From dream home to hellhole

By Russell Grantham, Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Alexis Preston and her mother were thrilled last year when they found a home in Atlanta’s West End neighborhood large enough for their extended family of 13. They agreed to a lease-to-own deal to rent the neatly painted 12-bedroom house for $2,100 a month from the property’s owner through foreclosure, Omni National Bank.

The renovation contractor even showed the house off to the bank’s executives and other visitors, she said. But her family soon discovered the spruced up 84-year-old home wasn’t what it appeared to be.

Three days after they moved in last February, the house flooded during a rainstorm, beginning a nearly yearlong battle with repeated flooding, mold, water damage, roof leaks, buckling floors and months-long power outages.

“It went from a dream home to a hellhole,” Preston, 27, said of the house, now owned by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. after Omni failed in March.

Mold contamination sickened many members of the family. They lived for months by candlelight, with kerosene heaters and no air conditioning, after Omni failed in March, leaving behind more than $4,000 in unpaid power bills. “I was just sick all the time. Throwing up. Cold,” said Preston, who is pregnant.

They finally gave up and moved out in December.  Red more here:

http://www.ajc.com/business/from-dream-home-to-287659.html?cxtype=rss_news_128746