Folsom condo buyers win ruling over water damage
In January 2006, first-time homebuyer Lavender Lee was overjoyed to buy a $155,000 condo in Folsom's newly remodeled Waterford Place.
Then, within months, she discovered her neighbors talking about water and mold damage.
"I was devastated," she said. "I couldn't think of any way to get out of it."
Wednesday, four years later, Lee found her exit. A Sacramento arbitrator freed her from her mortgage, part of a $5 million ruling against a Bay Area developer alleged to have sold water-damaged condos to Lee and 23 others in 2006.
Arbitrator Ernest A. Long ordered Redwood City-based Prometheus Real Estate Group to reimburse Lee, too, for $20,300 in mortgage payments already made. In all, Long ordered the developer to repay 24 buyers $1.7 million for mortgage payments made since 2006 and take over $3 million in payments they still owe on Waterford condos.
