Hi, I am in a 6 unit new construction building in Brooklyn. The building is about 5 years old and my husband and I bought a unit last year. Previously the sponsor was renting out the apartment. During very windy/rainy storms (twice in the last year), water drips from the top of the balcony door and from the middle of the room out of the light fixture in the ceiling. Other units don't have issues... [more]
Hi,
I am in a 6 unit new construction building in Brooklyn. The building is about 5 years old and my husband and I bought a unit last year. Previously the sponsor was renting out the apartment.
During very windy/rainy storms (twice in the last year), water drips from the top of the balcony door and from the middle of the room out of the light fixture in the ceiling. Other units don't have issues with water coming into the middle of the room, but they do have leaks that happen more often at windows or balcony doors. My husband is an architect and he noticed that weep holes were drawn into the building drawings, however the facade was not constructed with weep holes which is what could be causing the leak issues.
We have googled around and found a helpful nytimes article which is pasted below and it sounds like the course of action to pursue the developer should be to hire an engineer to complete an engineer report and then an attorney to figure out how to negotiate with the developer. The issue is that the engineer report would most likely cost around $10K and the attorney at least $5K which is a lot of money for 6 unit building with units that on average are valued at $500K each. There is no guarantee that we can get anything out of the developer after spending all that money.
Does anyone have any advice on how to handle this and/or engineer or attorney recommendations?
Thank you!
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/25/realestate/25cov.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0[less]
Response by semerun
over 13 years ago
Posts: 571
Member since: Feb 2008
I have been down this road recently myself. There are laws on the books that are intended to protect you from these issues- but good luck getting any results from it. I was the first to support an engineer's report for our building simply because I wanted to know what my risk and future expenses would look like. The NY A.G's office had no desire to get involved because we are a small building. The developer would not pay up and the cost of litagation was too daunting for our small building. We were also concerned that if we won, that the developer would not pay- and would fold the company, sticking us with not only the problems with the building, but a ton of legal expenses as well.
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Response by greensdale
over 13 years ago
Posts: 3804
Member since: Sep 2012
Give us info on the developer.
It never pays to pursue litigation against someone without deep pockets.
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Response by uptown_joe
over 13 years ago
Posts: 293
Member since: Dec 2011
Think about it differently -- the repairs or reconstruction need to be done regardless of who pays. The work costs $$$. To spend that money effectively, you'll need professional engineering advice, thus incurring those fees anyway. The attorney costs and/or cost recovery from the developer are the only real variables. So do it in this order:
1) Get the engineering report at your expense.
2) Get estimates to complete the recommended work.
3) Have preliminary discussions with a few attorneys.
4) Balance the required repair costs vs the certain attorney fees vs an estimated chance of recovering money in the legal dispute.
5) Do the work, whether with your cash or the developer's. If the developer's, demand they also reimburse the engineer and attorney fees.
This leaves out the question of what's "right", of course, which is hard to get past.
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Response by semerun
over 13 years ago
Posts: 571
Member since: Feb 2008
The one grey area in uptown_joe's response is getting the engineering report done at your expense. A developer's attorney would likely argue that the report was skewed on behalf of the buyers. This is a question we thought about in our building- but ultimately we did get the engineering report at our expense. It didn't matter much in our situation because ultimately the developer was not going to pay- and we made the repairs out of our own pockets.
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Response by ab_11218
over 13 years ago
Posts: 2017
Member since: May 2009
i would get a construction company to create what is missing on the original plans and avoid the engineering report that will most likely cost as much as the repairs needed.
welcome to buying new construction. everyone who looks at new and shiny forgets that the illegals who built the house know how to build huts and had almost no supervision when they were building.
I have been down this road recently myself. There are laws on the books that are intended to protect you from these issues- but good luck getting any results from it. I was the first to support an engineer's report for our building simply because I wanted to know what my risk and future expenses would look like. The NY A.G's office had no desire to get involved because we are a small building. The developer would not pay up and the cost of litagation was too daunting for our small building. We were also concerned that if we won, that the developer would not pay- and would fold the company, sticking us with not only the problems with the building, but a ton of legal expenses as well.
Give us info on the developer.
It never pays to pursue litigation against someone without deep pockets.
Think about it differently -- the repairs or reconstruction need to be done regardless of who pays. The work costs $$$. To spend that money effectively, you'll need professional engineering advice, thus incurring those fees anyway. The attorney costs and/or cost recovery from the developer are the only real variables. So do it in this order:
1) Get the engineering report at your expense.
2) Get estimates to complete the recommended work.
3) Have preliminary discussions with a few attorneys.
4) Balance the required repair costs vs the certain attorney fees vs an estimated chance of recovering money in the legal dispute.
5) Do the work, whether with your cash or the developer's. If the developer's, demand they also reimburse the engineer and attorney fees.
This leaves out the question of what's "right", of course, which is hard to get past.
The one grey area in uptown_joe's response is getting the engineering report done at your expense. A developer's attorney would likely argue that the report was skewed on behalf of the buyers. This is a question we thought about in our building- but ultimately we did get the engineering report at our expense. It didn't matter much in our situation because ultimately the developer was not going to pay- and we made the repairs out of our own pockets.
i would get a construction company to create what is missing on the original plans and avoid the engineering report that will most likely cost as much as the repairs needed.
welcome to buying new construction. everyone who looks at new and shiny forgets that the illegals who built the house know how to build huts and had almost no supervision when they were building.