A White Plains couple who bought a purportedly high-efficiency heating and cooling system say they have since seen their house’s electricity bills skyrocket.
David and Heidi Lackowitz accused County Comfort Home Solutions of fraud and are demanding $200,000, in a complaint filed on Jan. 31 in Westchester Supreme Court.
“While knowing that the systems they intended to install would be highly inefficient,” the complaint states, the contractor advised the couple “that the system would dramatically reduce their energy consumption and their monthly electric bills.”
Instead, electric bills allegedly increased.
The Lackowitzes own a renovated 1907 farmhouse on Romar Avenue, near Saxon Woods Park, that they bought for $1.3 million in 2020. The 3-story, 5,300-square-foot house has five bedrooms and four and a half baths, according to online real estate databases.
Mr. Lackowitz is a partner in Tarter Krinsky & Drogin law firm in Manhattan, where he handles high stakes, complex commercial litigation, including construction cases. He is representing his wife and himself in this case.
Joseph Jensen, of Croton-on-Hudson, incorporated County Comfort Home Solutions Inc. in 2021. It operates shops in Croton-on-Hudson and Mahopac, according to its website, and boasts, “We fix uncomfortable homes!”
The Lackowitzes hired County Comfort in March 2021 to install a central air conditioning and heating system on the first floor and mini-splits on the second and third floors.
Mini-splits are all-electric, ductless systems that connect outside compressors to inside wall-mounted units that distribute hot or cold air to specific rooms or zones.
The Lackowitzes claim they were assured that electrical consumption would drop dramatically, and that the mini-splits would provide adequate heat unless the outside temperature dropped below zero.
But the mini-splits ceased to function properly when the temperature dropped below 32 degrees, and the house has regularly been without heat every winter, according to the complaint. Even when the equipment partially worked, many rooms were heated to no more than 52 degrees.
After the equipment was installed, a County Comfort representative allegedly told the Lackowitzes that the company had not previously installed systems of comparable size and he acknowledged that the systems were defective.
County Comfort has repeatedly tried to repair the equipment, the complaint states, “but to no avail.”
The complaint does not say how much the Lackowitzes paid County Comfort for the systems, or by how much their electric bills increased. They are demanding at least $150,000 for alleged breach of contract and at least $200,000 for alleged fraud.
