A Lawsuit Dooms a Condo Sale
The Times has a story about how a woman trying to sell her condo at 53 Boerum Place had a deal with a would-be buyer for $100,000 less than what she paid for it in 2007 but it fell through after residents filed a lawsuit against the building’s developer in late February. Residents of the…
The Times has a story about how a woman trying to sell her condo at 53 Boerum Place had a deal with a would-be buyer for $100,000 less than what she paid for it in 2007 but it fell through after residents filed a lawsuit against the building’s developer in late February. Residents of the building, which is six years old and developed by On Prospect Park’s Mario Procida, hired two engineering firms to study the building. One firm “reported that the building needed roughly $500,000 in work, including finishing incomplete brickwork,” while the second “reported even more deficiencies, including leaks in the parapet wall and missing wall ties and joint reinforcements that drove the cost past $4 million.” While the developer says he stands by his product, the woman trying to sell her unit was not able to close on the deal even though she says she’s had no problems with her condo; her broker says the suit is “killing all the owners as far as selling.”
How a Building Dispute Can Sink a Sale [NY Times] GMAP
I never said they were all bad. What I have said is it’s buyer beware when going into a new one. The sisks are there and the cost of those risks, as we see here, are very high.
All I’ve ever said is that buyers make sure they know what they are getting into with a new development, which oftentimes is hard to do.
None of these buyers werre able to or didn’t think they had to have engineering assessments done. THEY LOST BIG TIME.
QUESTION:
I’m in the boat with Gay Dave from the Ghetto as to the belief that new construction is far far inferior to prewar buildings. My question, why, with the technology and know-how of modern times, does new construction not hold up whether it be physically or aesthetically? In turn, most of it looks so shoddy and cheap as opposed to strong and well-built that yesteryear stuff was made from. Please answer.
Regards,
Bunk Moreland
In the last 8 years, when I finally wanted to buy instead of rent, I looked at a bunch of new construction apts, and the one common theme was shoddy construction (and thin walls). I figured, if they can’t make the interior look decent, what’s lurking below (or behind the walls). Granted, I was looking at cheaper buildings, but they were all pretty crappy.
I would expect more of this type of lawsuit in the next couple years.
If the second engineering report is supported by the evidence, I hope the owners got a refund from the firm that prepared the first report. 500K to 4.5 Million is not a rounding error – how could so many problems have been missed. If the second report is hyper inflated, it may have been a mistake by the owners to base their litigation on it; Developer will have no choice but to battle this vigorously which will delay resolution that much longer.
DIBS;
Tens of thousands of new units have been built in recent years. Can you cite some statistic that demonstrates your hypothesis? Or do you just jump on the posts that come along now and then (such as today’s) to confirm your pre-conceived notion?
Thals, I don’t think you can use lawsuits and usually in the same sentence. It’s expensive and in the short-term damaging to the condo owners to file, so it’s pretty much a last resort, as the parties are unreasonable and/or too far apart to negotiate.
benson, you miss the whole point.
brownstones don’t suddenly develop problems a few years after you buy them. New developments are fraught with risk over the things actually mentioned as being problematic here…the roof, the paripets, the curtain wall, the windows. Brooklyn new developments are “buyer beware” and we’ve seen many examples of that here.
OK DIBS;
Next time there is a story about a brownstone that is about to fall down because some contractor inadvertantly punched a 5″ hole in the foundation to make way for a gas line, I’ll use that logic.
i’ve seen this movie. bad news for those who need to sell in short term, but the board has to use this leverage to get intransigient developers to lift a finger.
at least the developer still has fingers in brooklyn real estate pie.
in the medium term she’ll get more for her apartment.