Southern Bank & Trust
Complaint 11320 Details

We borrowedmoney to renovate a commercial building in 2006 basedan bogus-inflatedappraisal done byan uncertified bank employee. Two of the building's four unitswere completed which put meand my partner ina bad situation from the start (a $2500 payment withan $800 income. The loan officer promised ifwe closed on the the units completed, he would loan us themoney to complete the last two units.We founda tenant who gave usa 1600 depositand signeda 3 year lease.We presented thisto the bankandwe weretold that the building was not worth whatwe owedand the loan officer who loaned us themoney did not work thereanymore.We fileda complaint with the Commissioner of Banks in 2009against Southern Bank. They deferred $182,000.00 of the 282,000.00andtold us thatwe could sell the buildingand get out ofa bad situation. Dueto spending our savings over the past years,we were notableto complete the building.We put the building on the market for saleandwe had tenants move out making even more difficultto make the mortgage payment of $693.00.We have triedto work out this problem telling the bank ifwe had the building completedwe could make the mortgage butto noavail. Now they wantto foreclose.We have contacted several lawyers who began the case but back out.We just don't have the funds fora lawyer.We acted on the promise of the bank officer whoseWe borrowedmoney to renovate a commercial building in 2006 basedan bogus-inflatedappraisal done byan uncertified bank employee. Two of the building's four unitswere completed which put meand my partner ina bad situation from the start (a $2500 payment withan $800 income. The loan officer promised ifwe closed on the the units completed, he would loan us themoney to complete the last two units.We founda tenant who gave usa 1600 depositand signeda 3 year lease.We presented thisto the bankandwe weretold that the building was not worth whatwe owedand the loan officer who loaned us themoney did not work thereanymore.We fileda complaint with the Commissioner of Banks in 2009against Southern Bank. They deferred $182,000.00 of the 282,000.00andtold us thatwe could sell the buildingand get out ofa bad situation. Dueto spending our savings over the past years,we were notableto complete the building.We put the building on the market for saleandwe had tenants move out making even more difficultto make the mortgage payment of $693.00.We have triedto work out this problem telling the bank ifwe had the building completedwe could make the mortgage butto noavail. Now they wantto foreclose.We have contacted several lawyers who began the case but back out.We just don't have the funds fora lawyer.We borrowedmoney to renovate a commercial building in 2006 basedan bogus-inflatedappraisal done byan uncertified bank employee. Two of the building's four unitswere completed which put meand my partner ina bad situation from the start (a $2500 payment withan $800 income. The loan officer promised ifwe closed on the the units completed, he would loan us themoney to complete the last two units.We founda tenant who gave usa 1600 depositand signeda 3 year lease.We presented thisto the bankandwe weretold that the building was not worth whatwe owedand the loan officer who loaned us themoney did not work thereanymore.We fileda complaint with the Commissioner of Banks in 2009against Southern Bank. They deferred $182,000.00 of the 282,000.00andtold us thatwe could sell the buildingand get out ofa bad situation. Dueto spending our savings over the past years,we were notableto complete the building.We put the building on the market for saleandwe had tenants move out making even more difficultto make the mortgage payment of $693.00.We have triedto work out this problem telling the bank ifwe had the building completedwe could make the mortgage butto noavail. Now they wantto foreclose.We have contacted several lawyers who began the case but back out.We just don't have the funds fora lawyer.We borrowedmoney to renovate a commercial building in 2006 basedan bogus-inflatedappraisal done byan uncertified bank employee. Two of the building's four unitswere completed which put meand my partner ina bad situation from the start (a $2500 payment withan $800 income. The loan officer promised ifwe closed on the the units completed, he would loan us themoney to complete the last two units.We founda tenant who gave usa 1600 depositand signeda 3 year lease.We presented thisto the bankandwe weretold that the building was not worth whatwe owedand the loan officer who loaned us themoney did not work thereanymore.We fileda complaint with the Commissioner of Banks in 2009against Southern Bank. They deferred $182,000.00 of the 282,000.00andtold us thatwe could sell the buildingand get out ofa bad situation. Dueto spending our savings over the past years,we were notableto complete the building.We put the building on the market for saleandwe had tenants move out making even more difficultto make the mortgage payment of $693.00.We have triedto work out this problem telling the bank ifwe had the building completedwe could make the mortgage butto noavail. Now they wantto foreclose.We have contacted several lawyers who began the case but back out.We just don't have the funds fora lawyer.We acted on the promise of the loan officer whose promise was clearand unambiguous. Our reliance on the promise was reasonableand foreseeable.We suffereda tremendous loss dueto our reliance on this promise. I feel that someone should be heldaccountable.