Cooper
RALEIGH, N.C. (Legal Newsline) - North Carolina Attorney General Roy Cooper announced a consent order on Monday with a Robeson County manufactured home dealer resolving allegations of failure to deliver and selling damaged homes.
Cooper filed a lawsuit last week against McMillian Properties and Bradley McMillian, its owner, for allegedly taking consumers' money but failing to deliver homes as promised and selling homes that were damaged to the point of being uninhabitable. The lawsuit seeks refunds for consumers, a permanent ban on the defendants' allegedly unfair business practices and civil penalties.
"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."
Under the terms of the consent order, the defendants agreed to not take new orders or accept payments until all previous orders have been filled or until consumers have gotten their money back.
The order, approved by the Wake County Superior Court, also bans the company from making inaccurate statements to customers about home conditions, delivery dates and repairs, making misleading advertisements about the condition of homes, and transferring assets or destroying records.
The order will remain in place until the lawsuit moves forward.
McMillian Properties allegedly misled consumers regularly about the condition of the homes it sold. Many of the homes were allegedly unfit to live in as a result of structural issues and mold. While the company promised to make repairs when consumers complained, it allegedly never did so. Some consumers allegedly never received their homes from the defendants despite having paid for them. The company allegedly gave excuses about why the home was unable to be delivered and refused to give refunds.
Twenty consumers filed complaints with Cooper's Consumer Protection Division and other state agencies about the defendants.