Senior Loan Officer/Real Estate Agent

[marcy0510]

Hi my name Marcy and I am a licensed real estate agent and loan officer in the state of California and I work at an independent brokerage.
I recently had an assistant who worked for me for approximately 1 1/2 years. She was not employed through no written contract, just verbal. Her start day with me was December 4, 2004 and the day I fired her was
Her income varied from month to month depending on how many deals we were closing. She first started making $10.00 an hour and working about 30-50 hours a week. She also started getting paid $100.00 bonus for each file we closed per month. In September 2005, I gave her a $2.00 an hour raise and promised her $1000.00 a every funded file she referred to me. I would no longer pay her a $100.00 bonus per file. Immediately after I realized I had offered her more than what I could afford to pay an assistant plus still make a living. In November 2004 her pay changed once again, this time to $1200.00 salary per month and still $1000.00 bonus per file she brought into our office. Again in December 2004 and lowered her bonus pay per file to $600.00 but her salary remained the same.
In January 2005 I gave her a $300.00 weekly salary and kept the bonus pay the same.
I forgot to mention but in April 2004 my assistant was rediagnosed with terminal cancer and during all this time that she worked for me would take weeks at a time to go to the doctors and to just deal with the sorrowful news. I never once complained about the time taken off or days she never called in sick and I waited and waited and called and called with no avail.
So with that in mind, In February 2005 I told her that if she worked at least 3 days a week at the most 5 days a week I would still pay her $300.00 weekly salary. Big mistake! After that conversation, she always only worked approximately 3 days a week! One excuse after another excuse but I never questioned her.
I was really feeling her days off at the office with work piling up and me paying her for just 3 days a week. I spoke with several of my friends about this issue and their advise to me was to be upfront with her and change back her normal 5 day a week salary. Work I would give her to do never got done and my clients were forgotten, espiecially with the whole load of clients she was bringing in and getting paid her weekly salary plus her bonus on each file brought in by her.
Clients would call the office and ask for her and she was missing a lot of days by now, I would simply say she wasn't in but could I help them in any way. To my astonishment, the clients would refuse to speak with me but would rather speak with her because she was the one who was either selling or buying their home or financing some kind of real estate transaction for them. I was shocked and upset. By this time I was really in a mess financially. I couldn't afford to keep her at the office weekly so I told her to take some time off, without pay of course. This is when I really started finding out what kind of assistant I had. I found stacks of all the names and phone numbers of prospective clients that she was supposed to keep track after but never did. Files that had never been touched but just simply filed away so that I would think they had been done. I found out that she was funding files that had been referred to me by some of my past clients with another loan officer at the same company I work for and splitting the commission with him. To make matters worse, I even paid for the credit report on this one file she closed with this guy.
I also forgot to mention that I purchased a home in November 2004 so that she and her family could have a home to live in espiecially because of her cancer. I bought this home and told her that in the future when her husband and her could qualify for a loan they could buy it from me. Meanwhile she was to keep the payments up which total $2100.00 per month.
She ran all my financial books for me and was in charge of keepiing my bank accounts balanced, her salary paid, all my bills paid and of course the mortgage on the house she lived on paid. I never once questioned her or my bank statements. As long as I had money to live on and spend I was happy.
From what I can gather from my statments she never really made the full payment on that house but rather I made up the difference and she always told me she had made deposits to cover the payment. I once again just believed her.
I paid her for January and February 2005 and owe approximately $2500.00 for March, April and May 2005 plus one last bonus of $600.00 for a file I funded after she left but that was brought in to me by her. I also will probably be penalized under section 203 of the labor laws of California her one month's salary not to exceed 30 days because I didn't pay her the day I fired her.
Taking my whole story into consideration and I could prove all these facts, will I still be penalized by section 203? Will they take into consideration all the money she owes me for all the month's she lived in my home for free? She also was the one who was in charge of writing out checks to herself and it has taken me a few weeks to sort through all my financials to figure out what I owe her and what she stole from me. What about the file she closed with that other guy, I was charged for the credit report and I can proof that the file was mine, can I be compensated for that amount?
I just recently had my CPA prepare her 1099 for 2004 because once again she was in charge of putting my financials in order so that I could file my taxes for 2004 and once again she had not. I filed an extension with the IRS because of this and I can also proof that the day before she was fired I picked up all my financials from her home. I know that if anyone sounds foolish in this case, it is me, not her. She was actually a whole lot smarter than me. Do I have any recourse and should I just have to pay for my stupidity and kindness?
She also filed a complaint with the IRS stating that I had not given her her 1099 for 2004 and they will be assessing a fee of $50.00 to me. Do I have any recourse then?
She has also hired an attorney who states that she will sue me for wages not paid. Should I pay her what I owe her or wait to take it before a judge and let him hear my story?


Desperate and broke in California

Does anybody care to respond to my delima? Or did I over do it with too much to read or comprehend. ?
Someone please give me some input.

[mijemesino]

Take it from someone who spent the day in Federal Court today where an initial claim of $250.00 turned into $180,000 from a ridiculous investigation, just pay what they are saying you owe, its not worth it. We too are trying to stand up for what is right, but believe me its wearing on us. Even if we win we have spent over $10,000 in legal fees to prove we've done nothing wrong. We are in the mortgage industry as well. Hope this helps. Sorry if its not exactly what you wanted to hear, just trying to give you some insight I wish I had two years ago.