Mobile Home Dealer Pockets Customer Cash, Then Fails To Deliver To Some, Sells Damaged, Mold-Vulnerable Houses To Others, Says NC AG

From the Office of the North Carolina Attorney General:

• A Robeson County manufactured home dealer cannot take new orders or accept payments until all previous orders have been filled or consumers have gotten their money back, Attorney General Roy Cooper announced [].
  
  
• “Consumers deserve to be treated fairly when they buy a home, and they deserve homes that are safe to live in,” Cooper said. “People should get what they paid for and receive a refund if they don’t.”
  
  
• Cooper filed suit [...] against McMillian Properties of Shannon and its manager, Bradley McMillian, for a variety of violations including taking consumers’ money but failing to deliver homes as promised and selling damaged homes that were virtually uninhabitable. He is seeking a permanent ban on the defendants’ unfair business practices, refunds for consumers, and civil penalties.

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• As alleged in the Attorney General’s complaint, McMillian Properties regularly misled consumers about the condition of the homes it sold. Many of the homes were unfit to live in due to mold and structural problems. When consumers complained, the company promised to make repairs but failed to keep their promises.
  
  
• Cooper contends that some consumers never even received their homes from McMillian Properties, despite having paid for them. Instead, the company offered excuses about why the home couldn’t be delivered, and refused to provide refunds.
  
  
• For example, as explained in an affidavit filed with the complaint, one 93-year-old woman paid McMillian Properties $25,000 for a manufactured home so that she could move out of an assisted living facility. The home was supposed to be delivered by February 1 but Bradley McMillian repeatedly told the woman’s neighbors, who were helping her make the purchase, that it was delayed due to bad weather and other excuses. In their final conversation, McMillian claimed that he was about to leave to pick up the home. The callers were outside and could see that McMillian and his equipment never left to go get the home.

For the North Carolina AG press release, see AG Cooper goes after shoddy manufactured home dealer (McMillian Properties can’t take new orders until previous customers are satisfied).