The day after a couple moved into their newly built house in Bronxville three years ago, a heavy rain flooded the property and allegedly revealed extensive plumbing defects.
Now Christian and Kimberly Witzke are accusing the developer, Particular Harbor LLC, of negligence and breach of contract and are demanding $350,000, in a complaint filed on May 2 in Westchester Supreme Court.
Particular Harbor had a duty to carefully design and build the plumbing and drainage systems, the complaint states, because of the “potential risk to the plaintiffs (and their children’s) lives, health, and safety that results when those systems fail.”
Particular Harbor was founded in 2018 and based at the home of Gregory F. Holcombe, of Eastchester. He is not named as a defendant in the lawsuit.
The Witzkes are lawyers. Kimberly specializes in real estate and Christian advises private equity funds on issues such as mergers and acquisitions.
In 2019, Particular Harbor acquired a property on Crawford Street near the former Concordia College campus, for $665,000.
In 2021, the Witzkes agreed to buy the property, according to the complaint. Particular Harbor pledged that the house would comply with plans approved by the Eastchester building department and with building codes and industry standards.
The Witzkes paid $2,795,000 and mortgaged the property for $1,445,000, according to county property records.
On July 7, 2021, they moved into a new 6-bedroom, 6-bath colonial on a 0.3-acre parcel.
On July 8, 2021, 2.7 inches of rain fell and flooded the fully finished basement with six inches of sewage. Wastewater from the municipal sanitary sewer allegedly entered the basement through a shower drain, toilet, sink and standpipe.
The floor, moldings, doors, cabinets and bottom 18-inches of the walls had to be removed, cleaned and disinfected, the complaint states.
On Sept. 1, 2021, a storm dumped 6.9 inches of rain. This time, they claim, six-and-a-half feet of water filled the basement. The Witzke’s and their infant abandoned the house.
The developer failed to install a backwater valve, the complaint states, that would have prevented floodwater in the sanitary sewer from entering the house. New underground piping between the house and the sanitary sewer was allegedly made of plastic instead of the cast iron specified in the plans.
Pipes and underground storage tanks were allegedly angled incorrectly, allowing stormwater to drain toward the house instead of away from the foundation. A sump pump was too small to keep up with the volume of water flowing in.
The Witzkes say they have spent more than $250,000 cleaning up the messes and replacing stuff, and they still have to rebuild the basement.
On March 21, a state corporation record shows, Particular Harbor was dissolved.
Holcombe did not reply to an email asking for Particular Harbor’s side of the story.
