Mobile home dilema solved by Consumer 6 and the BBB

Wednesday, September 13th 2000, 12:00 am

By: News On 6

Imagine being billed for something you never received, and facing threats from collection companies. One couple says that's what's happened to them, and the item in question is their home.

"All we want is our home and to be able to live like human beings instead of being homeless," said Barbara Naumann. "We got the payment, they got the home. Is there something wrong with this picture or what?" What's wrong is the Naumanns couldnâ€™t move into their new mobile home. â€œWe have the bills for the new trailer, but we have no new trailer," said Mrs. Naumann.

The problem began last winter, when Factory Direct Housing purchased the mobile home park where the Naumans were living. Factory Direct told them that the old trailer had to go. However, they hooked them up with Conseco Finance - which was looking for someone to take over payments on a newer, nicer mobile home. â€œEverything was clear,â€ said Naumann. â€œThey said they'd deliver our trailer within the next week. They never delivered our trailer."

So Naumann tracked down the location of the mobile home, and found it sitting on someone else's property near Sapulpa. Someone was also living in it. "I couldn't believe that somebody could just live in there,â€ she said. â€œThey went through the back door to get in. The back door was broken."

Naumann called Factory Direct housing who they told her to contact Conseco Finance.
Conseco told her they were trying to evict the people living in the home, but it was complicated, because those people also owned the land where the mobile home was parked.

In the meantime, Factory Direct Housing terminated the Naumanns month to month lease. They were told they had thirty days to find another place to live. The present trailer they were living in was too old to move. Conditions forced them to stay with another family. While all this was happening, Conseco was still sending the Naumanns bills for the new mobile home. The home they couldn't move into.

When the Naumans couldn't get any answers, they called Consumer Six. The News on Six made several phone calls to both Factory Direct Housing and Conseco Financing. Conseco finally admitted that the problem was their fault. They should have cancelled the transaction and started over.

Now Conseco says it will help the Naumanns, so they can finally move into a new mobile home. Because Factory Direct housing is a member of the Better Business Bureau, the bureau also got involved to help all the parties resolve the problem.