John Engelhardt
There is a serious allegation against a prominent attorney tonight. A couple from Michigan in the US is accusing attorney Arthur Saldivar of accepting payment, but not delivering services. The couple, John and Cynthia Engelhardt, claim that they paid Saldivar thirteen thousand dollars to process their title for a condo in San Pedro. That was years ago, but today the couple said they had not received any title to the condo nor have they been able to contact Saldivar.
John Engelhardt, Aggrieved Condo Owner
"Over three years ago, when we purchased down here, we used attorney Arthur Saldivar to take care of our title work. He assured us that we would have our titles within four weeks after we paid our stamp duty tax and his fees to him, which we did. It is now 2013, we still have not received title and Mr. Saldivar repeatedly fails to answer or correspond with us in any way shape or form. We have emailed him numerous times and he fails to reply back. So we're really lost and we know we're not the only ones in this position."
Cynthia Engelhardt, Aggrieved Condo Owner
"It's about six thousand, five hundred for us. However, we know about other people who are in to the nine and ten thousand. There are ten of us that I know of that are in this situation so we're talking about you know somewhere between seventy-five and a hundred thousand dollars that Mr. Saldivar has taken from us."
Jorge Aldana, San Pedro Sun
"US or Belize?"
Cynthia Engelhardt
Cynthia Engelhardt
"This is US. And that was another issue. I didn’t realize and it's my ignorance I admit, that on our title transfer when we purchased our condo for a hundred and fifteen, that was US dollars and apparently if it isn't identified as US on the document, that's Belizean. So I’m very confused."
John Engelhardt
"In other words, what my wife is trying to say is that a hundred and fifteen on the agreement for sale would have been turned into the Lands Department. Yet, Mr. Saldivar collected US dollars from us for the title transfer?"
Jorge Aldana
"How much did he charge you, percentage wise?"
Cynthia Engelhardt
"One percent."
Since we conducted that interview, News Five spoke to Saldivar and he says the matter has been settled with the Englehardts. According to Saldivar, he intended to get the titles, but at the time the documents were blocked by the Lands Department because of a dispute between the landowner and the homeowners association. He says that was the cause of the delay, but that he has committed to returning the money to all the condo owners.
Channel 5