May 20, 2008 9:38 pm US/Eastern
Resolution May Come For West Deer Condo Owners
WEST DEER (KDKA) ―
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A few months ago, Lorraine Conley and her neighbors at the Hunt Club were in for a shock when they learned the 38 condos would be up for sheriff sale.
KDKA
They paid their mortgages and their taxes, but dozens of condo owners in West Deer were still threatened with losing their homes to sheriff sale because their developer didn't pay his bills.
A few months ago, Lorraine Conley and her neighbors at the Hunt Club were in for a shock when they learned the 38 condos would be up for sheriff sale.
Ever since then, they've been pawns in a battle between the developer and the company that excavated the site - over a $1 million bill. But it now appears that cooler heads will prevail.
"I'm confident that this matter is going to be resolved," Richard Witchko, an attorney for the excavating company said.
Unable to get paid by the developer, Witchko said he had no choice but to take the condo owners to sheriff sale. But now he says he may be close to a settlement with the title companies for the properties and that the sheriff sales will be withdrawn.
"I am confident that there is not going to be a sale of any of the condominium owners' residences in the Hunt Club," Witchko said.
Still unaccounted for is the developer himself, Michael Peretto, owner of Links Development. His offices in Export are vacant and more than a dozen contractors are seeking payment for their work at a development in Westmoreland County.
I've been unable to contact Mr. Peretto who is currently under investigation by the U.S. Attorney's Mortgage Fraud Task Force.
"Links Development Company left these people, left my client and other people in the lurch," Witchko said. "And that's what we've been fighting over for the past three years."
Sheehan: "Had they paid their bills nobody would have been threatened with sheriff sale?"
Witchko: "That's correct. None of this would have occurred."
Conley feels betrayed by Peretto but is also angry at being used in a war not of her making.
"You feel like you live your life with control but you realize sometimes you don't have that control and somebody else could take your good name," she said. "We're getting letters from bankruptcy attorneys every other day saying, 'You're going into bankruptcy.' We're not going into bankruptcy."
There should be official word of a resolution very soon.
(© MMIX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
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