For three-and-a-half years, Brooklyn real estate investor Chaim Freund has been trying to buy a small apartment house in Yonkers, only to be stymied by circumstances.
Now Freund is asking Westchester Supreme Court to enforce the deal or compel the property owner to pay more than $1 million in damages, according to a March 8 complaint filed against 80 Orchard Street LLC.
The “seller wrongfully and improperly attempted to unilaterally cancel the contract and return the down payment,” the complaint states, and is “attempting to locate new purchasers ”¦ in order to obtain a higher purchase price.”
Attempts to find contact information for the property owner, to ask for his side of the story, were unsuccessful. The limited liability company is based in New Rochelle, according to the summons, and was previously based at a Yonkers pizzeria, according to property records that also indicate that Emile DiMatteo is the managing member.
The deal includes a vacant lot and a three-story structure on Orchard Street, overlooking the Alexander Smith Carpet Mills Historic District.
Freund agreed in 2018 to buy the properties for $990,000, including a $49,500 down payment. Time was of the essence, the complaint states, and the deal was supposed to close no later than November 2018.
Both sides agreed to extend the closing to January 2019. Then just before the closing, the complaint states, they discovered that the apartment house was zoned for four dwellings, not six.
Documents and permits that had been provided, Freund claims, were “fraudulent or obtained fraudulently.”
The Yonkers building department revoked the certificate of occupancy.
The Yonkers Zoning Board of Appeals granted the property owner a zoning variance, but first fire sprinklers had to be installed.
The closing date was extended again, conditioned on installation of sprinklers and issuance of the zoning variance and certificate of occupancy for six dwellings. The price was increased to $1,019,600.
The Covid-19 pandemic delayed work, according to the complaint, but Freund says he understood that everyone was “taking all necessary steps to resolve the hurdles to closing.”
But now, he says, the owner has refused to complete the work needed for the zoning permit and certificate of occupancy.
Instead, the complaint alleges, the owner is demanding that Freund waive the zoning and occupancy requirements and pay more for the properties. Then on March 2, the property owner allegedly tried to unilaterally cancel the contract and return the down payment.
Freund is asking for a court decree ordering the property to be sold to him and allowing him to use part of the purchase price to pay debts on the properties. He is also asking for $1,049,600 for alleged anticipatory breach of contract. Alternatively, he is asking for $80,000 for the down payment and other costs and for the property to be sold in foreclose to satisfy that obligation.
Brooklyn attorney Joseph J. Schwartz represents Freund.
