More Trouble Dealing with Ecuadorians

Friday February 6

Richard called me to tell me the latest news. Today he had settlement on a hotel he’s buying in Quito. I don’t know why he wants to buy it as he wants to leave Ecuador, but he thinks that he can fix it up before he leaves and manage it from whatever country he’ll move to. He told me at settlement that the owner didn’t pay his back taxes and they wanted him (Richard) to pay it. He said he didn’t have enough money and they looked at it as his fault!

How stupid to do so!!!

He said he wasn’t told this and he just had enough money to buy the hotel. He told them they would have to wait until he got money from his Panamanian account. They still couldn’t understand this (stupid Ecuadorians). Then he told them some harsh words.

First, I don’t understand Richard. I would say that all the bills should be paid and bring the copies of the receipts at settlement. This would also indicate to me that the owner has a bad accountant. I don’t know if Richard looked at the owners books to see how much he made the previous year but this is the first thing I would do before I even offered a price.

When I was talking to Richard he got a call to go to the notary and she said it was necessary, so we ended the conversation. About 40 minutes later he called back to tell me what happened. He said he would have to sign something and pay the back taxes. He said he would not and told them this earlier in the day. He repeated that he’ll have the money next Tuesday. He told the person (I guess his lawyer and the notary), “Why in the hell did you have me come here? I told you this earlier in the day.” Or words to that affect.

He was really mad at this time. He said, “Give me those damn checks back.” And he grabbed them out of his hand. He added, “In fact, I might not buy the property!”

In Ecuador one way to buy property is buy pay for all that is outstanding THEN you get title. Well, I would never agree to this. I might not know much about property but I knew this before I bought my first one – to have all the bills paid by the owner then get the title to the property. If I was in a situation where the taxes were not paid I’d be sure that this would reflect on a lower price. Maybe Richard had this agreement but what the Ecuadorians did wrong was not telling him how much he would have to bring to the closing.

Richard said, “Maybe this is a sign from God for me to leave.” Well it sure is and it sure isn’t the first sign that he got.

Even if he thinks the property is a good buy he will still have to put with the construction workers and have problems with them. Then he might also have to comply with some stupid law in the remodeling process. If he plans to sell the property later, who’s going to buy in Ecuador? Who will buy when the Depression really sets in? (I predict that in the future this time in history will be known as the “Greatest Depression.” Mark my words as it will be worse than the Great Depression of the 1930s.