14923 Aspen Hills Drive
Houston, Texas 77062
Saturday September 15, 2007
AFFADAVIT from Robert David ANDREW
SUBJECT: Tenancy of Colin Robert ANDREW at 122 Longfellow St NW, Washington DC 20011
I am Colin’s father, and lived in DC from 1996 to 2005. When we came to DC, Colin went into 9th grade at Duke Ellington School, finished high school at Wilson and went on to work in retail entertainment and food industries. In later years he started on his tertiary education, at Montgomery College for an A.A. in Building Construction, and now a B.A. in Sociology at University of Maryland Eastern Shore.
Coming out of High School, Colin maintained close, loyal friendships with several friends including the co-owner of 122 Longfellow St, Aldo Guiterrez Ubau. As a freshman, Colin lived on campus in Eastern Shore but in later years needed to be able to earn money so did restaurant work weekends in DC. For a while he lived in our basement efficiency at 1413 Foxhall Rd NW, but then Aldo and he came to a verbal agreement which we discussed with Aldo several times in the presence of another friend Booby Fadavi.
The agreement was for Colin and I to create bedroom and bathroom space in the unfinished basement of the Ubau’s home, and in return for Colin to live there rent-free while he was at University. Colin and I did just then, spending Colin’s $7,000 in materials and his and my labor every Wednesday night and on Sunday afternoon’s for many months. I chose to do this as the experience for Colin reinforced what he was learning at Montgomery College, but if we had chosen to charge the Ubau’s for me time we would be discussing what they owed me and Colin, not the other way around.
Let me also note for the record that the Ubau’s did not do their share of completing the remaining part of the basement, namely installation of kitchen facllities, so when Colin comes back from UMES to DC to work in the weekends, he has just a small microwave & small fridge crammed on his bedroom area.
Colin will complete his undergraduate courses in December, a semester late due to an unfortunate personal dispute between Colin and a girl-friend, which the Ubau’s ended up being witnesses to. It is my belief that the Ubau’s want Colin out because the grandmother was required by DC courts to testify about a break-in to Colin’s basement area to vandalize and steal his possessions. The identity of the African-American woman who broke in was never established, but from that day Juanna Ubau has sought to have Colin removed. However, all the time taken to deal with that case took its toll on Colin’s studies in the Spring 2007 semester, and he ended up two classes short of graduation requirements.
So in summary, we have two witnesses to the verbal agreement about the lease, we have photos of the basement before and after as evidence of the value of our work. I would simply request that the Court let Colin complete his Fall semester without requiring him to miss more class, then deal with the matter in January 2008 and resolve what monies the Ubau’s owe Colin and I if they still wish to seek his eviction prior to getting fair market value use of the space that we built for them, which also raised the value of their property. If need be, I’ll request DCRA to verify the quality of our work vs. their unfinished work.
Signed, Robert David Andrew