When
I first arrived in Cuenca in 2011 there was barely a pulse of a real-estate
market in the city. Generally, somebody new to Cuenca who sought a rental,
or a house or condo to purchase would hire a translator for about $7.50 per
hour; who would take the prospective buyer or renter to see possible properties
and serve as an intermediary between the seller and the buyer, or the renter and the landlord. This method is still frequently used in Cuenca.
Since 2011, however, the
real-estate market has also developed. More real-estate firms
have been created, legally formalized, and generally will now charge a three
percent commission. Rules and training, if any, for real-estate personnel, to the best of my knowledge, is left up to the individual agencies. There are
no particular requirements and qualifications that require potential
real-estate agents to earn a license of any sort.
One
of the problems in using a real-estate person or a facilitator is that particularly
where a property deed is needed, attorneys must be used to protect the buyer's
interest. Attorneys will conduct the search needed to determine the
number of deed owners, that all owners are indeed selling the property and sign-off on the property, and
that the dimensions of the property being purchased are in fact stated in the
deed and are accurate. The use of an attorney while not required by law
is a must when buying property in Ecuador, if one wishes to protect one's
rights when transacting real-estate.
Similarly,
even a short-term rental should never be transacted without a lease
involvement. Short-term lease rentals become more difficult to transact when
the renter is in a foreign country, and attempts to transact a future rental
long-distance. Oftentimes, a lease may not be signed until after the renter arrives in Ecuador. At a minimum before the renter forwards any money, any rental should involve paper-work which
spells out the parties involve, the date of transaction, the duration of the
lease and specific time parameters, the rental amount, and specific utilities
involved, and whether or not pets are allowed, as well as the names and other information of the individual or lease firm involved. All of this can be transacted by Internet. More importantly, if
you are using an individual or some type of rental management service be sure that you have
access to the name, address, and phone number of the landlord. If the
management service or individual will not provide such information do not use
them.
The landlord information is very important. It often
happens that an intermediary will charge an exorbitant security deposit or will
hike up the price of rent whether short or long-term, if they are renting you
the property. This is more likely to happen if you are to make your
monthly payments to a manager instead of directly to the landlord. Such
attempts are more likely when the landlord is living in the United States and
will often not know that the person or agency representing the landlord is
bilking the renters,
This
week's post is primarily about one couple who had the misfortune of utilizing
the services of one highly unscrupulous agent. The Nelsons are a couple
who are avid followers of my blog post for years, and accredit my blog
for a significant part of their allure to investigate Cuenca as a potential
retirement site. No one traveling or moving to
Cuenca should have to endure their experience. If anybody can inform us
with the name and possible contact information of the American landlord who most likely has
no idea what legal transactions have transpired, it would be much
appreciated. Here is the story in Nelson and Rebecca Ellison's own words. (The only change I made was to bold face the name of Beth Nielsen Gavilanes throughout the text.):
Nelson Allison and Family
__________________________________
Hi fellow Gringos, my name
is Nelson Allison. My wife Rebecca, my two adult sons Ben and Brian and I came
to Ecuador for one month in February 2015 for a family vacation and to research
it as a possible retirement location.
After arriving to our
rental in Cuenca, I could not believe my luck to have rented the one condo in
Cuenca where I would fall victim to a woman posing as a professional real
estate rental agent who ruined our vacation with threats and attempts at
extortion. Her name is Beth Nielsen Gavilanes. She somehow convinced the owner
of apartment 13I in the Palermo building to let her list their condo at on
HomeAway.com and take the position of managing agent.
Our story is below but is
incomplete purposely because of ongoing litigation with Beth Nielsen Gavilanes.
If you have had a bad rental
or real estate experience with Beth Nielsen Gavilanes — please post here or
email me
We must stop people like
her giving Cuenca a bad reputation. Please help! Our thanks in advance to you!
Nelson Allison and Family
__________________________________
Rebecca
and I run a small resort of seven log cabins called Asheville River Cabins in
North Carolina that we are looking to retire from soon.
One may
ask by what qualifications can I make such a statement that this woman was not the professional she claims
to be. Well, for one because I have been a professional real estate
broker since as far back as the 70’s. Prior to that, I was a college
professor. I also taught real estate courses as required by the licensing
board. I was the owner of The Allison Company, a commercial real estate company
in Raleigh, NC and the first to market multi-million dollar office condominium
complexes in North Carolina.
I’m
also a graduate of the Realtors Institute with a GRI designation. Rebecca was
also a licensed broker as well as an appraiser. She worked with state
government and rose to a position as head of the appraiser section in
Asheville, NC. So yes, we are qualified to make a judgment call on the
professionalism of someone who is engaged in real estate rental activities.
Our
opinion is that lack of professionalism is too much of an understatement.
Individuals with her lack of moral ethics should not be allowed to participate
in this type of industry. In the U.S., if she were ever smart enough to
pass the tests and get a license she would have lost it for the kind of
activities she now engages in. In fact, that would just be the beginning of her
problems in the U.S. Where what she is doing is considered a crime.
Extortion
occurs when someone attempts to obtain money or property by threatening to
commit a harmful action against the victim. In addition to fines, if a
person is convicted of extortion she must often pay restitution to the victim
Extortion
is also a crime in Ecuador like the U.S. but only after the act. But attempted
extortion is called 'contravención' is a misdemeanor violation of law.
People
like Beth Nielsen Gavilanes, must get excited as Ecuador is like the Wild West,
and anything goes. For example, her threats and actions made on vacationing
families like ours.
Since
we did not give into her threats of eviction for more money, she preceded to
turn off the cable TV and Wi-Fi service to the condo after the first week.
She
sent threats saying that if we did not pay extra that she would show up with the
Police and evict us. Our vacation was ruined by her actions!
My
Ecuadorian attorney presented our case to the Court of Tenancy and won.
Special
Judgment No. 0140120150062 following [NELSON BURGEN ALLISON] against [BETH ANN
NIELSEN GAVILANES ] from the Court of Tenancy. Below is the Judgment:
62-2015
Cuenca, 26 February 2015. 15h12. SEEN:
BETH
ANN NIELSEN GAVILANES in a totally abusive act without legal reason attempted
to charge an additional payment after the reservation was made, the verbal
contract closed and the payment made. The refusal of Mr. Allison to
accept the illegality of the demand and make the extortion payment, inspired
BETH ANN NIELSEN GAVILANES to implement a campaign of harassing emails. These
emails threatened; to cancel the prepaid reservation and to bring the
police to evict his family from the unit. BETH ANN NIELSEN GAVILANES then
proceeded to turn-off Internet and cable TV service to the unit. This
harassment made for an atmosphere of insecurity and a situation that undermines
the peace and emotional stability of the visiting family.
Beth
Nielsen Gavilanes was ordered by the court to proceed immediately to restore
Internet and cable TV service to the property and to refrain from impeding or
interfering with Mr. Allison’s lawful occupation of the property.
What
was her response to this Special Judgment?
She did
not turn the cable TV or the Wi-Fi back on, and she did not stop with her email
threats of showing up at the door with the police to evict us at any moment.
Again,
if you have had a bad experience with her; please post here or email me at: nelson@parkwaylane.com.
We must
stop people like her giving Cuenca a bad reputation. Please help!
Thanks,
Nelson Allison & Family
