Vincent J. Gallo

Vincent Gallo

Thank you for your kind words. As you know, during the course of this transaction, I sensed there to be a potentially serious problem with the property. Once you had obtained the new survey as I had directed you to do, it disclosed the existence of the recently installed in-ground pool, the one-story addition, and the screen room, none of which had permits, filings and/or approvals from the Department of Buildings. I then advised you to get a written opinion of a Registered Architect who embellished upon the problems that existed with the property which included the fact that the property was subdivided, thereby calling for a new Certificate of Occupancy, only to be compounded by the findings that the footprint of the improvements on the property may now exceed the maximum floor area ratio, which would prevent the issuance of a new Certificate of Occupancy. The only solution would have been to demolish the screen room and the one story addition. Then it got worse. The in-ground pool was illegal, and when the pool was installed, trees were removed, illegally, and as the property is in a hillside district and natural area district, there would be fines for the tree removals in the amount of tens of thousands of dollars for each tree removed, plus the cost of having to re-plant replacement trees. As you see, my obligation to you is to not to get you closed on the house, but instead to protect you from getting stuck with what remains as the Sellers' nightmare, and not yours, as I was able to successfully get you all of your monies back that you had laid out for this transaction. Fortunately for you, we were 100% successful in that endeavor.