Rialto Couple Sues Redondo Beach Company in Fight to Keep Home

LOS ANGELES, CA — A Rialto couple is suing a Redondo Beach house flipping company in a bid to save the house they and their two children have called home for the past 10 years.

Mercedes and Pablo Caamal filed the suit Monday in a Los Angeles courtroom. The Caamal accuses Wedgewood of negotiating in bad faith and demanding the couple pay $100,000 more than what it paid for the home in an auction.

“We invested tens of thousands in our own money that we worked over twenty years to save, to purchase and fix up this house,” Pablo Caamal said. “This was our American Dream, and Wedgewood shouldn’t be able to just steal it.”

The suit alleges that Wedgewood decided to evict the family even though the family was able to provide proof they qualify for a loan to buy back the house. According to court records, Wedgewood bought the home in September 2015 through one of its subsidiaries and issued an eviction notice to the Caamals. Subsequently, in a stipulation with the court, Wedgewood agreed to stay the eviction for 60 days while the Caamals find financing to buy back their home.

The Caamals allege that Wedgewood reneged on that promise and evicted them in March even though they had secured financing to buy back their home.

Wedgewood, which specializes in flipping houses, the practice of buying a distressed property, making some improvements and reselling it for a profit, disputes the allegations, saying it has, in good faith, worked with the family to keep their home.

The company said it has discussed with the Caamals ways for them to keep their property and agreed to a purchase price of $375,000, $80,000 under market price and $130,000 less than what the Caamals originally owed.

In court documents, the Caamals said they offered Wedgewood $380,000 but the company never responded to their offer. According to court records, Wedgewood purchased the home for around $284,000.

Wedgewood said the family failed to submit a purchase agreement or acquire loan approval. The company said the Caamals and the Alliance for Californians for Community Empowerment, which is helping the Caamals with the case, rejected the $375,000 offer over a “non-disparagement” clause, which would have restricted all parties, including Wedgewood, from taking any action that negatively impacted the reputation of any of the other parties.

The company accuses ACCE of politicizing the situation for headlines.

The Caamals and ACCE have staged a protest outside of Wedgewood's CEO Greg Geiser's home in Manhattan Beach since March. Geiser has appealed to the Manhattan Beach City Council for relief from the protesters. Geiser's spokeswoman said the protest took place from 9 p.m. to 11 p.m.

The City Council was initially sympathetic toward Geiser but pulled back on an ordinance against picketing in a residential area over Constitutional concern.

Geiser recently dropped a lawsuit against the Caamals for emotional distress.

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