An Air Force Major, his wife and their seven children spent most of Thursday standing outside a Keller Williams branch in Oregon, picketing the real estate franchisor for what they claim was an agent’s decision to sell them a former meth lab riddled with toxic drug debris.
The strange story began after Travis and Denay Tubbs bought a 4,000-square-foot house with a pool and a detached apartment in Jefferson, Oregon in 2017. They claim that just a few days after moving in they discovered the drug methamphetamine in every building on the property.
Travis Tubbs, who serves in the Air Force and is currently taking graduate classes at Oregon State University, said his family has been trying to negotiate the purchase with the Eugene Keller Williams branch for more than a year. Over that time, they moved into a trailer and started a GoFundMe page asking for donations to help them clean up the house. While they got a home inspection, they say they did not test the property for residue of the drug.
“We knew it needed some work,” Denaye Tubbs wrote on the GoFundMe page, claiming that the previous owner was also cutting wires to use the property’s electricity illegally. “However, we were not prepared for the nightmare that would unfold just a week AFTER the house closed.”
ABC News Screenshot.
The couple said that, after living in the trailer for a year, they finally had enough — and, as first reported by a local news outlet, gathered their seven children outside Keller Williams’ Eugene branch with signs and t-shirts reading “We are homeless because of… Keller Williams” and “Keller Williams sold us a meth-lab” on Aug. 2.
“[We are protesting] to help other people understand the situation so they’re not stuck in the same situation themselves so they don’t end up buying a house that is illegal or unfit for them to live in,” Travis Tubbs said to camera crews outside the office.
They are currently waiting for a judge to review their case and hope to receive $900,000 for clean-up costs and damages. The Tubbs family also claims that the Realtor who sold them the house, Jody Draper, once lived in it as a co-owner.
“There are so many different loopholes that they can use to drag it out as long as they can,” Travis Tubbs told the cameras. “Personally, thats what I think is happening.”
Keller Williams’ Eugene branch declined to comment on an ongoing legal matter.