After Bust, Using ’60s Law to Get Out of Condo Deals, NYT

Lawyers for the buyers are finding fault in wording that technically violates the law in contracts or other paperwork — language that few developers or lawyers paid much attention to during the long real estate boom.

In May 2008, a few months before the financial industry’s meltdown, the shipping executive Vasilis Bacolitsas signed up to buy a $3.4 million apartment at the Brompton, a luxury condominium tower being built on the Upper East Side.
The building went up as the real estate market went down, and Mr. Bacolitsas and his wife sought a $600,000 reduction in the purchase price. When they did not get it, they decided they did not want the apartment anymore. Their contract, like virtually all real estate contracts, required that they surrender the $510,000 deposit. But last month, a judge ruled that the couple could walk away with their money. It was one of a series of recent rulings in New York and other states that have enraged developers and given an escape hatch to buyers who signed contracts at the worst possible time, before one of the biggest real estate meltdowns in decades.
By Christine Haughney, Oct 20, 2010 NYT

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