The Colony at Hartsdale Condominium desperately needs to replace leaky roofs but is at a stalemate with the contractor it hired to do the work for $3.7 million.
The Colony fired C.M.V. Company Inc. in June and weeks later filed an emergency action in Westchester Supreme Court to stop C.M.V. and owner Christopher M. Verrone from “absconding with nearly $700,000 of the Condo community’s money.”
But Verrone’s attorney, Christopher Riley, told the court that The Colony’s allegations are scurrilous and he is holding the money in an escrow account.
On July 26, Justice Hal B. Greenwald approved a stipulation, signed by attorneys for both sides, that endorses Riley’s request to continue holding the funds and not to move them unless ordered by the court.
The Colony includes 15 buildings with 157 apartments on Fox Glen Drive in Hartsdale.
The condominium had been spending about $200,000 a year to repair roofs, board member Joseph Morelli states in an affidavit. Rather than “continuing to place bandaids on the problem,” the board decided in 2021 to replace the roofs.
In May 2022, The Colony hired C.M.V. of Danbury, Connecticut. The board already knew Verrone, of Katonah, because he had been fixing the leaks since June 2019, and C.M.V. offered the lowest bid and the highest warranty, 30 years.
The Colony borrowed $3.7 million.
Last December, C.M.V. requested $686,500 for purchasing roofing materials, according to the condominium. The Colony issued a check in January but no materials have been purchased and C.M.V. has refused to return the funds.
Morelli also claims that the warranty that C.M.V. eventually provided “was worthless.”
It excluded damages caused by winds greater than 55 miles per hour, and according to the condominium’s attorney, Nancy Durand, and it “was supposed to be from a reputable roofing manufacturer but instead was from an entity formed by defendants just two years earlier.”
The Colony fired C.M.V. on June 22, in part, according to Durand, for fabricating a warranty.
On June 26, C.M.V. demanded $989,546 for completed work.
Property manager Eric Schmidt of Stillman Management Realty Group states in an affidavit that C.M.V.’s charges are fabricated.
“No roofing work was performed or could have been performed because C.M.V. never ordered any materials and … no materials were delivered to the property.”
He conceded that the contractor had worked on the swimming pool deck, but says the highest bid for the project was $26,000, nowhere near the $197,677 that C.M.V. is demanding. Interim roof repairs made from May 2022 to June 2023 are worth $71,000, not the $159,713 that the contractor claims.
“The most C.M.V. could credibly claim to be owed is $97,000,” Schmidt said, “far below the $1 million windfall C.M.V. hopes to realize.”
“C.M.V. provided work, labor and services for which they are due recompense,” Riley said in an email response to a request for his client’s side of the story.
The Colony’s statements “were all untrue,” he said, “no one tried to abscond with anything,” and the stipulation reflects that The Colony “owes my client monies for work performed.”
If the condominium files a formal complaint, he said, “you can be certain there will be a counterclaim.”
Morelli said in his affidavit that The Colony has reopened bidding for the roofing project, “and now we are right back at square one making incremental repairs.”
