Numerous legal battles are in full swing in New York Supreme Court after more than 50 purchasers of summer homes in Monticello’s Waverly Gardens have hurled accusations against Rabbi Eli Katz of Waverly Homes Development, LLC, FAA News has learned.
One lawsuit alleges that Katz failed to finish construction, performing shoddy work, and violating other provisions of state law.
As a result of these allegations, the parties began adjudicating their dispute before Bais Din of America. While before the Bais Din, Katz revealed that he was selling some of the homes to his relative instead of to the contract purchasers. This issue led to a second lawsuit.
According to court filings, Katz allegedly violated the Martin Act, a New York law designed to safeguard purchasers from unscrupulous developers. According to the homeowners, Katz took nearly 100 percent deposits from the buyers, claiming he would construct their dream summer homes, yet never did.
The filings indicate that upon moving into their newly-built homes, the first wave of buyers were shocked to discover shoddy construction work that they say led to basement flooding due to improper drainage around the foundation. Additionally, the community’s pool proved to be structurally unsound and collapsed. According to the petitioners, Waverly Homes refused to complete the project and finalize deals with the remaining buyers, even after they contributed their own funds to finish the development.
In a bid to resolve the disputes, Waverly Homes Developers and the purchasers opted for rabbinical court arbitration, which is currently in its final stages. Before a resolution could be reached in rabbinical court, Waverly Homes Developers filed a mortgage against the property. According to court documents, the developer leveraged the property with a blanket mortgage and threatened foreclosure, placing the buyer’s properties at risk.
A foreclosure action was subsequently filed by Walkoff Holdings LLC. The homeowners believe that Walkoff is working in conjunction with Waverly Developers on the action.
The second lawsuit alleges that Katz violated the Arbitration Agreement which bound him to a Settlement Agreement which included selling certain units to contract buyers. Instead, Katz attempted to talk the contract buyers into allowing him to walk off the deal and sell the units to his relative instead.
Following the filing of this second lawsuit, Bais Din of America issued an interim Order barring Katz from selling the units to his relative.
The state Attorney General and Sullivan County District Attorney’s Office have not launched any criminal investigation into the matter.
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1 comment:
Developer is bad news
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