All seemed satisfactory during a Scarsdale couple’s last walk-through before buying a New Rochelle house, but six days later, they claim, they walked into a house ruined by mold.
Richard Stucko and Alona Suchin are demanding $514,000 from sellers Michael A. Hordell and Melissa Santoro and their attorney, Robert Grossman, in a complaint filed on April 26 in Westchester Supreme Court.
The buyers believe that after their last walk-through on June 30, “there was an event in the basement resulting in heavy flooding” and the defendants “engaged in an improper and unprofessional attempt to use the HVAC system as a drying system … causing mold infestation and other damage.”
“I’m aghast,” Grossman, a real estate attorney and broker who practices in White Plains, said when asked about the lawsuit. “This is crazy.”
He had not been served yet with the lawsuit but he recalled the circumstances differently. The couple had the home inspected professionally and had hired an architect before the title closing.
The 3-bedroom, 3-bathroom split level house on Marion Drive was built in 1956 near Maplewood Park and Leatherstocking Trail in northern New Rochelle.
The house was owned by the estate of Evelyn Berman. Hordell, of Clifton, Virginia, is executor of the estate. He and Santoro, of Montgomery, Orange County, acquired the house under Berman’s last will and testament, according to a mortgage record.
Stucko and Suchin agreed to buy the house a year ago, the complaint states, and inspected it on several walkthroughs.
The last walk-through was on June 30.
On July 6, they closed on the title. They bought the house for $759,000, according to county property records, and mortgaged it for $400,000.
Immediately after the title closing, they went to their new house where, according to the complaint, they discovered conditions that were not present during any walkthroughs.
They say the house was humid and musty, especially in the basement. The basement floor was puddled. Floors and walls and ductwork throughout the house were soaked or moist. Ceiling tiles were buckled and dripping water. Several surfaces were moldy.
An air conditioner and dehumidifier in the basement utility room were operating at full capacity.
The house is still uninhabitable, according to the complaint.
Grossman said he had done a walk-through with the couple a few days after the title closing and “it didn’t look bad. … If it [mold] was all through the house, you would imagine he would have said something right there.j”
He described it as an old house that needed renovations, and “I believe they were going to do a gut renovation and I think they got an estimate to remediate [mold.].
At that point, the buyers owned the house and they had the opportunity to hire a mold specialist but never did. “I assumed they worked things out with the insurance company or spent an extra $10,000 or $20,000 on the mold.”
Stucko and Suchin claim they have spent $180,000 so far on remediation, repairs, temporary housing, and storage. They estimate that the project will eventually total at least $314,000.
They accused the sellers of breach of contract for allegedly failing to deliver the property in the same condition as at the time of the final walk-through. They charged the sellers and their attorney with negligence, for allegedly failing to maintain and manage the property, and fraud for allegedly proceeding with the title closing knowing that the property had been flooded.
Stucko and Suchin are demanding $314,000 for restoring the property, and $200,000 in punitive damages. They are represented by Hawthorne attorney Aaron G. Baily.
