DISPLACED SENIORS THREATEN LAWSUIT

Republished with permission

Of

WPTV News

Reported by: Angela Sachitano

 

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REF: http://www.wptv.com/content/news/topstories/story/Displaced-Seniors-threaten-lawsuit-Century-Village/86OMQItJhUOWpyoXF3e4AA.cspx

WEST PALM BEACH,FL

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Displaced now since October, Lucille Shatz checks in on her West Palm Beach Century Village apartment every few days, praying it will be closer to completion.

"The gates of Hell opened up," Shatz said. "They came in with a clipboard and lots of papers." Shatz's unit is one of more than seventy still under major construction and unlivable.

"This is all over the village," said resident Jean Dowling. "These are not just isolated instances." Neighbors claim 1st Priority Restoration Company along with Century Village's insurance liaison, Dan Gladstone, began knocking on doors and telling people they needed to leave, last summer.

They blamed the problems on a leaky building pipe. "I didn't read any of the papers I signed," Shatz said "I guess they took advantage of a poor old lady."

Six months later, and still displaced, residents are now banding together. They've filed a lawsuit, accusing 1st Priority and Gladstone of using them to make money off the insurance company.

"They have the building's $5,000 dollar deductible," Dowling said. "They bring in their own adjustors." But Gladstone says that's not the case. He claims what started as a leak-sprouted mold, and that's why the units had to be gutted.

To top it off, he says the county has been slow on granting the work permits. "We have some violations on the buildings from years past," Gladstone said. "You have to fix the violations before they move in. That takes time."

We reached out to the 1st Priority Restoration. The project manager says quote: "We stand by our work one hundred percent and believe all of it was necessary. We're doing the best we can for residents."

But residents say it's not enough, and the longer they have to wait the more suspicious they get. When asked if he is taking kick backs for bringing the work to 1st Priority, Gladstone said "absolutely not."

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