Slides Prompt State to Block Sale of Hillside Condos
An auction of unsold units at an Agoura Hills condominium project has been blocked by state officials in a widening dispute over a landslide that has threatened a dozen of the hillside town houses.
State Department of Real Estate administrators said Tuesday that they have ordered a halt to the planned sale of the final 17 units at the Lake View Villas development until the developer reports to the state on the scope of the geological problems.
The agency has revoked the project’s Subdivision Public Report white paper, which real estate agents are required to provide to prospective home buyers, said Ed Grant, a supervisor with the department.
Real Estate Commissioner James A. Edmonds Jr., in the desist order, said the project’s developers failed to notify officials that a 100-yard-long section of slope collapsed in February at the front steps of the project’s most expensive units.
The Maler Dinow Co. and Templeland Ltd., a British investment company, are partners in the development.
Edmonds said his agency is invalidating a 1984 subdivision report that was “based, in part, on representations . . . that the subdivision was free from geologic hazards such as landslides, fault movement, rapid erosion or subsidence.”
Lake View Villas homeowners, who have sought to prevent the auction until repairs are made, hailed the state’s intervention.
The delay will give residents time to negotiate on reconstruction of the slope and repairs to a drained lake, said Bill Bush, president of the development’s homeowners association.
Bush said the lake, which was supposed to be the centerpiece of the 67-home project, was emptied after a private soils expert said leaks in its concrete bottom might be causing the slope’s earth to slide.
Residents appealed to Agoura Hills city officials for help when the developers announced plans to auction off the remaining units last weekend. The minimum bid for the units was set at $60,000.
A spokeswoman for a real estate firm representing Templeland said Tuesday that the auction has “probably been pushed back into September now.”
But Grant said his agency will not allow the auction to take place until Templeland reveals all geologic problems at the project site or repairs them.
If repairs are undertaken, his department will require that the work be bonded to protect future home buyers, Grant said.
Derrick Hunt, an attorney for Templeland, said the developers are trying to meet their obligations at the tract. He said negotiations with homeowners will continue.
