I'm blonde. Not stupid. Good grief -

[kyburg]

I came home last week on my lunch hour to meet with a very nice man from a contracting company associated with the Gas Company here in California to see about replacing windows in our house.

Very nice. Had to skip out to go back to work because, well, I have to make a living and my lunch hour is over. Gotta run.

But were were given a quote - a little over $7,000, to replace 12 windows. Okay, I don't have that in the bank (without touching my 401K, of course) - so go ahead, see if you can finance it.

Just got off the phone.

The dirty bastards tried to write it as a second on my home mortgage. A $7,000 loan. They wanted a $500,000 house (I just got a comp yesterday for a smaller lot with a duplex on it for $612,000 down the street) as collateral for a $7,000 loan.

Okay. Livid now.

Told them to go back and get an unsecured (don't know how unsecured it can be, they can come back and take the windows, fer crissakes) loan - or forget it.

Boy, they can forget it. They can SO FORGET IT.

Getting with the bitey stabby death here. Big time

Comments

[riverheart.livejournal.com]

A second, for that?! Riiiiight...

OTOH, if you did it via a home equity loan, I believe the interest would be tax-deductible since you're using the funds for home improvments. I Am Not A Tax Accountant, though.

[kyburg.livejournal.com]

You could - but you know, if I wanted that, I'd refinance the house and do the loan over and get the equity out of it instead.

I think the very idea that they wanted to write this loan so they could take the entire house if something happened and we couldn't satisfy the loan just irks me no end. How dare they. How dare they!

[joiseyguy.livejournal.com]

That's pricey for replacement windows. I got 14 triple-paned vinyl replacements installed for $3K in 2002.

[kyburg.livejournal.com]

Welcome to California, dude.

[penguido.livejournal.com]

What gets me is that they tried to get this loan without asking you first if securing it to your house was ok with you. That is wrong!! Compain, I say, compain, to the gas comapny, better business bureau, the city, etc.

[moropus.livejournal.com]

Please complain about this.

[kyburg.livejournal.com]

They get 24 hours. Then I start in.

[foogod.livejournal.com]

Well, fair enough, but it really shouldn't matter what they do in those 24 hours, though. You should still complain, loudly, to anybody who will listen (Gas company, PUC (don't forget the PUC), local papers and news stations, etc).

Who knows how many other (less savvy) people out there got duped into this and now have their homes riding on a couple of thousand dollar loan.. Or how many other people will be..

*nods*

[turandot.livejournal.com]

I doubt that this practice started with you, Donna, and I shouldn't wonder if they've already gotten away with swindling someone out of their homes with the practice (back when I lived in Chicago, there was a huge scandal over a couple of crooked lawyers who increased their personal fortunes on the backs of elderly home owners who forgot to pay their property taxes: the attorneys would pay the outstanding tax bill unbeknownst to the home owners, then sue them out of a house. The county didn't even blink at the practice until a newspaper report created a huge uproar over it).

Good grief, if they were on the up and up, they would have suggested that you take out a home equity loan as soon as you claimed you couldn't afford the job, instead of securing one using your home as a collateral. Is that even legal?

[georgelicious.livejournal.com]

bitey stabby death
That's my new favorite phrase.

[vampireanneke.livejournal.com]

I'm in california, your being WAY over charged. I've been quoted 100-150 for windows. Figure the windows take only an hour each to put in, (windows are very easy). That means your being charged 500 for each window and atleast 80 an hour for the labor.

[kyburg.livejournal.com]

If you've got someone to send my way, please do. I'm beyond pissed off.

The other quote I got was $12,000. Shit. You. Not.

[vampireanneke.livejournal.com]

Here is a website to a place in the 909 with costs of their windows even:

http://www.atiwindows.com/

[kyburg.livejournal.com]

Watch them scatter when I tell them I'm a 310 - but I'll give them a call. Thanks.

[vampireanneke.livejournal.com]

Just saying there are other places, more reasonably priced, so look around. Go to your local hardware store and see if they have a flyer board.

[tomlemos.livejournal.com]

I came home last week on my lunch hour to meet with a very nice man from a contracting company associated with the Gas Company here in California to see about replacing windows in our house.

That's where I'd make damn sure the folks down at the Gas Company know that someone they're sending around representing them is doing the bad part of trying to get second mortgages.

I'd be really surprised if the Gas Company didn't care.

[loveanddarkness.livejournal.com]

Oh that stinks 5 ways to Sunday. You need to write a nasty bitey stabby letter to them.

[7leaguebootdisk.livejournal.com]

Of course, they ajust about automatically get a lien against your house if you don't pay.

[amanda-nye.livejournal.com]

Yes, but they cannot force you out of a primary-residence house with a lein... they can only wait till you sell.

[advorpt.livejournal.com]

Wow. I guess that'd be a good deal if they could get it. *cough* :/ Seems more than a bit underhanded to conveniently omit telling you they want a second mortgage. Discussing their financing options are as important as the price they'll charge for the work. For me, this would throw their entire business practice into question and I'd likely look elsewhere.

On another note, they wouldn't necessarily get your house if you did take a second mortgage and subsequently defaulted on it, but still...they would have plenty of adequate legal recourse if you signed a contract for services and then didn't pay them. They certainly don't need to secure it with a mortgage.