Builder to resell Rivermist homes
Homes in the Rivermist neighborhoods that builder Centex Homes has offered to buy back will eventually be repaired and resold. Sherwin Tolentino, who is among the 27 evacuated homeowners who have had their certificates of occupancy revoked by the city, was told he had until Monday to accept the builder's buyback offer. The offer covers the purchase price, closing costs, moving expenses, home improvements, utilities for the last few months and some attorney fees. But Tolentino is unhappy that the offer does not include damages. He said he would have been in better financial shape if he had rented an apartment for the past few years, which would cost about half the price of his $2,000-a-month mortgage payment, and pocketed the rest in savings. “They're pressuring me to sign their proposal or they're going to kick me out,” Tolentino said. “It's just tough for me to swallow. I need to start my life all over again.”Dolenga said Tolentino is the only resident who was given a deadline for the buyback offer.

Builder to resell Rivermist homes
By Jennifer Hiller - Express-News
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Homes in the Rivermist neighborhoods that builder Centex Homes has offered to buy back will eventually be repaired and resold.

Centex has offered to buy back the homes of 27 residents who live close to a collapsed retaining wall, and so far the company says about two-thirds of the homeowners have agreed to the deal.

After the retaining wall is rebuilt — a four- to six-month process — the builder will make any needed home repairs, work with the city to reinstate certificates of occupancy, and then find new owners for the repurchased homes.

“It's our expectation that we will at some point resell these homes and put them back on the market,” said Centex spokeswoman Valerie Dolenga. “At some point they will probably go up for sale.”

Dolenga said that a few of the affected Rivermist homeowners want to stay in their homes, and that negotiations continue with the other one-third of the group who received buyback offers.

However, one resident has reached an impasse with the builder and was told the company would no longer pay for him to stay in a hotel, and that he is on his own.

Sherwin Tolentino, who is among the 27 evacuated homeowners who have had their certificates of occupancy revoked by the city, was told he had until Monday to accept the builder's buyback offer.

The offer covers the purchase price, closing costs, moving expenses, home improvements, utilities for the last few months and some attorney fees.

But Tolentino is unhappy that the offer does not include damages. He said he would have been in better financial shape if he had rented an apartment for the past few years, which would cost about half the price of his $2,000-a-month mortgage payment, and pocketed the rest in savings.

“They're pressuring me to sign their proposal or they're going to kick me out,” Tolentino said. “It's just tough for me to swallow. I need to start my life all over again.”

Dolenga said Tolentino is the only resident who was given a deadline for the buyback offer.

“At some point, where is it that someone is taking advantage of what is fair? I think we've been fair with the offer,” Dolenga said. “He has formally rejected the offer but is not working toward a solution. We had to take this step.”

Tolentino was not sure as of Monday afternoon what he would do, and was considering moving back into his house even though he is not supposed to be there.

The impasse with the builder could put him in a tenuous situation with the city.

“We can't let anyone move back into those homes,” said Roderick Sanchez, head of the city's department of Planning and Development Services. “We just can't attest to their safety. As far as the city is concerned, the certificate of occupancy is suspected.”

Tolentino said is unsure of what to do next. He has not hired an attorney and does not want the drama of a lawsuit or arbitration with the company. He and other residents signed binding arbitration agreements, which are common in home building, and keep disputes out of the courts and away from the public.

The ground shifted and a large retaining wall collapsed on a steep slope in the neighborhood Jan. 24. Since then, many of the homeowners have been living in hotels, apartments and rental homes with limited access to their property.

The buyback offers were made to 20 homeowners in the Hills of Rivermist who live along the top of the slope, as well as to the owners of the seven homes in the Rivermist neighborhood whose homes sit just below the spot where the wall split open and crumbled.

In a meeting with residents last week, Centex officials heard from scores of other residents who said they didn't trust Centex, their neighborhood was stigmatized and they wanted out of the neighborhood too.

             
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