Young: A runaround over condo complaints

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Young: A runaround over condo complaints

Times Herald-Record - Middletown,NY

http://www.recordonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?

AID=/20070527/NEWS/705270335

A dank, musty odor permeates the air in Winton's

Buttonwood Hills condominium in Middletown, and she wheezes as she

speaks.

" I started smelling mold last year, " said Winton, who suffers with

asthma and Parkinson's disease. " Whenever it rains, I feel dampness

in the wall. I don't know if it's safe to live here, but to be

honest, I don't have any place to go. "

It isn't difficult to spot Building 1 at Buttonwood Hills

Condominiums. It's the only structure in the 11-building complex

with stained walls, corroded footbridges and windows streaked with

bird dung. Chunks of concrete are crumbling from residents'

balconies, which overlook two dry pits that were once swimming pools.

" The pool? That's a joke, " said resident Ben Genender. " Since we've

lived here, the pool has never been opened. "

Winton, who bought her two-bedroom unit five years ago and pays

about $230 monthly maintenance, says she has been pleading with the

condominium's board of managers to replace the leaking roof.

In response, she has gotten vague promises, lame excuses and

slipshod repairs.

Winton showed me her buckling bedroom walls with paint peeling from

chronic moisture. She showed me reports from a Goshen laboratory

indicating high levels of toxic mold.

She handed me a copy of the most recent newsletter from the board of

managers. " Building 1 renovations are still out to bid, " it

says. " Since this will be a complicated and expensive project, the

renovations will most likely not begin until 2008. We are, however,

hoping to have the roof replaced later this year. "

Hoping?

I called Mem Property Management in New Jersey and was connected to

the voicemail of Laderman. He did not return my call.

" It's useless to complain, " Genender told me. " They don't have any

answers. "

According to Winton, temporary repairs were made after the last big

snowstorm in March. " They did a patchwork repair that didn't hold, "

she said. " I'm trying to be fair to them, but I am really fed up.

They've offered to replace the wall, but until the roof is replaced,

the mold is going to come back. "

Winton also called in a mold remediation specialist, Petrullo.

" It's not a healthy condition that she's living with, " Petrullo told

me. " The carpet needs to be replaced because it got wet and is

another source of the mold. She offered me some money, but it's

really the (condominium) association that should be doing this. "

I called several members of Buttonwood Hills' board of managers.

When nobody called back, I sent an e-mail to the board's president,

Ron Pipia. He owns a unit in Building 1, but doesn't live there.

Two days later, Pipia e-mailed me back.

Yes, he admitted, the roof needed to be replaced because

of " original construction deficiencies. "

The board of managers, Pipia added, " did not build the original

structures years ago and is not responsible for the original

builder's construction defects. "

I wrote back and asked Pipia for a telephone number where I could

reach him.

He ignored me.

I called Middletown Building Inspector Walter Welch, who pounced

like a pit bull on raw meat. Within hours, he sent inspector Mike

Post to Buttonwood Hills.

Post examined the warped wall, the falling roof and the rotting

footbridges outside Building 1. " You can put your finger right

through the metal, " he said.

" There's definitely a problem; there's a lot to document here. Why

didn't anyone call before? "

The city, Post told me, can issue violations and give the condo

management a deadline to fix the problem. It could also condemn the

building.

Siegler, a Manhattan lawyer who specializes in condominium

law, says the residents " should stop paying their maintenance

charges and get a lawyer. "

" The board of managers needs to take action right away, " he

said. " They've got to remediate this immediately. "

Young writes a watchdog column for the Times Herald-

Record. E-mail your problem to cyoung@..., or write to her

at the Times Herald-Record, 40 Mulberry St., Middletown 10940. She

is also the author of " A Bitter Brew: Faith, Power and Poison in a

Small New England Town, " published by Penguin USA.