Estate Affairs, Westlake Village, California
Complaint 115506 Details

I signed a contract with Estate Affairs (estate liquidators) to sell the contents of my home consisting of several hundred items (silver, china, fine art, designer clothing and furniture valued in excess of $10,000) when I moved abroad. I received payment for less than 20 items while still in the U.S. and nothing after I left the country. My e-mails inquiring about the status of my things received vague and misleading responses. When I returned unexpectedly to the U.S. two months later and asked for the remainder of my estate back, after six weeks of avoiding me, they finally told me that they had “donated” everything!! The contract we signed states “Customer will retain ownership of the goods until they are sold.” After hiring a contract attorney to pursue my claim Estate Affairs suddenly and inexplicitly “discovered” some of the “donated” items. They sent a list of more than 50 items for me to pick up. Upon arriving at the home of the company’s owner I saw an expensive planter of mine integrated into her garden and filled with plants – an item she claimed had been “donated”. The other items they had for me were in the garage of this woman’s home. Some items were mine and many were not. They were “confused” about what I had given them for consignment. Of the items I was able to retrieve, many were damaged and the clothing had obviously been worn and was returned soiled (some ruined). When I asked to enter her home to use the bathroom I saw my sofa and table in her living room. Realizing her blunder in letting me inside her home she quickly said “You knew I was the one who bought your sofa, didn’t you?” It is illegal for them to sell consignment items to themselves. On top to that they deducted their commission. As to how the table arrived in her living room, an item she had marked as “never took – too large” on the list she sent my attorney, there was no explanation. When I asked for the rest of items for “pick up” on the list she supplied to my attorney she said, of the approximately 40-50 missing items “That was a mistake.” I asked for a receipt was given a blank Xerox copy of a receipt from the Salvation Army. They instructed me to “write whatever you want on it and deduct it from your taxes”. I later discovered that they not only target people who are moving out of the country, as I did, but also the elderly. They used the same scam – “You told us to donate your things.” “Donate” in their language means “steal for ourselves”. They are unethical, immoral and deeply disturbed people.