In July of last year we told you about Richard Gentry, a retired US attorney who claimed that his local lawyer, Arthur Saldivar had defrauded him of $13,900.00 dollars. It was to pay stamp duty so that Gentry could get clear title for the Condo unit he was living on at Reef Village in San Pedro. Years passed, no title was forthcoming and, neither was any refund or disciplinary action. So Gentry came to 7news - and according to reports - he did end up getting his refund.
And that's the same thing that a retired couple from Michigan want. They got caught in the same bad deal - and today in San Pedro they told us that they paid Saldivar $6,500 US dollars three years ago - and have not gotten title or their money back. They said that they had no choice but to come to the media:..
John Englehardt
"We retained his service in order to obtained title for our condo and he assured us that we will have our title within 4 weeks after we pay our stamp duty tax and his fees to him which we did. It is now 2013 and we still haven't received title and Mr. Saldivar repeatedly fails to answer or correspond with us in any way shape or form. We have emailed him numerous times and he fails to reply back, so we are lost and we are not the only ones in this position."
Cynthia Englehardt
"There are 10 of us that I know of that are in this situation, so we talking somewhere between $75,000 - $100,000 that Mr. Saldivar has taken from us."
John Englehardt
"I tried to call him from the US in last year and no return call."
Cynthia Englehardt
"The primary mode of conversation has been via email. At first in 2010 when we initiated this he was communicating back and forth but when it became apparent that there was an issue he drop communications. At this juncture I really don't know where to turn which is
why we came to you people - can you help us? We are not the only people that I believe that this man has taken advantage of. We are not affluent Americans; we are all hard working people. This was our retirement and our dream and he has taken that away from us."
As we understand it, there is no strata plan in place, meaning that clear title cannot be obtained. We did call Saldivar today who told us that he will return money to them and others, but, quote, "it is a process." He adds that titles for those properties are still not being given. As for being incommunicado with the couple since 2010, he tells us that he responded to their email just yesterday - a claim with the Englehardt's deny.
Email
Print