Thomas A. Abbate

Hired Mr. Abbate to help with a false code violation claim during a home sale. He assured me that for $500.00 (or your money back) he would take care of it. The code violation by the town was false, and Mr. Abbate said under no circumstance to allow a town inspector to be allowed inside the house to ...inspect anything, based on a false, announymous claim. He advised that would be a violation of privacy, and he would deal with the town directly and make the code violation "Go Away". Well, he claims he spoke to the people at the town and that the code violation was taken care of, but he provided no proof, just said to trust him. Weeks later when my house was sold it came back with a code violation on the title and the town blocked the sale of the house with out allowing an inspection. Mr. Abbate at this point refused to take or return any phone calls. My house sale was tied up for several weeks until the town was allowed inside the home to inspect, and they found no code violation. They did not even apologize for the inconvenience and disrespect they showed. Mr. Abbate had also said if the town ever insisted on searching the house, that he would be present for the inspection. Of course he was not. His secretary advised he was not available on any of the dates that the town requested the inspection. He is a THIEF a crook and a rip off artist.. He stole $500.00 from me, and did absolutely nothing for it. After the inspection, I requested the $500.00 fee back in writing and he ignored that as well. This attorney will definitely cheat you out of money. Beware!!!

Seriously? Hire an attorney for entertainment value? He may have a sense of humor but you won't find him a bit funny when he completely screws up your case like he did mine. HIghly regrettable choice of counsel. There are many good zoning attorneys to choose from on LI. Based on my experience, he is... not one of them.

I have used this attorney 4 times in the past 12 years...3 real estate closings and one zoning application, all of which went off without a hitch. I also refer him to everyone I know. He is that good. He is extremely knowledgeable and straight forward. His fees, if anything, are on the low side.... I think he could charge much more for what he delivers, so while it wasn't a category above, I found his fees to be very affordable. The best part is his sense of humor. He missed his calling, probably should have been a stand up comic. They are televising the Huntington Zoning Board proceedings now....channel 38 if you have Verizon. Watch it. You will see he knows his stuff, is well regarded, and entertaining!

Mr. Thomas Abbate is unscrupulous, unethical, and incompetent. He collected a $2,500.00 retainer fee and produced no results. I hired him to secure municipal permits for home and property renovations and improvements. He strongly recommended an engineer who is his friend to develop formal design draw...ings. I accepted Mr. Abbate’s recommendation and gave the engineer $8,227.50. Regrettably, I learned that the costly formal design drawings were unnecessary and that I was overcharged by $4000.00. Two engineering consultants and one municipal official validated this extreme disparity. When I attempted to discuss this issue, as well as others, with Mr. Abbate, he refused to return my phone calls. Furthermore, Mr. Abbate submitted the wrong municipal applications to secure building permits and refused to correct his mistake. Overall, Mr. Abbate has treated me in an unprofessional and shabby manner, and this type of reprehensible behavior is what gives good attorneys a bad reputation.