Tale of Woe at the Novo
A reader forwarded us this distress call to the Park Slope Parents list from a Novo buyer. Maybe someone has advice for her? My husband finally did a walk through with a contractor and found many items that needed to be fixed. They made a number of small repairs while he was there, but their…
A reader forwarded us this distress call to the Park Slope Parents list from a Novo buyer. Maybe someone has advice for her?
My husband finally did a walk through with a contractor and found many items that needed to be fixed. They made a number of small repairs while he was there, but their representative said they would not fix a number of items (one of the floorboards is a very different color than the others, one tile is cracked, noticeable scratches in the railing on the balcony that the contractor said could be buffed out, a fairly large chip is missing from the wood part of the guest bathroom medicine cabinet, numerous scratches on the balcony door and a window frame, etc. etc.) that she acknowledged were problems. We find this to be an issue because they could potentially impact the re-sale value of the apartment. She asked my husband to sign a document saying we found everything in good condition. My husband pointed out that there were several items which were not in acceptable condition, and she responded that she would not add them to the list, and pressured him to sign the document anyway. When my husband told her he would speak with me and get my input and then get back to her, she said this was unacceptable. In short, it did not make sense to me that we were purchasing something new that had obvious problems that the representative acknowledged but would not fix. We don’t understand why they would acknowledge problems but simply say they would not fix them. Any thoughts or advices?
Anyone else had a similar experience?
Novo photo by Slice.
I think that commenters here ought to restrain their inclinations to blame the victim.
People ought to be able to demand that new construction be, well, new, not broken, and it’s hardly useful to tell them that they shouldn’t have such expectations.
This developer hires this bulldog called ‘Mercedes’ to do walk throughs, we went through the same experience at 75 Smith.
I got my lawyer to escrow additional funds at closing to account for un-finished items.
Sorry to hear you had the same experience!
No matter where you are or what you are doing, there are people who work there who consider it routine. They are largely unconcerned with the fact that it is a major milestone in your life and would rather you just signed the paper. In fact, they are likely to get pissy if you are making it difficult for them to get out by 5 pm (2:30 on fridays). Everyone runs into this mentality, especially in real estate, law and medicine.
Dont let their attitude affect you.
also meant to point out that delay in getting a permanent CO does delay and jeopardize the abatement finalization, regardless of whether a permanent CO is or isn’t a nececssary pre-req. anyway, if your building is in its 4th year and still is w/o a permanent CO you have other things to worry about. or not worry about i guess.
benson – if you’re in your 4th year and you still have a temp CO and think that’s ok then you’re either very relaxed or very misinformed. what is the address of your building and is the abatement j51 or 421a? let me try my hand at digging up some info on your place and you can tell me what’s wrong with what i find.
Not that you need to do this at this point, but if they continue to disregard your concerns and, as professionals keep asking you to sign a legal document that is incorrect-
be aware that the Attorney General’s office is gathering information on shoddy and dishonest developers and may be looking to take action against them. Again, I know that is extreme- but for the money these condos are commanding they should make sure they live up to the expectations and claims they are marketing!
You may, in any case, want to check in to the AG’s office to see if your developer is one of the many that already has case complaints filed.
Best of luck!
Brooklyn Love and Sjtmd;
Sorry to say, but you are still incorrect. My condo is now coming on its fourth year, and we still only have a temporary C of O. We are expecting to get our permanent C of O shortly. This is not atypical for new developments, and has as much to do with the DOB’s bureauacracy as the developer. In fact, at least in our case, Boymelgreen put money into escrow at the time of the offering plan, and that money cannot be released until we receive our permanent C of O. He still has some skin in the game even though he’s long sold out his last unit in our development.
As to the explicit misinformation, here it is: the tax abatement is NOT contingent on receiving the permanent C of O. As I mentioned above, we received our abatement almost 3 years ago and we only had a temporary C of O at that time and we are still in that status, as I just mentioned.
Sorry, Benson. No misinformation about the lack of information in THIS case. This developer has hid behind a veil of secrecy when it comes to the status of the tax abatement applications of his new buildings. I agree w/ BrooklynLove (as does my attorney) that the abatement is not automatic in all cases. Yes, the taxes are repaid retro-actively IF an abatement is granted. In this budget cutting / tax revenue hungry environment, it is doubtful that the NYC tax dept. would be willing to cut a developer slack if an application is improperly filed.
actually benson – it’s not that simple. your experience is what happens when the sponsor delivers. there are many places where the developer lags in getting the permanent CO thereby delaying it for years and sometimes putting the abatement in jeopardy. This tends to happen less frequently for 421As than J51s but the risk is still there. These residents need to ride Boymelgreen (or whoever the sponsor is at this point) or else they risk living for years in abatement limbo.
For example, people have been living at Arris Lofts in LIC for over a year now and they’re on their 9th temporary CO right now, and as a result, still w/o an abatement.