Corcoran Found Negligent in Park Slope Condo Sale
What 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…
What 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]
That’s fucked up. Disclose your shit.
***Bid half off peak comps***
As much as I love to hop on a story about slimy Brokers and their tactics in selling an apartment, we need to be more precise here in what is being said. This finding of gross negligence has nothing to do with the merits of the case itself. The plaintiff still has yet to prove their case in terms of Corcoran allegedly hiding the fact that the apartment leaked, etc. In the discovery phase of a lawsuit, particular documents have to be turned over. Corcoran was only found to be grossly negligent in failing to turn over and/or preserve pertinent documents (the incriminating emails) in the discovery phase. Since no one outside of Corcoran has seen the content of the subject emails, it can’t really (fairly) be said yet that Corcoran is guilty of knowing that the apartment was water-logged and taking measures to prevent any potential buyers from discovering the situation. Of course Corcoran’s attorneys will be arguing that the buyer should have discovered any existing defects by way of an engineer’s or home inspector’s report. And they *may* be right. That will be the ultimate argument when the case reaches that stage. My point here is that it isn’t there yet. Not even close.
From the DOB complaints, this sounds like it was a drainage issue with the basement. There were problems apparently with the neighboring property as well. Perhaps they dug out the basement…it looks like these people bought the first floor plus basement from the floorplan.
They probably did not effectively allow for yard and roof runoff.
Will this set a precedent?
From the listing:
“Kohler soaking tubs”, obviously the tubs aren’t the only thing soaking.
“Live the vision.”
Let the stormy clouds chase
Everyone from the place
Come on with the rain
I’ve a smile on my face
I walk down the lane
With a happy refrain
Just singin’,
Singin’ in the rain
Oh! Flooding! My my my black mold. My landlady has a novel approach to this problem: She just ignores it.
“this falls under the category of duh on the buyer’s/renters behalf.
it’s like people who move to the ghetto in the middle of winter and then when summer nyc summer days come they bug out!
do your research! your plopping down good money! of course sellers/agents/brokers are gonna be shady, that’s the nature of the industry.
*rob*”
You should be the judge in the case because I’m sure the case was simple as you think. I’m sure the lawyers paid by the brokers, the developers and the buyers were all worried about the case being so obvious that someone who knows exactly nothing about it can opine to it so intelligently. You should write a letter to Corcoran and ask them to hire you.
Of course the case involves more than what you can get from the article- and of course the problems could not have been obviously detected from a simple home inspection (which is NOT an engineer’s report) otherwise the judge would have ruled against the plaintiff’s in this case.
This falls under the category of talking without thinking. Its like when a new scientific discovery is posted online, and someone with an 8th grade science background questions how such a thing is possible.
thanks harlem, I love the baseboard heating. I think they’ve got buyers remorse.
Here it is for those interested:
http://www.corcoran.com/property/listing.aspx?Region=NYC&ListingID=877070
Hi TITS. How’s it hanging?