Ex-Project Mgr.: Condo Conversion Amounted To "Putting Lipstick On An Elephant" As Developer Allegedly Unloaded Shoddy Units On Unwitting Homebuyers

In Redmond, Washington, The Seattle Times reports:

• Vijay Dusi is paying $2,450 a month to live in a condominium so riddled with toxic mold that his family has shuffled from room to room for three years to escape the health hazards that go with it. His kids, ages 2 and 4, can't sleep or play in their room. His wife has tossed away toys, clothes, bedding, even beds while their homeowners association grapples with the question of who will pay for an estimated $4 million worth of repairs at the 82-unit complex.

• The Riverwalk at Redmond condo association tried to get the developer, Roger Nix, to pay for repairs, but finally gave up when it couldn't find him. Nix dissolved his company last year, and an associate said he is living in Mexico. The homeowners association filed suit in July against Nix's company in an effort to force the firm to pay for what it says is shoddy construction that has contributed to water damage in 15 units at the complex on Northeast Leary Way in Redmond. Three of the five buildings are affected. Without a legal victory or settlement with the developer, the owners of each unit could be on the hook for as much as $50,000 to replace the buildings' exteriors.

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• Riverwalk's situation is dramatic. But it's far from unprecedented. Attorneys specializing in construction lawsuits say condo owners across the state have been left holding the bag for millions of dollars in repairs to shoddy construction that should have been remedied by developers. And those developers often operate under corporate entities that evaporate once the project is finished.

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• That's the situation that Dusi and the Riverwalk board confronted after developer Nix converted an apartment complex into condominiums with an elegant Mediterranean-style facade. Some units, such as Dusi's, began showing signs of water problems almost immediately.

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• [Ex-project manager Kim] Steward, who owns a condo at Riverwalk, said the developer wasn't responsible for the original construction of the buildings — only the mostly cosmetic changes made to Riverwalk after he bought it. The Riverwalk conversion, she said, amounted to "putting lipstick on an elephant." "You're making it look cute," she said of the conversion, which included replacing windows and applying a new coat of stucco over the existing stucco exterior.

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• Vijay Dusi, who works as a software developer at Microsoft, said he cannot afford to move his family to another place and must continue to pay the mortgage and the homeowners-association dues lest he jeopardize the permanent-residency permit he applied for in 2005.

For more, see Owners worry moldy condos are unsellable — and unlivable (It will take an estimated $4 million to repair a Redmond condo complex, where water damage has riddled some units with toxic mold. But when condo owners tried to get the developer to pay, they couldn't find him: he had moved to Mexico and the original development company had been dissolved).