According to some Princeton Landing residents, being sued by their own homeowners association was the unkindest cut of all.##M:[more]## But for the association, the residents have needlessly complicated an otherwise orderly process.
Unable to convince seven homeowners living in an area known Parcel One to move out while mold remediation work is being done on their units, the homeowners association took the residents to court. When the decision came down on May 11, these residents touted a court victory — “We won,” says a flyer handed out to residents in the development on Sayre Drive in Plainsboro.
But the homeowners association is saying not so fast, claiming that residents have misinterpreted the judge’s decision. “It was a 27-page opinion and it said that all the action taken by the association was reasonable and authorized,” says Richard Kennedy, the attorney for Forrestal Village Community Service Association (FVCSA), the development’s homeowners association. He adds that the association has a course of action for damages against owners who will not move out.
Residents of seven units have refused to move out of their homes while mold remediation work is being done. Claiming that it is unnecessary, that similar projects in New York and New Jersey have not required residents to leave, the seven residents also object to what they say could amount to a needless expense of as much as $20,”000 in moving costs.
But FVCSA says that the homeowners refusal to move has caused a disruption in the completion of the project. According to Marjorie Behrens, the Princeton Landing property manager, 96 residents did move out and those units are near completion. There initially were 12 homeowners who refused to move, but five soon changed their minds and agreed to move out during the work. “We had a meeting of homeowners earlier in the week and some expressed concern that the seven are not allowing the completion of the project,” she says. “We are so close to completion and it’s unfortunate.”
(Parcel One residents referred questions to their attorney, David Kenny, of Hartsough, Kenny, & Chase, on Mercerville-Quakerbridge Road in Trenton. He did not return calls.)
According to a homeowners website (www.princetonlandingalert.com), the mold menace first became apparent in the mid 1990s when workers discovered that the balconies had rotted because of the improper use of building materials. In addition, rotting wood and mold was discovered inside the wooden joists where the balconies were connected to the building structure.
Further testing revealed a moisture condition below the windows due to improper sealing. FVCSA filed a suit against the Value Group, the previous management company, seeking $4.6 million in damages. After two years later the case was settled out of court for approximately $2.5 million. But the money was not enough to complete repairs. Consequently, according to the website, the balance of the cost was to be passed on as a special assessment to the Parcel One residents, many of whom had already paid as much as $4,”000 for balcony repairs.
But it wasn’t until 2003 that residents were informed by FVCSA that they would need to vacate their homes for up to three weeks, at their own expense. This was despite the fact that other similar cases required no such requirement of residents. So when remediation work got underway — replacing layers of exterior stucco and wood trim and some windows and glass doors — many residents were already hopping mad.
Work began on the buildings in the late summer of 2003. Initially told that it would take about three weeks to complete the work, some residents were out of their homes for as much as five or six weeks. According to Parcel One, this was in spite of a New York City Protocol for Mold Remediation that does not recommend the removal of residents (except in extremely cases of infants, elderly, and those with respiratory ailments).
The attorney hired by the residents, Kenny, informed FVCSA that his clients would not vacate their homes but would agree to work with the contractor to avoid any inconvenience while the remediation was underway. But according to the website, the homeowners association retaliated by suing residents to have them forced from their homes.
Kenny hired an environmental medical specialist to inspect the buildings where remedial construction was already underway who determined that there was no reason for the residents to vacate.
The case was heard in the Middlesex County court last August where it was determined that there was no reason for residents to be removed. As a concession, Parcel One residents then offered to sign a release freeing FVCSA and its contractor from any liability for residents who remain in their homes. In return, they requested no further claims be lodged. But the FVCSA rejected the offer, stating that it planned to sue the Parcel One defendants for construction delays and court costs.
Last September, an outside environmental specialist from RK Occupational & Environmental Analysis examined the inside of two townhouses and the outside of others for toxic mold. A report was submitted to Middlesex County Court, last February and it was concluded that “there is no need for the residents to relocate from their homes if this project is properly engineered and executed.”
But according to the homeowners’ website, some residents who elected to leave home during remediation still have complaints, returning to find walls littered with graffiti, property vandalized, outdoor shrubbery severely damaged, and stopped up drains and toilets. In addition, many residents discovered there were phone, heating, cooling, and other electrical problems.
On May 11 Judge Travis L. Francis of the Middlesex County Court agreed that the residents did not need to vacate their homes during the period of construction. But Kennedy, the attorney for FVCSA, says the ruling leaves the homeowners association a number of options. “The judge would not order them to move out, but their failure to do so means they will suffer the money damages,” he says.
According to Kennedy, those money damages could be significant. “There will need to be all new specifications to be drawn by the engineer, new authorization by the building inspector, and we don’t know how much this will cost,” he says. “All this could take some time.”
Kennedy says the FVCSA is currently working on completing the remediation work in the remaining homes and then will evaluate its options concerning the final seven. “There were 96 that agreed to move and we are almost finished with that work with no problems,” he says.
