We folks in the biz have been watching the Collin County “Staging Family Eviction “ story with a lot of interest and even more disbelief. First of all, Castle Keepers has a stellar reputation in the industry. They’ve been putting reputable families in on-the-market homes for 21 years and helped thousands of home sellers not only move their houses, but move them for a great deal more money than if those same houses had been sitting on the market empty. Castle Keepers is a company that screens families to live in a home while it is for sale and vacant to not only stage it, but protect it. Nothing good becomes of an empty, lonely home. Studies prove a staged home sells faster and for more money. The concept of using a “staging family” started over two decades ago. Dallas home stagers often refer clients to Castle Keepers when the sellers or agent cannot afford to stage a vacant property. We trust them, and we think they do a great job. What went wrong? I called up Kenny Raupple, the owner of Castle Keepers, and got the inside story.
A brief recap of the Murphy, Texas dilemma: A homeowner named Aji Philip hired Castle Keepers and CK put the Burgess brothers, 27 year old Drew, and 23-year old Shaun, into the home. Though youngsters, these fellows had been “home managers” before. In fact they’d been in three different Castle Keepers homes. They knew the rules and abided by them. They even had good references from the other sellers. Here’s what went wrong. Remember the Burgess brothers had signed these contracts before. Now add into the mix that we hear one of the brothers wants to be a lawyer. When the contract was signed on Aji Philip’s Murphy house and returned to Kenny Raupple, he filed it and never gave it another thought. Or look. Why should he? In 21 years no one had ever altered the terms of a contract. Raupple trusted these guys. They had proven to be good house managers in three other houses. HA. Like every lawyer tells you: don’t ever let a piece of paper cross your desk without reading it THOROUGHLY. It appears that one of the brothers Burgess very carefully retyped the contract to look exactly like the original but changed a couple of critical items. Maybe he was “practicing to be a lawyer?
“They put the number 10 in the space where our contract had the number 1 regarding the number of days the staging family had to vacate once the request was made,” Raupple said. “They also changed the number of days allowed for a guest to be on the premises.” This led to Nathan Burgess, the boys’ dad, moving in and basically “squatting” in the home with his pit bull and refusing to leave. When the Burgess family was asked to leave they cited the contract and flat out refused, resulting in the standoff reported in last week’s Dallas Morning News. The homeowner, Philip, wants them out stat. Mr. Burgess wants to prove a point. Seems that point has no basis because the contract was tampered with, don’t cha think? Calling David Fair!
The case went to a jury trial in Dallas County Justice of the Peace Al Cercone’s courtroom, where Candy once appeared and won a security deposit back from a builder who had tried to evict her! (Tell us all!) What just floors me is a comment Nathan Burgess (the boy’s dad) made on Kevin McCarthy’s Dallas Digest: “Three young people with excellent credit histories injured by a court system and stacked jury that found a 24 hour notice to vacate a home was legal. That means the banks and landlords can kick you out of your home with a 24 hour notice, and if you are not packed, they can file eviction and try to ruin you publicly.” GIVE ME A BREAK, KEVIN. THESE GUYS WERE TEMPORARY RENTERS AT BEST! The brothers signed a contract that they apparently ALTERED. This is a business. The way Castle Keepers works, a house manager gets a great property to live in for a very reasonable fee, and has to abide by the contract. It is not a standard Texas Residential lease. And this was not the Burgess brothers/family’s first CK rodeo.
“We have a judgment against the Burgesses in Justice of the Peace Court for unpaid rent, attorney’s fees and court costs,” Raupple said. According to the News, it was $5,365.
What about Raupple’s stress and brand reputation?
The Burgesses have five days to appeal and say they will, to Collin County court, where the case is considered “trial de novo,” which means the case is essentially tried as a new trial, as if it was never heard in the Justice of the Peace court. Good Lord.
“There’s a big bomb coming their way,” he (Nathan Burgess) said. “I can’t say any more until we file.”
Monday will tell the tale. Stay tuned! Like they say in Hollywood, you can’t make this **it up!
