Problems persist two years after fatal explosion destroys
homes
NJ.com
Cristina Rojas
Michael Mancuso photos
18 July 2016
Nearly two years after a deadly gas explosion ripped through their
Ewing neighborhood, Tara and Billy Jones were finally able to move back
into their newly rebuilt home.
They had lived through more than a year of frustrations and delays and
hoped that the return home would be easy — but it's been anything but
that.
"We didn't ask for this explosion and now we're getting treated so
poorly," Tara Jones said.
Sloppy
plastering
Jones and her husband said they have been worn out by
battles with the contractors and have had to deal with many problems,
like cracks in the walls, sloppy patchwork, crooked window frames,
water damage and noise coming through the walls from their neighbors —
something she said never happened in the 13 years they lived there.
Even now, seven months since they moved back in, there is still a punch
list of items yet to be completed or fixed.
Two years ago on March 4, the South Fork neighborhood was shaken to its
core when a gas leak and subsequent explosion destroyed 11 houses and
damaged dozens of others. The blast killed 62-year-old Linda Cerretelli
and injured seven utility workers.
For some, the months it has taken to repair or rebuild their homes have
been fraught with headaches.
Sam Ornstein, a family friend of two Pioneer Court residents who has
helped them navigate the process, laid the blame on the homeowners'
association and its management company, P&A Management, who he says
gave homeowners the runaround, ignored complaints and shifted
responsibility.
"This was an impossible situation to have thrust upon people who have
absolutely no background or ability to deal with this kind of event,"
he said. "It was guaranteed a failure. ... They relied on everybody
else to do it right instead of ensuring that they did it right."
Unlike in single-family-home neighborhoods, where homeowners can hire
and oversee their own contractors, residents in South Fork were at the
mercy of their homeowners' association and its hiring decisions.
But even though being part of an association adds another layer to the
rebuild process, it doesn't necessarily have to complicate matters,
said Tom Giaimo, a Rumson-based lawyer who specializes in community
association law.
"The process of making a claim for loss, adjusting the claim for loss,
rebuilding the home and getting the homeowner back into occupancy can
be accomplished with effective communication and engaging the right
people for each required task," he said.
Giaimo said that since most homeowners' association boards have never
had to deal with a catastrophic event before, they must be able to rely
on their management company, attorney and an experienced insurance
agent who can keep them informed so that they can, in turn, respond to
homeowners' questions and concerns.
"It's very difficult to go through a rebuild with a manager who has
never done this before," he said.
The contractor that is hired to do the job should also have experience
in community association rebuilds, he said.
"This is a monumental task and one of the imperatives here is to get
those homeowners back into their homes so they can resume their normal
life," Giaimo said.
But some South Fork residents say that those involved in the rebuild
were ill-equipped to handle a project of this scale.
Repairs got underway in the summer of 2014 when, after two false starts
with other contractors, GC3, an Iowa-based disaster restoration
company, was hired to oversee the process.
Frank Esposito Construction Co. Inc., a Pennsylvania contractor, was
brought on to complete the bulk of the repair work and later, the
reconstruction of the 11 houses on Crockett Lane and Pioneer Court that
had to be rebuilt from the foundation up.
The association's insurance company was only responsible for covering
the costs of restoring or rebuilding the homes to their original
specifications when the development was built in the late 1980s.
Baseboard
& plaster defects
The individual homeowners then had their own policies to cover
belongings and any improvements they might have made over the years —
for example, swapping out the formica countertops for granite,
installing hardwood floors or upgrading kitchen and bathroom fixtures.
Those with inadequate or no insurance policies were left to pay for any
upgrades or alternate finishes they wanted out of their own pockets.
Giaimo stressed that, in a rebuilding effort like this, there needs to
be communication between all of the parties involved — and doing so can
save a great deal of time and money.
But some residents say that too many corners were cut and the quality
pales in comparison to their original houses.
"Every place you turn, the workmanship was just off," Ornstein said. "A
lot of the workmen were very nice, but they were just totally lacking
in skill. ... They couldn't even cut Sheetrock straight. They just
covered up the bad work."
The blank wall
is suppose to have a fireplace
His friend, Gina Martorana, for example, had to hire an outside
contractor to reframe her fireplace after seven failed attempts by
Esposito's crews.
"Some of the things that she asked for were not cookie-cutter townhouse
things, but they didn't require any arcane skills or special
equipment," Ornstein said. "They just needed people who paid attention."
Cara Hinton-Fort, whose house was one of the 11, described similar
construction problems.
She said doors do not close, there are lumps in the carpet where some
of the subflooring was not properly screwed down and the drywall is so
thin that when her husband went to install hardware in the downstairs
bathroom, he accidentally punched a hole through the wall.
"This really is a mess," Hinton-Fort said. "It's really hard for me to
be excited about being in a brand-new house and being home after two
years."
The frig
opening is too narrow.
Jones and Hinton-Fort said that over the course of the rebuild, it
became clear that the blueprints drawn up by the architect weren't
always followed — whether it was original to the house or a
modification they had requested.
The original wood-burning fireplaces were never put in, but they were
told that a gas fireplace could be installed instead.
"Why would I want another gas component in my basement after I just
lost my house to a gas explosion?" Jones said.
Hinton-Fort said her frustrations grew with each day. She and her
husband, Jamison, had wanted to push a wall back to create a larger
master bathroom, but despite assurances from the builders and a call
from GC3 on framing day, they ended up with the same exact-sized
bathroom.
Access to the
attic was poorly located
The bedrooms were supposed to have vaulted ceilings, but were
initially framed with low, flat ceilings — a mistake, the builder told
them, was made in other houses as well. The attic is a third the size
of the original and the entrance is above a shelf, making it impossible
to access.
"I don't want to deal with these people anymore," Hinton-Fort said. "I
don't want them touching my house anymore."
Esposito, whose family has had the business since 1968, said he stands
100 percent behind his work and disputed the claims made by the unhappy
homeowners.
"I worked on 90 houses there and there are a lot of people who love the
work I did," he said. "I've done everything I possibly could for these
people. I poured myself out there for two years."
Esposito said he has fixed problems that he didn't have to and told his
subcontractors to do whatever needed to be done to make the residents
happy.
Though records show that his New Jersey home improvement contractor
license has been inactive since 2006, he is registered with the state's
New Home Warranty and Builder's Registration Act, a requirement for all
new-home builders.
An executive with GC3 did not respond to messages left on his voicemail.
The association's president, Lorraine deSouza, who lives in one of the
11 houses that had to be rebuilt, said the process went well.
"We had some obstacles to overcome, but everyone is back home," she
said.
Al Pellegrino, of P&A Management, said the rebuild was a long and
painful process, but one that was well-orchestrated.
"If we're looking at the entire project, we're happy with the total
finished product," he said. "When the homeowners are looking at minor
issues inside their houses, that's different. That's details."
He said most of the complaints they received dealt with the betterments
and improvements, which they had no control over.
Ornstein, however, believes that the association or Pellegrino should
bear some responsibility for the shoddy work since the homeowners had
no say in the association's decision to hire GC3 or Esposito — and it
would have made no sense for them to have their houses rebuilt to their
original construction only to then hire other contractors to rip
everything out and install all of the upgrades.
"You expect that the association is overseeing or directing the work
either by hiring contractors themselves or by hiring the construction
manager to hire people to do the work," Ornstein said. "If you're in
your house and some guy is putting Sheetrock up and then moves 10 feet
away to do betterments and improvements, how are you supposed to deduce
that he's wearing a different hat and you're dealing with a contractor
and not the association?"
Pellegrino told NJ Advance Media that Esposito was hired by the
association for Phase 3 — the reconstruction of the 11 houses — but in
email exchanges with Teresa Lo Re, Martorana's aunt who lives at 12
Pioneer, Pellegrino appeared to give conflicting information.
"We have no control over contracts that you signed and our company
neither hired nor managed the rebuild of your home," Pellegrino wrote
April 14.
Lo Re, 75, has also been fighting an uphill battle to get reimbursed
for work that she paid for, but was never done. During her initial
meeting with GC3, she signed an agreement for betterments and
improvements, agreeing to pay for the costs and work associated with
the rebuild that were not covered by the association's insurer.
The following month, Lo Re wrote Esposito a check for $64,417,
expecting that the funds would be held in an escrow account pursuant to
the agreement. But months later, she learned that Esposito had never
turned it over for escrow deposit and there is still roughly $40,000
worth of paid work that is still outstanding. Pellegrino told her in
emails that the escrow agreement she cited was not issued by P&A
Management, the association, GC3 or Esposito.
"Everything is pushed out of the homeowners' association and thrown on
the homeowners, but they had no part in the decisions," Ornstein said.
"That's not a headache the homeowner should have."
top
contents
appendix
previous next