Well this is just insane on many levels. What would cost $300,000 to remove? I'd love to see a photo of this addition.

Well he has a penthouse, so could be anything from a garden shed to a full out second floor

Edit: ahh you can see in the video at around 0:30, it looks like a dining shed on the roof, shit get creative and have a sledgehammer/axe party lol of course this is NY they’d probably fine him again for tearing it down without a permit lol

300k to remove lol. Go across the bridge to 8th ave. Find a Asian architect/expediter for plans & permits to do it for far cheaper that will get you whomever to sign off no asbestos, lead, whatever plus a connect to a no questions ask construction waste remover.

While the 7 day deadline might be tight to get permits, the guy had yrs to remove and knew this be the outcome. Should had it done years ago

A penthouse owner is hardly going to get any sympathy from any decarceration advocate.

But regardless of that, how keeping him looked up is going to make the problem be solved any sooner? Is he supposed to be attempting to call and hire contractors from inside of Riker's?

He's spending more time in Riker's than the six-month deal DA Bragg gave to the unrepentant anti-semitic attacker Waseem Awawdeh.

I saw the report last night. Clearly, there's a lot not being said. How did the addition go unnoticed for the two previous owners?

Also, since the board spoke to its lawyers, do they not realize what they are doing to the value of the building because of its reputation? Who will ever want to buy an apartment in a building where the board has an owner thrown into jail?

So any recourse for current owner to get from previous seller of undiscussed illegal additions?

No idea what was in the contract or research.

Jfc, what is with this city? Is there more to this story than what is being reported? Apparently our prison system is over-flooded, there’s no room to house violent offenders, so their charges keep getting dropped to misdemeanors, and they’re throwing the book at someone that has a civil dispute? Save the city money, everybody’s time & workload, and let this man just sell his condo.

I think Jail for this is a medieval level overreaction.

That judge is a piece of shit. This man should pursue a massive lawsuit.

This fucking city is regarded. Sending a man to jail over something as trivial as this?

Time to find you a good lawyer and sue the board for all their worth.

This is so crazy. We let the criminals run rampant but lock this dude up for a building code violation? I'll bet some progressive judges salivate at the chance to lock up a rich white guy.

How is it even possible to add 1500 square feet to a condo? There are entire houses that aren't even 1500 Sq ft.

Don't mention antisemetism on this sub, the mods are censoring anything calling it out.

I've always said NIMBYism is authoritarianism, and this proves the point very well.

Build something we don't like? Even if it's up to code? Refuse to tear it down?

The state will send men with guns to lock you up.

This was about an addition. But the same laws apply to situations like a historic district. Put a modern door and windows on your old house, refuse to undo that change long enough, and the state will send men with guns to lock you up.

Prudes suck. Authoritarians suck. NIMBYs are both.

We don't even know, based on the article, if there's any building safety code violation here. The work was unpermitted, which is a violation, but we don't know if the work was up to code.

It might be a zoning violation. All we know is that his condo board didn't like it, he disagreed with them, and as a result the government sent men with guns to lock him up.

The members should also be worried that a blocked sale of any buyer willing to buy and remedy will probably lead to a foreclosure at this rate. Thus a future huge disbursement from the building fund will lead to a new levy, that or a bank takes it, do they then throw some poor vp from boa in jail?

Just read in the complaint he was the former board president. Maybe payback

The article doesn't do a good job of making clear that Riccardi wasn't jailed because his condo violated the city's building code (or his HOA board's rules). Rather, he was jailed for contempt of court - "willfully failing" to obey a court order.

The article suggests (though isn't entirely clear) that Riccardi was on the losing end of years-long civil litigation with his HOA board, and that at the end of that litigation, Riccardi was hit with a court order directing him to remove the extension. Riccardi then admits that, despite the court order, he failed to actually make any tangible progress toward removing the extension.

Riccardi asserts that he and his wife "couldn't find contractors to do the work" because they "didn't have the $300,000 or more to remove the addition." But did he do anything at all - beyond calling a few contractors for a ballpark estimate - to demonstrate he was trying his best to comply with the order? Even if the whole project would ultimately cost $300,000, did they have $30,000 or even $3,000 to get the ball rolling? Did they start the process by hiring an architect and an expediter to help pull permits? Did they look into seeing if their title policy might cover some of the costs (since they claim that they weren't the ones who built the unpermitted extension)? Riccardi doesn't mention doing any of this (and if he had, you'd think he would mention it because it'd bolster his case for gross mistreatment).

In theory, judges shouldn't send folks to prison for contempt of court unless they're intentionally disobeying/stonewalling a court order and refuse to back down even after being expressly warned to do so. It's possible the judge here abused her power - that she should've given Riccardi more time to comply, for instance - but the article doesn't actually provide any evidence that she abused her power.

To be clear, I'm not saying - at all! - that NYC DOB or Riccardi's HOA board was right. It is possible, even likely, that Riccardi's HOA board was very, very wrong. For instance, why did the HOA board wait until 2016 to initiate a dispute when the extension at issue was built over a decade before, prior to Riccardi even moving in? That strongly suggests that the board had some other motive for giving Riccardi hell.

Personally, I'm in favor of much tighter legal restrictions on HOA boards' power. But again, Riccardi ultimately went to jail for defying a court order, not for defying an HOA board order.

>The members should also be worried that a blocked sale

It's a condo, not a co-op. Condo boards don't typically have the right to block a sale, nor does the article suggest that the condo board is trying to block Riccardi from selling. Rather, as a practical matter, no buyer in their right mind would want to buy once they learn of the whole mess.

As for the possibility of a bank taking over ownership after foreclosure (the article doesn't mention whether Riccardi has a mortgage on the property - he might own it outright), the advantage of the corporate form is that it's not possible to jail a company. The most the judge would be able to do is fine the bank.

The article doesn't provide us with enough information to really assess whether the judge is a "piece of shit."

It's one thing if she issued her order and then, barely a week later, sent Riccardi to jail. It's totally different if she issued her order and years went by without Riccardi making any tangible progress toward complying with her order, despite multiple warnings.

The article claims any sale is blocked while this is ongoing

Yes, weird as hell from the judge.

If Long Island had this judge, half of Nassau county would be in holding with all the property line and “extension” disputes.

No, the article just says:

>The Riccardis say they would just like to get out but can’t sell the condo with the legal controversy pending.

"Can't sell with the legal controversy pending" is entirely consistent with "can't sell due to inability to find a buyer."

Too many liars in this tale to know whether his hubris got him into jail or just plain stupidity.

Even if he didn't install the addition he knew it was illegal when he bought it making it a ticking time bomb just waiting for an inevitable condo board bullshit tsunami.

The truth will prevail and it will be removed. He should have done it long ago.

If he just would have complied with orders...

There's a lot more to the story and it's all in the article linked

"'We didn’t have the $300,000 or more to remove the addition,'he said, and the judge sent him back a third time for "his misconduct and disobedience and neglect and refusal to comply with said order.'"

So then he should just sell the damn place for peanuts and movie on with his life. But I bet he has the cash

lol this is why you buy a house

Just stop. Nobody should go to jail for this stuff, period. It's housing. I just read about a racist POS who gang attacked a Jewish and got 6 months.

WTF is society doing!!???

Yes. A lot more bullshit policy that supports the decision to jail someone over creating more square footage of HOUSING. You know, that think we desperately need.

It's a fucking dining shed on a roof.

Having read some of the court papers the last time this was posted, you are absolutely correct that there’s more to the story. Anyone interested can dive right in here: https://iapps.courts.state.ny.us/nyscef/DocumentList?docketId=buwjA2c/Zsl9Rzv6A15sYg==&PageNum=7&narrow= [warning - there’s a lot to sort through]

Interestingly enough, it looks like he also has a second case where one of his attorneys is suing him for $28k+ in legal bills: https://iapps.courts.state.ny.us/nyscef/DocumentList?docketId=GW7Jk2hbgjf8a4aAx_PLUS_NZ_PLUS_w==&display=all&courtType=Richmond%20County%20Supreme%20Court&resultsPageNum=1

Hmmm, mind expanding more on this?

Last edit— I read a diff article that gave more details & other side of the story. Man’s probably rly rich and fixture may contribute to safety hazards for other tenants. Seems less like a victim of circumstance & more culpable than first article

Construction is a racket and DOB is bureaucratic mess here in NYC that drives up cost. Plenty of licensed contractors subcontract or "lend their license" for a fee to non union/undocumented skilled workers. Then there are expediters who know how to navigate the DOB and have connects to speed things up or find contractors willing to do the above.

Point is, construction is expensive if you use union licensed workers who themselves might subcontract to whomever but charge you the higher rate. Why not skip the union guy to save

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I remember this story from last year it's a long ongoing battle between rich people. And rich people fight with lawyers; he's on the losing side.

And the condo board got the government to send men with guns to lock him up over it.