NewHolly Lawsuit Settled | Home & Garden

In March of 2008 KOMO 4's Bryan Johnson reported on the lawsuit filed by the neighbors at the NewHolly housing development against the Seattle Housing Authority.

Now apparently that lawsuit has been settled.

This is the news release just sent out from Dave von Beck, the attorney representing the neighbors:

A settlement has been reached in the lawsuit filed last year by the NewHolly Homeowners Association against the Seattle Housing Authority (SHA). The lawsuit, which was brought on behalf of homeowners at the NewHolly development on Seattle’s Beacon Hill, was scheduled to go to trial this month in King County Superior Court. Included in the Complaint were allegations that SHA, which developed the massive public/private housing project, negligently concealed construction defects and mismanaged the Homeowners Association during the several years that SHA personnel maintained control of the Association.

According to attorney Dave von Beck at Levy – von Beck & Associates, who filed the lawsuit against SHA on behalf of the Association, the settlement provides nearly $3 million to the Association and its members, which will help pay for repairs to defective heating systems in 150 homes, will allow for much-needed improvements to the public areas of this 1,400-home project, and will provide over $600,000 in funding for the maintenance reserves at NewHolly.

The NewHolly development made the news in December 2007 when it was discovered that SHA had apparently withheld, from the homeowners at NewHolly, an engineer’s report prepared in 2006 that revealed serious, ongoing problems in heating pipes dating back to 2004. Photographs in the report showed corroded and failing pipes and fittings in Phase I of the threephase project.

Although the first homes in NewHolly—a mixed-income redevelopment of public housing that includes both sale and rental units—were sold in 1999, SHA personnel controlled the Association’s Board of Directors until October 2007.

“It was only after homeowners gained control of the Association at the end of 2007 that the nature and size of the problems at NewHolly became apparent,” said attorney Dave von Beck.

“And now, thankfully, the Association and the owners at NewHolly will have the financial means to address most or all of these serious problems.” In particular, von Beck noted, several homeowners in Phase 1 at NewHolly, who in some cases have spent several winters without functioning heating systems in their homes, now will be able to repair the systems before another cold winter sets in.

“The sense of relief at NewHolly is palpable,” said Bridgette Maryman, president of the NewHolly Homeowners Association.

“Now we face the challenge of making sure that everyone living in Phase 1 of this wonderfully diverse community does what needs to be done to fix their homes, so that everyone has heat.”

Maryman and the rest of the Association’s Board of Directors are working with their property management company to help expedite the repairs.

“And the rest of the money,” said Maryman, “will help NewHolly get on financial solid ground and, we hope, stay there in the years to come.”

The Association’s lawyer praised the NewHolly Homeowners Association’s willingness to pursue claims on behalf of individual owners. “These faultless homebuyers, like most homeowners in Washington, simply did not have the financial means to pursue these claims on their own,” said von Beck. “Until the laws in this state change to protect homebuyers, obtaining remedies like at NewHolly unfortunately will remain the exception rather than the rule.”

The settlement was reached through negotiations with SHA and a construction company that helped build Phase 1 of the project. According to attorney von Beck, settlement funds were paid by insurers for these entities. Additional funds were obtained through an earlier settlement reached with the manufacturer of a component in the Phase 1 heating systems. Under the terms of the settlement agreements, none of the settling parties admitted to any liability.