Condo Civil War : Sherman Oaks: The fight gets nasty as residents of Chandler Park Village debate whether a $25-million suit against the developer is justified.

There are cracks in the walls at Chandler Park Village townhome and condominium complex in Sherman Oaks. But the biggest chasm is the one dividing the residents.

Owners of 214 units have divided into rival camps over whether their homeowner association made the right decision in filing a $25-million lawsuit against the developer alleging shoddy construction.

Some residents believe that the developer’s construction was substandard, that he has been unwilling to fix it and that he should be sued. Other homeowners say they have not experienced major problems and that the developer has stood by his work. They wanted the homeowner association to hold off on a lawsuit that they say generates bad publicity and lowers property values.

Recently, the debate has escalated to personal attacks.

“I’ve been doing this about 14 years, and I’ve seen all sorts of bitter recriminations between developer and homeowner,” said attorney Lee Barker, who is representing the homeowner association in its lawsuit. “This is by far the worst I’ve ever seen.”

One homeowner reportedly punched her neighbor during a tense meeting. Records showing that one resident filed for bankruptcy five years ago were mailed anonymously to others. And an obscene imitation of a resident’s diary allegedly was posted on a bulletin board.

“It’s turning neighbor against neighbor,” said resident Robert Frcek, 34. “People are in different camps. You go to talk to someone on the developer’s side and you’ve got someone on the association side looking out their doors and watching you. It’s ridiculous.”

Nasty letters have flown between the two sides, Frcek said.

Developer Emery Schwartz sent homeowners a letter saying association president Danny Jeffrey acted “like a little dictator.”

Three weeks ago, Jeffrey’s credit report was distributed anonymously to condominium and townhome owners. Jeffrey, 38, said his fiancee called off their wedding, to be held last weekend, and their honeymoon on a Caribbean cruise. She was humiliated, he said, and worried about the escalating personal attacks.

The warfare seems worlds away from the idyllic surroundings described in a developer’s brochure on the townhomes and condominiums, which were built between two and four years ago and sell for about $150,000 to $250,000.

“If there is one phrase that best describes Chandler Park Village’s building design,” the brochure states, “it probably would be ‘Californian comfort with Mediterranean elegance.’ ”

Few would dispute the beauty of the stucco buildings with wrought iron gates and red-tile roofs. But many contend that the construction was poor--an allegation the developer denies.

A lawsuit filed Feb. 3 in Los Angeles Superior Court on behalf of the homeowner association levels a number of allegations, including negligence and fraud, against E & E Development and Investment Corp. and those associated with the business.

The suit contends there are defects in roofs, walls, foundations, plumbing and waterproofing. Ladders to the roof, protective railings, electrical boxes and ceilings also do not meet Los Angeles city building codes, the lawsuit says.

Residents say there are cracks in the concrete support columns in the subterranean garage, that 10-pound tiles fall off the sloping roofs and that 110 of the units have leaks. Failed plumbing once forced the homeowner association to install portable toilets for residents to use, said Jeffrey.

In some cases, there are no fire stops to prevent the spread of flames, Jeffrey said. And he said walls are not properly connected to foundations.

Such defects are not usually seen in such new buildings, Barker said.

“This is very ominous,” he said, “for what the project’s going to look like in a couple of years.”

Aesthetics are already bothering Esta Abrams, 71, and her husband, George, 77. They say that a wall in their stairwell is crooked, and that their door frame was cut wrong, making it nearly impossible to open the front door until the lock was rejiggered.

“We sometimes had to carry pliers and grip the key to twist it,” he said.

Walter Dorr, 79, and his wife, Electa, 71, had problems heating their two-bedroom home when the temperature dipped below 40 degrees.

For Electa Dorr, who suffers from arthritis and has had her knees and hips fitted with metal replacements, the cold was unbearable.

“In the winter, she was just miserable,” Walter Dorr said. Calls to the developer produced a subcontractor, who told Dorr he was not working the heat pump correctly. But, Dorr said, he later learned that the heat pump was too small for his condominium and paid $1,400 to upgrade it--”no thanks to the developer,” he said.

Developer Schwartz was out of town and could not be reached for comment. His attorney, Jerry Billet, called many of the association’s complaints “ridiculous,” saying that all the construction meets city codes.

“Ultimately, I think this case is without merit,” he said.

For example, he pointed out, cracks in the concrete on the garage support beams do not pose any hazards. The beam, according to a civil engineer that Schwartz contacted, is supported by the metal rod at the center, he said. Fire stops, he said, are present where called for.

He said some repairs are to be expected with any new construction, and that Schwartz was more than eager to fix such problems. But the homeowner association, he said, has prevented some workers from trying to make repairs.

In a June 26, letter, Schwartz said: “Our belief remains very strong that except for some corrective work to some roofs and some unresolved customer service type items and possibly a few, sporadic, relatively minor problems, E & E and the project were indicted wrongfully.”

Some residents agree that the problems can be solved outside of a courtroom.

Townhome resident Michael Pollack, 31, said he has had only one major problem since he moved in two years ago--a leak in his roof. The developer took care of it immediately, he said, adding that he wished the association had negotiated longer before filing the lawsuit.

Now, he said, it will be almost impossible to sell the property, which has become too small for him and his wife since the birth of their son.

Frcek said he had experienced no problems with the two-bedroom townhome he bought for $210,000. However, he said, he almost hates coming home because of the divisiveness caused by the lawsuit debacle.

The homeowners still held their annual summer barbecue this year. It just wasn’t quite the same.

“We had them the previous two years, and people would come out and everybody would be friendly and neighborly,” Jeffrey said. “This year, we had two camps.”