My soon to be brother-in-law (Cliff Rece) is the one that started the law suit against Dominion. Here's the article that was in the dispatch.
based builder on behalf of all customers who bought houses with down-payment gifts and interest-rate subsidies.
The homeowners, who live in Galloway Ridge and the Village at Galloway Ridge on the Far West Side, claim they were victims of fraud because the incentives were added into the cost of their houses without their knowledge.
"The effect of the scheme employed by Dominion Homes is to sell homes to unsuspecting consumers worth far less than the amount financed and less than the amount of the appraisal," says the class-action suit filed in Franklin County Common Pleas Court.
Thousands of Dominion homeowners in Central Ohio could be affected.
Dominion executives have not yet received a copy of the lawsuit.
"I'm going to have to read it before I can comment," Dominion vice president Thomas L. Hart said.
Homeowners Clifford and Shannon Rece, of Galloway Ridge, and Christopher and Amanda Endl, of the neighboring Village at Galloway Ridge, said in the lawsuit that they are victims of predatory lending.
Also named in the lawsuit are Dominion's appraisal company, Valuation Resources, and charitable organizations including the Nehemiah Corp. of America, a California-based nonprofit that provides down-payment "gifts." Dominion then reimbursed Nehemiah for the gifts and paid a service fee.
The homeowners are seeking at least $25,000 in damages, attorney fees and a court order prohibiting Dominion from, among other things, offering down-payment gifts and interest-rate subsidies.
It is the first civil action filed by customers against Dominion Homes since its business practices have come under scrutiny by the Ohio Attorney General's Office and the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.