Flooding damages Central Avenue residences

After heavy rains on July 25 damaged the roof, water seeped into Avi and Sarah Miller’s first floor co-op at 261 Central Ave. in Lawrence and caused considerable damage, the couple is suing Lawrence 261 Apartments Corp., the co-op owner, as a result of what the Millers consider to be an unreasonable delay in repairs.

Displaced from their home after the rainstorm, the Millers have been unable to return due to the poor living conditions, according to their Lawrence-based lawyer, Jeffrey Miller, who is Avi’s father. The family, which includes their son, Samson, moved into 261 Central Ave. between December 2012 and January 2013.

Avi Miller, the assistant rabbi at Congregation Beth Sholom, also in Lawrence, is required to live within walking distance to his synagogue and has had to walk approximately three miles to get there. The family is currently living at the North Woodmere house of Jeffrey Miller until their residence is repaired.

The apartment above the Millers also suffered significant damage due to the July storm. In comparison, the Miller’s damage is not as bad as that upstairs residence, but the water damaged the walls which led to them taking down portions of the sheetrock before mold formed that could have posed a health threat to the entire family, particularly Samson and Sarah Miller, who is five months pregnant, Jeffrey Miller said.

Garden City-based Schneider Mitola LLP is representing the co-op owners. In an Aug. 13 email, Justin Buchel, a partner at Schneider Mitola said the Millers’ apartment is livable. “My client maintains that the apartment is presently habitable,” Buchel wrote. The Millers disagree and do not want to put anyone in the family at risk by living there until conditions improve.

“They wrote us that it is habitable and that if we sue them it will delay their repairs,” Jeffrey Miller said, in reference to communication with Marc Schneider, another attorney representing the co-op, which included an Aug. 23 email that Miller shared with the Herald. “The co-op has been and is working towards having the repairs that the co-op deems necessary made,” Schneider wrote.
Paul Yaworski, vice president of operations at Plainview-based Alexander Wolf & Company, Inc., the management company responsible for Lawrence 261 Apartments Corp., declined to comment.

“The amount of money that it will take to repair this problem is not that much that they shouldn’t just be doing it,” Jeffrey Miller said. He added that the repairs are estimated at $10,000.

The Millers asked if they could do the repairs independently of the co-op. According to Jeffrey Miller, they were told no. “The Co-op will make the repairs in accordance to what is required by Co-ops Governing Documents. Nothing more, nothing less. Your definition of complete may not be what my client is required to do under the Governing Documents,” Buchel wrote in the Aug. 13 email to Jeffrey Miller.