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Editorials
In this day of booming real estate prices you would think that Developers were making money hand over fist and could operate their business in a trust worthy manner. Well let me tell you a story about a local developer whose greed to squeeze in one more lot into a development has caused my family pain for the past 4-5 months. These last 5 months have been an eye opening experience for us as we have encountered along the way a greedy arrogant developer as well as apathetic politicians who seem to care more about the developers than their constituents and have allowed them to run amuck through this town as if it were their own to run.
We purchased a home from Katz Developers in Warrington. They operate this development under the name Pickertown Hickory Associates LP. In case you have not realized it but some developers create a shell company that they run their business through for a development and when it is fully completed and dedicated the just shut their doors absolving themselves of any future litigation. Neat trick that our legislators allow to go on as innocent taxpayers get taken advantage of by shady developers.
We have lived in Warrington Township for the past 12 years and wanted this to be the place we retire and continue to raise our family. We have a son who is 17 years old and has special needs and may never be able to live alone in the real world. Having said this we wanted to try and provide every opportunity for him to succeed if this were to be an option. A home in a cul-de-sac with a park behind it was a perfect location for us and our son as it provided a safer environment for him and also a home that we could build an apartment in the above ground basement for him to transition into and maybe out into the real world at some time in the future.
The lot we purchased from Katz was the last one available and it had a detention basin on it. When Katz sold us the lot they told us our responsibility for the basin would be 99% landscaping and 1% maintenance. When we inquired the salesperson what the 1% maintenance included we were told, keeping debris from the holes so they can flow properly. We decided this responsibility was something we could live with and signed an Agreement of Sale on March 1, 2005 and put our current home up for sale. We sold our current home rather quickly and were excited about the prospect of our new beautiful home.
This excitement would be shattered in a few months when my wife would inquire of the township engineer with some questions about whether or not we would be able at some time to put in a swimming pool next to the basin. In addressing our question he notified my wife that we had a responsibility for the basin and she said “yes we know we have to cut the lawn and keep debris out of the holes”. He said “Oh no your responsibility goes much further than that, you are also responsible for the concrete structures, and have the liability if someone drowns or the basin overflows into a neighboring home”. My wife was shocked by this statement and immediately called Katz developers about this misrepresentation to us of our responsibility and she was told by Steven Katz to as he put it come pick up your check. At this time we chose to enlist the help of our so-called friend of the family Jacqueline Rhodes who has known my wife’s family for many years. She is the Vice President of Sales for Katz Developers. She initially tried to help us and apologized for all of the problems we were encountering. This was what I expected from her as we had previous dealings with her and we pleased with what she was able to do for us in the past. What happened next surprised us. My wife did speak with Steven Katz personally and was told we could have our money back but no one would admit to misrepresenting to us what our responsibility was for this basin. We still had nothing in writing as to our responsibility. After repeated attempts to contact Marvin Katz through phone requests, e-mail requests and even a certified letter, we received a letter from Jacqueline Rhodes stating that we must direct all questions through the sales representative. This response from Ms. Rhodes shocked us as she obviously was either a coward or was covering for her boss’s mistakes. I tend to think it was a little of both. The past five months our communications with Katz Developers has been strictly by e-mail as that is the way they would prefer it and we prefer to have a paper trail as they have proven they can not be trusted.
As we now had hit a brick wall with Katz we decided to take our plight to the township and this experience was one of futility and frustration as we came to realize this board was a divided board of 5 supervisors (3 who historically vote in favor of the developers and 2 who historically represent their constituents and do what is right for the people they serve). My initial discussions were with the Township Manager, John Bonnargo who himself said he would not buy this property due to the huge liability that was associated. He led me to speak with John Paul the recently ousted (by November voting) Chairman of the Supervisors. In my conversations with Mr. Paul, he was constantly defending the Katz’s saying they did nothing wrong. Yet it was found that Mr. Paul was employed by Don Lankford Landscaping and Lankford Landscaping was coincidentally employed by Katz Developers a clear conflict of interest in my opinion.
We then officially presented our case to the Board of Supervisors where we were met again with apprehension about our plight. Only Supervisors Butterworth and McKay seemed to take an interest as well as the candidates and incoming supervisors, Lemond and Plotnick. They all agreed that our situation was unfair and something needed to be done. In doing our research in the minutes of previous meetings we found that the original plans for this development called for a Homeowners Association to be in this development, yet the Katz never told any of the owners this was happening. They then approached the Board of Supervisors in June of 2005, three months after we had signed an Agreement of Sale and asked for a revision of the plans stating there was a typographical error. When questioned by the supervisors if the current owners of the property with the basin we fully aware of their responsibility and were ok with it, Mr. Marvin Katz responded, “the lot owner is aware of it, has agreed to it and there’s no problem with it with the purchaser”, which was a blatant misrepresentation. The Board of Supervisors then approved this change based on this misrepresentation. When we questioned the board on this misrepresentation Mr. Paul again did nothing but defend the builder. Mrs. Butterworth and Mr. McKay made a motion to revoke this approval based on this misrepresentation and John Paul’s response was “are you trying to get us sued?” Township Solicitor Bill Casey stated that the Katz’s should be present if any decision is to be made on their behalf, yet my family was not present when the decision to make this change that would affect us was made. It seems as if the builders get special treatment and not the taxpayers but perhaps my thoughts are a bit jaded.
Another issue that has come up is that the basin which resides on the property we have purchased houses a sediment trap which currently looks like a 2-3 foot pond with no protection around it to keep children out from this potential danger. This again was another thing we were not told upon purchasing this home. We were told the basin would be completed before we moved in. We have now been informed that the sediment trap will remain until the development is completely finished, dedicated and green which will be June of 2006. That means we must live with this huge eyesore of a pond in our back yard and subject our children and the children of the neighborhood to this potential danger. In speaking with the Bucks County Conservation District that resides over these issues we were told this was standard procedure yet if we were building a pool we would not be able to without putting up a fence to protect outsiders. Why do the builders get special considerations from allowing this danger to exist?
Now that our current house was sold and we had basically no where else to move we approached the township to revoke this and make the Katz’s install a Homeowners Association as was originally planned. Again we were met with apprehension from the majority of the board who kept making excuses for the builder and their decision. We are now currently living in temporary housing and driving our children to and from school everyday. We were 5 days from settlement and met with a lawyer to sue the township for what we believe is gross dereliction of their duty to us as a taxpayer in allowing these developers to get away with misrepresentation and deception. When meeting with the lawyer they informed us we do have a case against this builder but not the township and it may take upwards of $25,000 to fight this. We finally forced with the decision that instead of taking money from our youngest son’s college fund and our special needs child’s trust fund to fight these greedy developers and misguided politicians for what is right we cut our losses and move on to settle for a home that is not necessarily what we want but it gets us in a home situation that is settled and will bring this roller coaster ride of our life for the past 5 months to a screeching halt. Amazingly when I called the developer to ask out of the deal he had a check ready for me in a matter of 90 minutes. Of course we had to sign a release form to get the money. Pardon my ignorance but a release form is used to prevent themselves from future litigation which to indicates they most likely have something to hide. I will take it as an admission of guilt but that is only some consolation to the ordeal our family has endured. We have incurred excessive costs by having to live in temporary housing. If there is any silver lining in this entire ordeal it is that the 2 of the 3 politicians who have been running this township to favor their friends not their constituents have been voted out and the good ole boy mentally that has run this township for years will hopefully move on to one that is run for the people!
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