Mount Vernon broker demands $1M from Vernon Manor Co-op

A Mount Vernon real estate broker claims that officials at Vernon Manor Co-Operative Apartments have blocked her from representing buyers and sellers and steered business to a fellow board member.

Monique Johnson and her Greater Metro Realty Group are demanding more than $1 million from the co-op and three board members, in a complaint filed Oct. 4 in Westchester Supreme Court.

Nyahalay P. Tucker, one of the accused board members who also is a realtor, called the accusations “completely, utterly and ridiculously frivolous.”

Vernon Manor, Section 1, is a cluster of four, 6-story apartment buildings along East Lincoln Avenue at Fisher Drive, built in 1952. The prices of current apartments for sale range from $89,000 for a 650-square-foot one-bedroom unit, according to real estate websites, to $237,500 for a 1,200-square-foot three-bedroom unit.

Johnson says she has represented buyers and sellers at Vernon Manor for more than 20 years, and she claims she helped Tucker get a real estate license in 2020.

Then, Johnson alleges, Tucker and board president Sylvia T. Gadson and vice president Ben Maribal conspired to promote Tucker as the preferred broker for owners selling units in the complex.

They did so, according to the complaint, by denying clients’ applications for residency and telling prospective sellers not to use her services.

In one instance, Johnson claims, the three board members denied a residency application and then Tucker approached the apartment owner to represent the seller.

Tucker said in a telephone interview that the allegations are untrue and she is completely innocent.

For instance, she said Johnson had nothing to do with helping her get a real estate license.

“I got it on my own. What she did help with is the purchase of my apartment in this complex before I received my license.”

Tucker has a master’s degree in education and works primarily as a teacher in the New York City schools. She works in real estate part-time.

Tucker said she has not interviewed any applicants for residency in more than a year. She did not try to influence anyone on the board. And neither she nor Gadson or Maribal had anything to do with the rejection.

“The attorney involved in the deal reached out to the complex’s attorney and asked if I had anything to do with that rejection,” Tucker said. “Everyone said, No, Miss Tucker was not there at the interview. … It’s in writing.”

As a board member, Tucker said, she does not interview applicants when she has an interest in the deal. For instance, now she is selling her apartment so she has stepped aside during the application process.

“It’s really maddening,” she said, “because I take this job seriously. I taught myself to have integrity. And to be painted in this sort of light gets me really angry and makes me sad.”

Johnson accused Vernon Manor and the three board members of acting in bad faith and interfering with her business. She is demanding $18,700 for lost commissions and $1 million for interference and damaging her reputation.

She is represented by Mount Vernon attorney Percival A. Clarke.