pre-divorce house sale scam

Nina is 34 and separated with two children. She thought her marital troubles were over until she agreed with her husband's request to sell the family home prior to divorce.

"It seemed a reasonable sort of request - better to clear up all matters between us as quickly as possible," explains Nina, "and when I approached the Kettles they understood my situation perfectly."

"I know that real estate agents are supposed to be as snaky as used car salesmen," says Nina, "but the husband and wife team that ran one of the local real estate agencies looked as down to earth as Ma and Pa Kettle - and that's why I call them the Kettles."

"They just didn't look like snake oil scammers," confesses Nina, "and that's why I trusted them over all of the other agents with the sale of the family house. How dumb of me! Their mild looks and manner belied what they were really like!"

"They told me that they had helped lots of women in my situation and encouraged me to relax and let them do all the worrying."

"When a nice old couple take you under their wing and tell you that everything is going to be alright you want to believe them, you want to trust them, and I did," sighs Nina. "I guess being the baby of my family has affected me in that way. I am far to quick to trust people and let them take care of me."

"The first thing they told me was that I should auction my house rather than go for a private sale," says Nina, "and my ex agreed that even if we didn't get top dollar for the house it was worth a small loss to get the house sold quickly. That should have caused my alarm bells to go off - but it didn't. For a man who was a congenital liar - and would sell his own grandmother for a quick buck - I should have been on my guard, but since our separation I guess I was so glad to be out of the marriage that I didn't imagine I was still at risk."

"The Kettles said that I'll have no problem selling at auction, the market was booming, the buyers were banging on their door and to clench their certainty about the auction they suggested I move out of the house into an apartment."

"They told me that I wouldn't have to worry about the kids messing up the place during the auction period if I moved out," says Nina, "and they convinced me that it was a smart thing to do."

"I was a bit wary about contracting to rent an apartment before the house was sold," confides Nina, "but the Kettles were adamant that they knew what was best for me - it will all be over in six weeks, they said, and then I wouldn't have to worry about finding a place to live in a hurry when the house sold at auction."

"It made sense to me and the Kettles found me an apartment the same day I signed the auction papers," says Nina. "The kids and I moved into the apartment the same week."

"The first few weeks in the apartment were great," confesses Nina. "I was starting a new direction - my future looked bright and rosy - and I was so grateful to the Kettles for taking charge and relieving me of all the stress of selling."

"I'm a Gemini, you see," confesses Nina. "I'm all nervous energy and the slightest thing stresses me to pieces. As if I didn't have enough stress in my life with the separation and two kids to look after!"

"I checked on the house every few days to empty the mailbox and sweep the paths," says Nina, "and apart from discovering once that they had left a window open I was reasonably satisfied that they were doing a good job."

"I'd speak to them before and after every inspection day, and they never said anything to indicate that there hadn't been lots of interest in the house."

"In the third week of the auction period I couldn't find the auction advertisement in the newspaper," explains Nina. "My stress levels went sky high when I saw, instead, an advertisement for my house with a price attached to it that was half the value of the land without a house on it!"

"I went straight to the Kettles and demanded to know what they were doing," says Nina, "and they just smiled sweetly and said that the auction advertisements hadn't attracted much interest so they were trying to drum up interest with a bargain sale type advertisement."

"Because my address wasn't on the advertisement, they could claim that it wasn't my house at all!"

"I was shocked because what they had done was fraudulent. They had put a ridiculous price on my house and had abrogated the auction advertisement contract."

"On their advice I had contracted for an expensive auction campaign and they had not only misinformed me about the market but they had also failed to inform me of their intention to insert the fraudulent advertisement. Their behavior was totally unethical."

"They told me that I had given them carte blanche to sell the house," says Nina, "but that's not true. I didn't give them the right to place fraudulent advertisements. I had signed an auction agreement, and an auction campaign was what I expected."

"I told my ex what had happened and he cautioned me about dumping the Kettles," says Nina. "He told me to relax and let the Kettles do their job. He had absolute faith in them, and - like he always did when I disagreed with him - he accused me of being paranoid. That did it! I then became suspicious about his involvement with the Kettles behind my back."

"It was to his advantage as well as mine that the house sold at the best price we could get for it. The price the Kettles had put on the house in the dummy advertisement was abominable. What was going on?"

"I wasn't divorcing my husband for nothing," explains Nina. "He had been a secretive, manipulative guy from the start - always wheeling and dealing - and it suddenly occurred to me that he may have had a private deal with the Kettles and a stooge buyer that would give him, and them, a financial advantage."

"By moving me into the apartment, the Kettles - and probably my ex - thought they had me at their mercy and could rip me off easily," says Nina, "but they thought wrong."

"On legal advice I terminated both the auction contract and the tenancy contract on grounds of breach of the auction agreement and moved right back into the house," laughs Nina. "The Kettles and my ex didn't have a leg to stand on and were speechless!"

"The Kettles had shown stacks of people through the house on the basis of the fraudulent advertisement," says Nina, "and I felt more sorry for these people than I did for myself."

"One young couple actually knocked on the door a few weeks later wanting another look at the house, and when I told them what the Kettles had done they were very upset because they loved the house and confided that they did think it very odd that it was selling so cheaply and wondered what was wrong with it."

"After that," says Nina, "I decided not to sell the house until the divorce was finalized - if at all - and my ex, naturally, wasn't happy about this. In fact he was furious - which suggests I was on the right track to suspect him of some sort of complicity. There was no legal requirement for me to sell the house before the divorce was finalized. I'd thwarted him and that's why he was furious."

"I was absolutely frazzled with all the moving I had done and all the stress the Kettles had put me through," says Nina, "and although my ex was required to pay half of the abortive auction costs he refused to pay half of the costs I had to pay renting the apartment for myself and the kids."

"Sure, I got myself into debt - I had to borrow money from my big sister to pay the rent and legal costs - but the greatest cost, really, was all the stress I had to go through," says Nina. "How stupid of me to trust real estate agents and to believe that my ex wouldn't want to screw me one final time!"

"I'm sure that there must be honest and trustworthy real estate agents out there - and honest and trustworthy men, too," sighs Nina, "but after my recent experiences I have nothing but disgust and loathing for all of them. It's the single life for me from now on!"

"I've also decided to hang on to the house for as long as I can," says Nina. "After all, I'm the one left with the kids and my ex will discover that there's no court in the land that can force me to sell, especially when another stressful period of selling, after all I've been through, is likely to make me ill and incapable of looking after the children."

"Serves him right for not playing fair with me when I was willing to sell," snaps Nina. "I was even willing to find a job and not depend on him for maintenance, but not any more. He's going to pay big time to keep me in the luxury of being a stay-at-home mom for as long as I feel like it."

"Woe betide anyone who tries to outsmart me again!"

(Nina's story first appeared as the kettles and is reprinted with permission.)