA” and “MM” visited the couple and told them that in “helping” them purchase such difficult-to-buy “S” units, the duo were accused of violating a company rule prohibiting corporate officials from directly selling condos, a task of rank-and-file sales agents.

The duo then claimed that for fear of losing their jobs, they had registered the Gudgeons’ condo purchases under “dummy” names invented by “PA” and whose signatures were forged by “MM.”

The duo assured the couple though that it was just a temporary measure, that the Gudgeons will eventually receive their Condominium Certificates of Title and that they would fix the problem once the issue had cooled down in the “A” office.

• Buyer’s condos titled to fictitious persons

FOR TWO years, the Gudgeons were given the run around by “A” officials and office staffers when they pressed for the issuance of the titles under their names. It was only in 2010 that “PA” and “MM” handed the couple the documents pertaining to their purchase of the condos.

But much to their shock, anger and disbelief, all the titles corresponding to the condos had been issued under the names of fictitious individuals!

The Gudgeons never imagined in their wildest dreams that such sweet, kind professionals working as officers in a reputable land firm could in reality be stitching them up from the very start, and skillfully setting up such a clever ploy.

So the couple started to make noises in the “A” offices to get these criminal activities addressed. Realizing they had been hoodwinked, the Gudgeons pleaded for an audience with “A” top brass, but were ignored.

When “A” finally granted the request for a meeting in 2011, the company sent its public relations head accompanied by a battery of lawyers apparently to bully the Gudgeons into accepting their predicament.

The PR boss and the lawyers informed the Gudgeons that “A” did not accept that they had any proof of ownership of the five condos.

When the Gudgeons pointed out that they had access to all the checks used in their purchases, including their name and the identity of the condos, this was ridiculed with: “Oh, anybody can say stuff like that; it proves nothing.” The protesting Gudgeons were shown out of the building.

Throughout this “A”-class ordeal, the Gudgeon family’s financial resources hit critical levels, prompting Leonila Rangas Gudgeon, a registered nurse, to find employment abroad. She is now working as a care-giver in UK while her 70-year-old husband Andrew has had to stay behind to take legal action against four of “A” officers, including its president and three lawyers with criminal charges of estafa, falsification of public document and violation of PD 957 (Subdivision and Condominium Buyer’s Protective Decree).

The lawyers were the ones who had notarized the Special Powers of Attorney, Deeds of Absolute Sale and Contracts to Sell, denominating non-existent and fictitious persons as buyers and owners of all the condos despite never having met or seen any of them.

If justice is to be served, these corporate con artists deserve another kind of housing benefit – one just as exclusive as their “S” condos that provides free meals and 24-hour security: the New Bilibid Prison.

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