September 18, 2008
city warns of house demolition scam
A press release issued this morning by the Richmond Police Department and the City Attorney’s Office seeks “to advise residents not to believe any letters they may receive that offer to buy their homes to save them from demolition.”
“It has been brought to our attention that a private home-buying company has mailed a letter to at least one homeowner in the City of Richmond. The homeowner was advised that their home was slated for demolition, and the company was offering to buy it to prevent this destruction,” said Tony Pham with the Richmond City Attorney’s Office.
“The home in question was not slated for demolition and it appears that the company may have been using this misstatement in an effort to purchase the house at below its actual value.”
The Richmond Police Department and the Richmond Commonwealth’s Attorney’s Office are working closely with the City Attorney’s Office to determine if any laws were broken by the home buying company.
“At this point we are still actively investigating this situation to determine if a criminal offense took place,” said Lt. Harvey Powers with the Richmond Police Department. “Instead of waiting until we can proceed with charges, we wanted to warn everyone in the community.”
If you have received one of these letters, please contact Tony Pham in the Richmond City Attorney’s office at 646-3388. Anyone who needs to determine if their property is actually slated for demolition by the City of Richmond should call the City’s 311 Call Center.
Oh my gosh. My neighbor across the street just dug into her savings to paint her house after getting a note from the city and two unsolicited offers to buy her house. Apparently someone, probably the people responsible for the offers, has been reporting to the city that her house is in disrepair. The paint was peeling in a few places, but there are worse houses sitting around here that the city is doing nothing about.
My neighbor’s situation reminds me of another CH resident who claimed that someone was trying to take her house away by getting the city on her back about repairs. It was in a post a couple of months ago. I guess these developers are targeting older people by scaring them into selling their house.