You can probably see the direction this is heading, but there is one more element of the story that I need to explain before we get to the court part. It has to do with another property... one Ken REALLY did not want to buy, but finally relented under a heartless barrage of pestering from Kooki. It seems that while Kooki was talking to the finance company guys about repossessed properties, she discovered one right down the road from her own home. She decided it would be perfect for her daughter. Unfortunately, no one in Kooki's family had any collateral or a good enough credit rating to get a loan to purchase it from the finance company. So Kooki called Ken with another of her "perfect" plans. Ken could buy the property for them and hold a mortgage on it. They would pay payments to him each month until the daughter could get a loan to refinance the property, using the property itself as collateral for the loan. (I know... it made me roll my eyes too.)
The first time Kooki mentioned it, Ken flatly refused. Said he didn't think it would be a good idea. Kooki, in her typical relentless fashion, was NOT going to be that easily deterred. Thus began an absolute siege in which Kooki would call and/or drop by the house at least three times and sometimes up to six times a day, trying to change Ken's mind. The woman would NOT leave Ken alone. Her actions were enough to make a healthy man raise his hands and beg for mercy. Please understand that over the course of his illness, when Kooki was badgering him so, Ken endured having to be fed through a tube, two major surgeries, three different rounds of chemotherapy, radiation, shingles and too many other minor procedures to even count. He was sick, he was exhausted, and he was scared about the possibility of having to leave his family before he was ready. THIS was the man that Kooki pounded relentlessly to get what she wanted.
I was in the room with Ken, listening to his side of ANOTHER phone conversation with Kooki, on the day that he finally relented and agreed to purchase the property for them. I heard him tell her "NO" four different times before he told her he'd draw up the papers for them to sign. When he hung up, I asked him why he changed his mind after all this time. He looked at me with sad, exhausted eyes and said, "It will be alright, honey. They have promised to refinance it as soon as the deed is recorded in her daughter's name." I don't think he really believed it himself... I know I didn't. He just said "yes" because he felt like it was the only way he would get any peace.
So, Ken gave Kooki the money to purchase the property for her daughter from the finance company. Ken filed a security deed against the property and gave Kooki an amortization schedule showing the payment information and told her that he expected her daughter to get the thing refinanced RIGHT AWAY, like they had promised. Kooki assured Ken they would and the daughter started paying mortgage payments to Ken. I have to say that she was pretty good about keeping the mortgage up to date, but that is probably only because they knew that Ken held that security deed and could take the property back if they didn't pay. But, of course, one month turned into two, and two into several, and no attempt was made by any of them to refinance the property. There was always an excuse... "her baby was sick... her husband lost his job... they were called out of town unexpectedly...". Lie after lie after LIE! It became painfully obvious that Kooki and her family had no intention of refinancing and probably never intended to do so in the first place.
This situation weighed pretty heavily on Ken's mind there at the end. The week he died, when we should have been able to spend every single moment holding, loving and saying good-bye to each other, he had to waste some of the precious minutes he had left talking bout that woman and how she had scammed him. He said, "Don't pay Kooki any of the money I owe her until they get that property refinanced and pay you back." I told him I wouldn't.
After Ken died and after I finally convinced Kooki that I would NOT be buying any more rental properties through her, I guess she realized that her "gravy train" had come to an end. So now, instead of calling about properties to buy, she started calling about the money she said Ken owed her from the deals they had already done. She said, "I know you are going to do me right. Ken always told me that I didn't have to worry about you not treating me right! He said you were the most honest and truthful person he had ever met!" At that moment, I absolutely wanted to choke the woman. I KNOW how my husband felt about me. I didn't need her telling me how much he trusted me and how he knew I would try and do the right thing in every situation. HOW DARE SHE use my dead husband's words to try to get me to do what SHE wanted?!
Time went on, and the calls continued. Kooki always worded it in ways that made it sound like she had my best interest at heart. "I know," she said, "how hard it is for you, having to deal with all of Ken's business stuff. I am just trying to take some of the pressure off of you by trying to figure out a way you can go ahead and get my stuff out of the way." (HUH?! She's trying to take pressure off of me by calling constantly and pressuring me to do something else?!) Each time she called, I always reminded her of two things: 1) refinancing her daughter's property, and 2) deeding that other property over into my name. As usual, she "promised" to take care of both, and as usual, she did not.
The next time Kooki called, she had the "perfect solution" for both of us. I could add up all of the amounts that Ken owed her and subtract that amount from the balance of her daughter's mortgage loan and she would arrange to pay me the difference if I would release the security deed on her daughter's property. (Hmmm... sounds strangely like a little bit of extortion to me.) I told her no... I had promised Ken I wouldn't pay her a penny until they paid off the mortgage loan. And technically, I really didn't owe her any money because her agreement with Ken stated she would get paid at the conclusion of each lease agreement. So far, not one of the rent-to-own agreements she arranged had worked out. How could I owe her money on agreements that were null and void?
Now, just as she had done with Ken, Kooki mounted an all-out campaign to pester me into submission. She began calling constantly, dropping by at all hours of the night and day, hammering at me about her latest idea. Had I been in a better and stronger place in my life right then, I probably would have had her arrested for harassment and filed a restraining order against her. But I was grieving the loss of my sweet Ken. I was trying to figure out how I was going to raise our children without him. I was exhausted from two straight years of fighting as hard as I could to help keep him alive. And I was as hurt and heart-broken as I had ever been, facing the reality that my sweetheart was gone. In a word, I was VULNERABLE. And I needed peace. I knew for a fact that until I dealt with Kooki once and for all, there would be no peace. She had proved that over and over with Ken. I knew I would have to break my promise to Ken if I was going to be able to get rid of Kooki. That broke my heart too. But I cried out to Ken and told him that I just needed to be able to concentrate on our boys and rebuilding our family now that he was gone. I begged his forgiveness for not being able to keep my promise. I decided to go along with Kooki's idea. (I'm sorry, Baby... to preserve my sanity so I could be the Mama our boys needed, I really didn't feel like I had any other choice. Please forgive me.)
The next time Kooki called, I told her I would go along with her idea, but she had to bring me cash or a cashier's check for the balance of the loan after I subtracted what Ken owed her. If she showed up with a personal check, the deal was OFF. I could hear the glee in her voice as she agreed. I told her to give me a week with NO PHONE CALLS AND NO VISITS to get the amounts figured and the paperwork ready. She agreed, and for the one and ONLY time since I have known her, she was true to her word. I didn't hear from her again.
Since none of the "tenants" in the agreements she had arranged lasted until the property was paid for, the only way I could figure how much Ken owed her was to take the tax value, subtract it from the purchase price, and give her whatever percentage Ken had agreed to give her of what was left. It was complicated, a lot of work, and very time consuming. (Time that I should have been able to spend with Jesse and Benjamin, but couldn't because I was having to deal with a CRAZY woman.) I listed every property, how much Ken paid for it, what the tax value was, the difference, and Kooki's percentage. I even included "finder's fees" of $1,000 each for three trailers Kooki said she helped Ken buy that he had moved onto his properties. There was no paperwork on those trailers, but Ken had purchased and moved them during the time he and Kooki were doing business together and she knew all the particulars about each trailer, so I included those fees as well. I called Kooki and told her what the balance would be and asked her not to call me until she was ready to pay it off. About a week later, she said she had made the arrangements and was ready to come over and settle things. I gave her a day and time to come over. In the meantime, I typed up a paper for Kooki to sign stating that she had been "Paid in Full" for whatever monies she felt Ken owed her at his death and that she had NO FURTHER CLAIM to any of the properties she and Ken purchased together.
Kooki arrived at the appointed time, along with some man I had never seen before. I knew it was NOT her husband. She introduced him as her new "business partner" and said that he would be paying me what was left owing on her daughter's property, so when I released the security deed, it would need to be into his name. At that point, I didn't care if BOZO the Clown paid off the loan, as long as it was in cash or cashier's check and as long as I never had to deal with Kooki again. I showed Kooki the property list (Tuck this away for later... this list will make another appearance before this whole pitiful story is done.), explained how I had figured the amounts, and asked if she agreed with my figures. She seemed about to wet herself to get this "deal" concluded, so she nodded vigorously and said over and over, "Yes, I believe this is right! Ken said you would do me right, and I always believed him!" (GRRRR! There she goes again, using my husband's words to get what she wants. I don't believe I have EVER met anyone quite as heartless as Kooki.) The man gave me a cashier's check (I called the bank while they were standing there to make sure it was real.), I signed the papers to release the security deed into his name, and I had Kooki sign the paper that said she had been paid in full and had no further claims to any of the properties. I asked Kooki if she wanted me to make copies of the documents for her files. She replied that she "never kept up with stuff like that". They left and I felt a tremendous wave of relief come over me. Unfortunately, that relief would prove to be short-lived. Later that week, it occurred to me that in all my concentration over settling the issues over Kooki's daughter's property, I had completely forgotten that Kooki STILL had not deeded over the other property, the one in progress when Ken died, into my name. I STILL was not through with Kooki.
No comments:
Post a Comment