Mary Mackey lives in Whalebone Woods in East Hampton, an affordable housing development built by the town in the 1980s, in a house she inherited from her father.
In 2022, she applied through the East Hampton Town Home Improvement Program to have the house’s exterior doors and windows replaced.
Under the program, the town paid the up-front costs of renovation, and the cost is held as a lien against the house. When the homeowner sells, the money is repaid interest-free.
More than three years later, Ms. Mackey’s project is still incomplete.
She has stuffed yellowing newspapers in the spaces left around the frames of her windows and front door to block drafts, but with winter approaching, that makeshift insulation is not up to the task.
A determination by the town’s licensing review board, issued in September 2023, found “sufficient evidence of shoddy workmanship.”
Ms. Mackey refuses to pay for the damages to her house at the hands of the town-hired contractor, Manzi Homes East L.L.C. Thus far, the town has also refused to pay and wants Ms. Mackey to take a second lien to cover the costs.
“There is no way for the town to use the funds from the Home Improvement Program to make repairs to a residence without a corresponding lien being filed for the full amount,” Charlie Collins, the assistant town attorney, wrote to Ms. Mackey in August.
“We are in contact with Ms. Mackey’s most recent attorney and are working collaboratively to find a solution that addresses the matter appropriately,” Jake Turner, the town attorney, wrote in a text yesterday.
How did this happen?
Manzi Homes bid for the work and in June of 2022 the town signed a $16,500 contract with the company. A week later, Ms. Mackey signed a change order to remove and rebuild an exterior staircase, siding, and her rear deck, because she was told none of them were up to code. Later, she signed another change order to replace her front stoop.
New cost: $51,500.
At the end of August 2022, a town building inspector said the work met basic code standards.
However, bad things started happening in September 2022.
Kevin Cooper, then head of code enforcement, was called to the property to check on an uncovered dumpster. He found that no building permit existed for the construction and issued a stop-work order, because he found the construction was not code-compliant.
“I looked at the quality of the work. It was horrible what they were trying to get over on this woman,” he said in a phone call recently. He looked into some of the other contracts through the town program and found they were all using the same contractor.
According to the licensing review board hearing, Tom Ruhle, who was then the director of housing and community development, stated that “it was always the policy of the O.H.C.D. that building permits were not needed for in-kind replacements.”
When the board asked him if he was authorized to make that call, according to its September 2023 determination, “he responded that during his tenure as a town employee, he did a lot of things that he was not authorized to do.”
“They were doing a town program on a verbal policy,” said Mr. Cooper.
Shortly after that, the Home Improvement Program was halted.
“The Housing Office is currently reviewing the Home Improvement Program and will update the page when more information becomes available,” reads a message on the town’s website.
Mr. Ruhle retired and was replaced by Eric Schantz, who served as director of the Housing Office until last winter. Mr. Schantz did not respond to a request for comments on Ms. Mackey’s situation. Nor did Councilman Ian Calder-Piedmonte, who is the town board liaison to the Housing Office.
At the end of October 2022, Drew Bennett, an engineer hired by the Housing Office, issued a report on the incomplete construction. He wrote, “based on my observations and measurements, deck work is proceeding in a code-compliant direction.”
About the outside stairwell he said, “the exterior stair work is essentially complete and conforms to 2020 New York State Residential Code.” He didn’t comment on a warped post but did recommend some new bracing.
By that point, Ms. Mackey was wary. She hired AC&E Home Inspection Corporation for an independent review of the deck.
AC&E found many issues, contradicting Mr. Bennett’s report and concluding, “The deck as currently constructed is structurally deficient and not constructed to current building standards.”
So, there were issues. However, to lift the stop-work order and fix the problems, a building permit was now necessary. Adding to the complications, Manzi Homes had subcontracted the work to a builder apparently not licensed in East Hampton Town, against town rules. (At the hearing, Manzi’s lawyer, Steven Losquadro, issued a statement: “Manzi Homes East has always been licensed in the town and, in good faith, has always believed that sub-contractors with whom it works are licensed as well.”)
By January 2023, the town’s licensing review board was investigating. In April 2023, Joe Palermo, then the chief building inspector, visited Ms. Mackey’s house and recommended that the front stairs, exterior stairwell, and rear deck be completely removed and replaced.
The licensing board agreed with Mr. Palermo.
In June 2023, Mr. Schantz requested that Manzi fix the work. Manzi never responded to Mr. Schantz, leading to the public hearing held in front of the licensing review board, and the suspension, for a year, of Manzi’s license to work in the town.
So, while the town investigated and sanctioned the contractor, it has yet to take responsibility for his actions.
Manzi Homes agreed to correct some work, but disagreed that it needed to be completely redone.
Even if everyone could agree on what should be renovated and who should perform the work, the problem of payment was, and remains, paramount. Everything has ground to a halt.
Ms. Mackey has received a quote of $125,000 to redo the work done to her house, but it could run higher, as some issues may be hidden. She has told the town that she will still pay the original lien of $51,500 but feels anything over that amount is the town’s responsibility.
“That’s why my heart’s broken,” Ms. Mackey said from her kitchen last week. Out the window, an obviously warped post held up a staircase to the second floor. Next to the window, in the space where her microwave once was, wires jut into the kitchen. Two improperly installed windows, out of plumb, looked onto her deck, which she refuses to use, and claims is held together by “five nails.” In her living room, a large brown spot on her ceiling is evidence, she said, of a water leak caused by the installation of the side stairs.
“I’ve never had to deal with our local government, and I’m totally shocked at being treated like this,” she said. “I didn’t do anything wrong, and they won’t clean up their mess.”
