Granville
CONDO
Nightmare
Not Over
BY ANGELA CAPUTO STAFF WRITER
Pioneer Press
Back in the late-90s when the housing market boom was just getting into full swing, Juanita Timm was looking to get in on the ground floor.
A renter in Bucktown at the time, she was ready to stop throwing her money at rent and start building equity. When she first laid eyes on a sunny condo in an Edgewater courtyard building that appeared to be in the early stages of conversion she thought she had found just the place.
"It was spacious and has the hardwood floors and I fell in love with it," Timm said. "(Real estate) prices started going up, and the neighborhood looked like it was changing."
With the help of a lender recommended by the associate of developer Vikram Mehta, Timm closed in early fall of 1999 and moved in.
Her neighbor Robert Byczk and a handful of others also closed in the 40-unit building, 1054 W. Granville Ave., shortly after. And that's when their home ownership nightmare began.
Byczk first realized that he got a raw deal when he was hit with an $11,000 bill for back property taxes. Timm said she started to lose sleep when she noticed that no building permits were posted and new neighbors weren't moving in.
It became obvious that Mehta was falling short on his promise to rehab the building. Despite filing a condo conversion declaration, he hung onto 23 units, refused to pay assessments and kept them vacant, according to court documents.
All the while the people who closed on units didn't realize that they were buying into an illegal conversion, which years later still doesn't measure up to city code.
Each month residents said they sent assessment checks to Mehta's company, Atlantic Realty and Management. Winter after winter the heat got shut off, and they realized that the money wasn't going toward the bills. For a time the water was even cut and the residents were filling jugs at a near-by Thai restaurant.
"There were years when (Mehta) didn't pay ComEd at all," Timm said, or "He would pay the bare minimum." In 2001there were more than $50,000 in unpaid gas bills alone, said Timm who is currently on the building's condo board, which is the process of suing Mehta for $400,000 in unpaid building expenses.
With dozens of condo conversions sweeping through Edgewater and it bordering neighborhoods, the Granville property should send a loud "buyer beware" message said Judy Frydland, senior counsel with the city's law department. Illegal conversions are "a big problem," she said. "And this case really illustrates it."
The tenants advocacy group the Rogers Park Community Action Network is calling for stricter state laws to protect consumers from unscrupulous developers. While State Rep. Harry Osterman, D-14th, acknowledged that "This is a big issue on our community," he said won't introduce the consumer protection legislation proposed by RPCAN. Instead he's he is floating a bill calling for a statewide committee to develop policies to aid condo owners.
Following numerous complaints, Frydland, representing the city, stepped in on the Granville building in 2001 identifying it as a problem building. At first the city tried to intervene, then cited Mehta with 30 code violations and finally filed a lien, according to court documents. Eventually it became obvious that it was time to bring in a new buyer when the Bank of Waukeegan trust that Mehta held the property in went into foreclosure.
A couple of interested buyers, including Loyola, put in offers. But the highest bidder, Andrezj Krejeza of AEZ Electric--which was dissolved one month before the closing in October 2005 according to state records--won out.
Krejeza got a loan for $2.7 million to buy the building and under a court supervised transaction agreed to bring it up to code and do some tuckpointing.
Already it's looking like more of the same some independent unit owners worry. Krejeza is refusing to pay condo assessments for the 23 units he owns. He says since he doesn't have a voice on the condo board or in drawing up a budget for how the assessments are spent, and until he does, he's not paying.
He's also protesting his assessment bills, with roughly $35,000 outstanding-until a contractor friend of his, who also owns one unit in the building, is paid up for the plumbing and other upgrades he's done. "The major problem in this building is the board," Krejeza said. "They don't want to cooperate with us."
It's not clear how much headway Krejeza has made on remedying the code violations he was brought in to fix. But after five years in the city's housing court, the case was continued on next month.
And after years of trying to fight for her rights, Timm said, "I'm not going to back down now...At least I can say I tried."
CONDO
Nightmare
Not Over
BY ANGELA CAPUTO STAFF WRITER
Pioneer Press
Back in the late-90s when the housing market boom was just getting into full swing, Juanita Timm was looking to get in on the ground floor.
A renter in Bucktown at the time, she was ready to stop throwing her money at rent and start building equity. When she first laid eyes on a sunny condo in an Edgewater courtyard building that appeared to be in the early stages of conversion she thought she had found just the place.
"It was spacious and has the hardwood floors and I fell in love with it," Timm said. "(Real estate) prices started going up, and the neighborhood looked like it was changing."
With the help of a lender recommended by the associate of developer Vikram Mehta, Timm closed in early fall of 1999 and moved in.
Her neighbor Robert Byczk and a handful of others also closed in the 40-unit building, 1054 W. Granville Ave., shortly after. And that's when their home ownership nightmare began.
Byczk first realized that he got a raw deal when he was hit with an $11,000 bill for back property taxes. Timm said she started to lose sleep when she noticed that no building permits were posted and new neighbors weren't moving in.
It became obvious that Mehta was falling short on his promise to rehab the building. Despite filing a condo conversion declaration, he hung onto 23 units, refused to pay assessments and kept them vacant, according to court documents.
All the while the people who closed on units didn't realize that they were buying into an illegal conversion, which years later still doesn't measure up to city code.
Each month residents said they sent assessment checks to Mehta's company, Atlantic Realty and Management. Winter after winter the heat got shut off, and they realized that the money wasn't going toward the bills. For a time the water was even cut and the residents were filling jugs at a near-by Thai restaurant.
"There were years when (Mehta) didn't pay ComEd at all," Timm said, or "He would pay the bare minimum." In 2001there were more than $50,000 in unpaid gas bills alone, said Timm who is currently on the building's condo board, which is the process of suing Mehta for $400,000 in unpaid building expenses.
With dozens of condo conversions sweeping through Edgewater and it bordering neighborhoods, the Granville property should send a loud "buyer beware" message said Judy Frydland, senior counsel with the city's law department. Illegal conversions are "a big problem," she said. "And this case really illustrates it."
The tenants advocacy group the Rogers Park Community Action Network is calling for stricter state laws to protect consumers from unscrupulous developers. While State Rep. Harry Osterman, D-14th, acknowledged that "This is a big issue on our community," he said won't introduce the consumer protection legislation proposed by RPCAN. Instead he's he is floating a bill calling for a statewide committee to develop policies to aid condo owners.
Following numerous complaints, Frydland, representing the city, stepped in on the Granville building in 2001 identifying it as a problem building. At first the city tried to intervene, then cited Mehta with 30 code violations and finally filed a lien, according to court documents. Eventually it became obvious that it was time to bring in a new buyer when the Bank of Waukeegan trust that Mehta held the property in went into foreclosure.
A couple of interested buyers, including Loyola, put in offers. But the highest bidder, Andrezj Krejeza of AEZ Electric--which was dissolved one month before the closing in October 2005 according to state records--won out.
Krejeza got a loan for $2.7 million to buy the building and under a court supervised transaction agreed to bring it up to code and do some tuckpointing.
Already it's looking like more of the same some independent unit owners worry. Krejeza is refusing to pay condo assessments for the 23 units he owns. He says since he doesn't have a voice on the condo board or in drawing up a budget for how the assessments are spent, and until he does, he's not paying.
He's also protesting his assessment bills, with roughly $35,000 outstanding-until a contractor friend of his, who also owns one unit in the building, is paid up for the plumbing and other upgrades he's done. "The major problem in this building is the board," Krejeza said. "They don't want to cooperate with us."
It's not clear how much headway Krejeza has made on remedying the code violations he was brought in to fix. But after five years in the city's housing court, the case was continued on next month.
And after years of trying to fight for her rights, Timm said, "I'm not going to back down now...At least I can say I tried."
5 Comments:
paradise-
your appreciation should be directed to angela caputo.
quite a nightmare. there are really tragic stories out there that have lawless owners strapping innocent people. beachview development is another. i will be writing a followup essay on the max / 99 exchange that posted the other day.
the kimsargon mess will be fully detailed.
Looks like you dodged a bullet there Paradise...but people shouldn't have to put themselves in that kind of harms way in order to buy...that's taking caveat emptor a little far in my opinion...
We'll try to post more on this subject in the coming months, but G is right - credit belongs to Angela here...
My North Side Friends,
I know your pain. Our condo developer is---well---I just can't sum it up in a word or a phrase. Check out my own little journal of condo drama at www.ihatemydeveloper.blogspot.com.
Feel free to drop an e-mail at the about me link on the left hand side of the page.
Keep on fighting. You're not alone.
Thanks for visiting Woodlawn Wonder...I enjoyed visiting your site and thanks for the link - I'd like to return the favor in our sidebar if you don't mind. Your post about geese got me to thinking you should pay a visit to Roswell's Cousin on "Imagining Rogers Park" (see our sidebar) - he has some interesting ideas on the place of wildfowl in our fair city...
Thanks for the recommendation on the agent Paradise...shoppers, take note...
hey woodlawn-
thanx for dropping in. love your site and thanx too for the link.
your link column and paradise's recent post got me to thinking about supporting responsible businesses and services such as her real estate agent.
my building is in the middle of a costly porch renovation to comply with the city's "new and improved" porch code. we are getting bids from many contractors. porch people are one of the contractors.
perhaps we could share our experiences with our neighbors much like paradise did?
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