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For both sides, a long-running nightmare
By Walter V. Robinson, Globe Staff, 4/29/01 FRANKLIN -- As any realtor would say, the colonial home at 21 Dover Circle has "curb appeal:" a brick front, nicely set back from the road. And a large room with lots of windows built off the right side. What is the house worth? About $500,000, based upon comparable sales in the decade-old Toll Brothers subdivision. But according to three repair estimates obtained by its owners, it would take more than $420,000 in repairs for the house to fetch $500,000. Francis A. Molla, a local contractor who provided one of the estimates, added a further opinion, after reviewing the home's multiple structural problems: "It is my best professional opinion that the house should be demolished and completely rebuilt." For Toll Brothers and for Stanley and Eunice Kozikowski, who bought the house in 1989, the home has been, for each in different ways, a long-running nightmare. In correspondence that has become increasingly bitter, the home owners accuse the builders of "devious practices, callous indifference, criminal conduct, manipulative dealings and vicious misrepresentations," and even of trying to "cover up their criminality." In its defense, Toll has brought in engineers and a former state building commissioner who is a Toll consultant, who say the home's problems are minor; and several lawyers who have filed numerous motions. Toll's most recent lawyer in the case, Boston attorney Thomas M. Hoopes, has suggested that the owners' demands "seemed to approach an effort at extortion." The Toll Brothers, Robert and Bruce, have built 32,000 homes since they launched their business together in 1967 -- and 3,800 homes last year alone. The company has had more than its share of unhappy customers, the Globe Spotlight Team has found. But no buyers have been as chronically upset with Toll as the Kozikowskis. And no other house has led to criminal charges lodged personally against the two brothers. After nine years in which Toll and the Kozikowskis feuded almost continuously, Matthias J. Mulvey, then the acting Franklin building commissioner, cited the company for 18 violations of the state building code, many of them charging that the defects were serious structural issues. But, citing a past record of code violation citations that had not been addressed, Mulvey took the unusual step of filing criminal charges in Wrentham District Court against the company's two founders, Robert I. and Bruce Toll. Among other issues, Mulvey found while the building plans called for a 10-inch foundation, Toll only poured an 8-inch foundation without using steel-reinforcing rods required with the smaller foundation. Toll hired an engineer who concluded that such a foundation was allowable because there were no groundwater problems on the property. But Mulvey, who now calls the house a "lemon," noted that the basement has serious water problems, and that the foundation has numerous cracks that create structural problems. And he cited the brothers for supporting beams that are improperly installed, first floor framing that needs reinforcement, and three fireplaces that are so badly built that they create both fire and carbon monoxide hazards. Last year, the current building commissioner revisited the house. Though he too found continuing code violations, he concluded there were fewer structural issues than Mulvey cited. Toll, according to the voluminous court record, took steps over the years to try to accommodate the Kozikowskis. Because of some defects -- including a kitchen built smaller than that in the model home -- Toll gave them additional upgrades, such as a central vacuum system and a more expensive cooktop. In 1992, Toll gave the Kozikowskis $4,479 to settle claims about the fireplaces. The owners signed a release. And after several more years of war-by-letter, and the filing and later abandonment of code violations by a previous Franklin building commissioner, the Kozikowskis in 1997 demanded that Toll build a room addition off the back of their house as "an expression of good will," or they would cause trouble for Toll. The company saw that demand as an offer to buy the family's silence. Earlier this year, the Wrentham court dismissed the criminal charges. But the code violations remain unresolved. So too does the dispute. "This house is falling apart. I can't sell it. It's worth nothing," Stanley Kozikowski says. Eunice Kozikowski likens her home to a "haunted house." Yet the two sides have come close to agreement in recent months. In December, Toll offered to repurchase the house at present market value, though their insistence that the company take a 6 percent brokerage fee off the top rubbed salt in the Kozikowskis' wounds. The couple rejected the offer, demanding instead a settlement that approached $1.2 million. In February, Hoopes tried again, though his offer still contained language that could be construed as giving Toll a broker's fee. But his accompanying letter outlining the history of the case enraged the Kozikowskis. They turned down the offer. "So seriously has our health been compromised by this horrendous Toll Brothers fraudulent practice that we have both been advised by several physicians to seek counseling from specialists in anxiety, stress and related mental health counseling," Stanley Kozikowski wrote to his lawyer in January. Hoopes, his legal counterpunching aside, expressed some sympathy for the Kozikowskis in an interview. "Toll built a good house there. They didn't build a perfect house," he said. "Nothing we have offered so far will keep these people happy." So why would Toll want to repurchase the house if it claims the problems are minor and repairable? "We still have an unhappy purchaser, and Toll would like to resolve this. No matter how we have characterized the Kozikowskis, they are still purchasers we would like to make happy -- in some reasonable manner," Hoopes said. "One person saying bad things about you is more powerful than 20 people saying good things. So what do we gain by litigating this? If we win, do we win, really?'' It may yet come to that. Eunice Kozikowski said that Toll should be "made to pay the price of being criminals." Her husband agrees, saying he himself is no longer interested in a monetary settlement. Instead, Stanley Kozikowski said, each Toll brother ought to be made to pay the maximum fine per day per code violation -- $2,000. By Kozikowski's estimate, which he updated for the Globe yesterday, that figure now is $67,132,000 -- not including interest. |
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