The homeowners all bought homes in The Estates at Bordens Crossing in Bordentown Township, but soon found their cars did not fit in their garages.
BORDENTOWN TOWNSHIP — A state appeals court has upheld the case of three Bordentown Township homeowners who won judgments from the company that built their houses and made their garages too small for cars.
Rajiv Hazaray, Venkateswara Pulleti and Venkataraju Kalidindi all bought "Princeton"-model homes in The Estates at Bordens Crossing in 2009. The development is off Route 130.
Most of the "Princeton" models in the development had a side-facing garage, but the developer built a handful with front-facing garages and reduced their price by $5,000 to boost sales, the appeals decision states.
The garages were 20-feet deep, but the modifications left the left bay of the garage 3 1/2 feet shorter due to a platform and stairs to the house, the decision states.
The owners soon found that their cars would not fit in the left side, the decision states.
The homeowners were victorious at a trial in Burlington County Superior Court, where a judge found the builder, The Estates at Bordens Crossing LLC, breached its contracts with plaintiffs and violated the state's Consumer Fraud Act.
In 2014 a judge awarded the homeowners $9,200 each and their total attorney fees of $101,967.70
The defendants, which included the LLC, its owner Harry Kantor, and employees Patricia Schlaefer and Andrew Braverman, appealed on several fronts, including arguments that the lower court erred in finding them in violation of the Consumer Fraud Act, the homeowners knew about the garage issue and had reviewed the home's floor plans, and by the time they acted with complaints, it was too late.
The appeals court, in a Thursday decision, found all the defendant's arguments meritless and ruled the trial court's findings were sound and that the builder knew of the issues and did not notify the buyers before the closing of sale.
The decision also cited case law that found the average buyer lacks the skill and expertise to make an adequate inspection of a home in such a situation.
During the lower court trial, Judge Marc Baldwin personally inspected plaintiffs' garages, the decision states.
The judge found Kalidindi's Honda Accord did not fit in the left bay unless it was pulled closer than 2 inches from the steps and Hazaray's Mercedes-Benz C280 could fit in the left bay, but the trunk could not open without hitting the garage door.
The metal handle used to manually close Hazaray's left garage door hit the back of his Mitsubishi Galant and Pulleti's Nissan Maxima had nicked the stairway in attempting to pull in enough to close the garage door, the judge found.
Kevin Shea may be reached at kshea@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter@kevintshea. Find The Times of Trenton on Facebook.