397-4th-Street-1109.jpgWhat do you do if you’re trying to sell an apartment with water leaks but don’t want potential buyers to know? Just make sure not to show it on rainy days! That’s the tactic some Corcoran agents were accused of in a suit involving the sale of a condo unit at 357 4th Street in Park Slope, and now the firm itself has been found “grossly negligent” and fined $35,000 by the judge in the case for failing to preserve and hand over emails that would allegedly confirm that Corcoran agents cancelled appointments on rainy days. Meanwhile, the case itself, which involves almost a million dollars in potential construction fixes and total damages of $5 million, continues on.
State Supreme Court Rules Corcoran “Negligent” [TRD]
E-mail Shows Couple’s Suit vs. Corcoran Group Holds Water [NYDN]


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  1. Snappy, have you ever figured out where to send the bill for straightening out legal misunderstandings on brownstoner?

    Meanwhile, I just have to comment on the old “cancel the visit on rainy days” trick. I know it well. After a series of snafus that we did not quite recognize for the red flags they were, we insisted on twice-weekly meetings with the flipper we were buying from as renovations continued. Sure enough, two days later he called during the middle of a thunderstorm to cancel a meeting (“We need to reschedule, all the guys went home and closed up the house and I don’t have a key.”) Much more time went by before the next meeting actually took place. Needless to say we discovered a bunch of leaks and the start of a mold infestation. Thankfully, this was before we closed.

    If the allegations in the above case are proven, I won’t be all that surprised, although it will be interesting to learn whether the cancellations originated from the developer (“can’t show it today, my guys are in there”) or Corcoran (“sorry, I double booked, can we do it tomorrow instead?”). Broker might not have had actual knowlege of the leaks. An issue for the finder of fact, as we say in the legal biz.

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