Fight With Developer in Heights

Posted on February 8, 2014 By admin Real Estate

Another Heights developer fight. This time it’s a developer fighting with an elderly couple over a survey dispute. Evidently both sides agree that the house in question, on Lawrence St, actually is partially on a parcel being developed by a builder.

Another Heights Developer Fight

Channel 13 reports that the Reyes have lived in their house for 40 years. The property next to them was house to a developer, Joe Petruzzi. It turns out that the Reyes’ house is 8 feet into that property. I’ve seen garages, fences, stairways, driveways put on a neighboring property, but never 8 feet! Evidently, there was a screw up long ago on lot lines. 8 feet of empty lot might be negotiated amiably, but 8 feet into your house is different. This won’t be settled easily. It doesn’t calm the dispute when the developer was quoted as saying “I’m within my right to do what I’m doing. I really could cut their house in half if I wanted to and then they could sue me for that, but I would never do that” . Developers have a bad enough image without saying crap like that.

Anyway, I hope they come to a mutual agreement. People are emotional about their Heights homes; especially after living in it for 40 years. Even if the developer is right about the boundary line, 40 years of adverse possession seems to take precedence to me.