Real Estate Lawsuit Situation
It has been 20 months since the fire that ended Estate of Mind and 11 months since the start of the lawsuit that is keeping me trapped on the property. There has been an uptick in inquiries about what's going on, so I'm writing this to bring everyone up to speed. If you know any attorneys who might be interested in taking this case on contingency, my offer is $100k from the sale of the property if the Lis Pendens is defeated, plus 30% of any recovered damages.
On March 1 2024, the manor suffered a fire which rendered it uninhabitable and beyond my ability to repair. We immediately stopped hosting events and recruiting new resident members, and over the next few months almost everyone living here moved out. I listed the property for sale and started arranging to move on with my life.
On June 14 2024, a buyer who had visited the property and made an offer signed a contract with me to buy the property. His name was Lee Jundanian, and he contracted to purchase the property under a Maryland LLC. The purchase price was $1,600,000, with him to pay half at closing and me to finance the other half with payments over the following five years. The contract called for a closing date of August 28 2024.
In June and July 2024, my employer let me know they were unhappy with my performance at work. I told them that the house fire situation was occupying my attention, and that I would be wrapping it up at the end of August so that I could focus on work again. In early September, when the sale hadn't closed as contracted and I was still distracted from work, I was fired. I have been out of work since then. I exhausted my unemployment insurance benefits in early 2025, and have had trouble finding a job that is compatible with the amount of time I have to spend on this situation and how often I have to be in court.
From August to November 2024, my agent and attorney and I grew increasingly insistent that he close the deal. He only ever responded with attempts to renegotiate the contract. Among other changes, he wanted to pay less, finance at lower interest, hold back far more money than we had previously agreed to deal with evicting the tenants, and make me responsible for damages caused by the tenants after closing. I attempted to negotiate a compromise position on some of these demands, but we never reached a new agreement. We finally asked him to formally terminate the contract and take back his deposit. He did not accept our requests.
On December 5 2024, he filed a lawsuit in Worcester County (Massachusetts) Superior Court, docket 2485CV01467. He asked the court to prevent me from selling the property to anyone else, to force me to sell it to him, and for damages. After a bit of legal wrangling, he recorded a Lis Pendens against the property, which effectively prevents me from selling to anyone while the lawsuit is pending.
At various points in 2025 I have invited him to close the deal as contracted. His latest offer to close the contract and settle the lawsuit is effectively that I give him a million dollar discount on the purchase price.
The crux of his case is that he claims I violated the contract first, and he seems to think that this means he can take as long as he wants to renegotiate. Here are his five accusations and my rebuttals:
“Seller has failed to make reasonable efforts to evict the remaining tenants residing at the Subject Property or to agree to an appropriate holdback.” I did make reasonable efforts to evict, and was still making those efforts at the time of the filing and until the evictions were complete. All of the tenants have been fully evicted for months now. We both agreed, in writing, to a holdback of $30,000. I wasn't required to agree to a holdback until the time of closing.
“Seller has failed to remove extensive amounts of trash and debris from the exterior of the Subject Property, as required by Section 12 of the Addendum.” Section 12 requires me to remove yard sale items specifically, which I did remove. We repeatedly discussed that the fire debris would not be removed, and it is not mentioned in the agreement or addendum.
“Seller has refused to close unless his unreasonable demands are met, including a demand that he be permitted to occupy the property for six months post-closing.” The context of this demand is that he was already refusing to close and making his own demands. I responded as negotiation. Specifically, I said that if he wanted to modify the contract to make me responsible for damages caused by the tenants after closing, he would have to let me stay to keep an eye on them.
“Upon information and belief, Seller has removed items from the Subject Property in violation of Section 5 of the Addendum.” He still hasn't specified what items this is referring to, including producing nothing about this during discovery, so it's difficult for me to respond specifically. I believe he is referring to windows, chandeliers, and other wood and glass elements that were stolen from the manor. I reported them stolen to Northbridge PD. In February 2025 most of them were recovered by Northbridge PD from one of my now-ex-tenants (Matthew Carr). Those thefts are the basis for at least one felony charge against him, a case currently underway in Uxbridge District Court.
“Upon information and belief, Seller has located another prospective buyer and, therefore, has intentionally failed and refused to transfer the property to Plaintiff in accordance with the terms of the P&S Agreement.” I did not refuse to transfer the property in accordance with the terms of the P&S Agreement, and have only failed to do so because he has refused to schedule a closing. I only started looking for other buyers months after this sale had failed to close as contracted.
My counterclaims demand the lifting of the Lis Pendens, for him to honor the contract, and for damages that I lower bounded as follows and expect to establish more specifically at trial: $7,000 per month interest on the contracted sale payment $5,000 per month interest on the contracted mortgage $10,000 per month decrease in value of the manor building due to water damage $100,000 decrease in value of the manor building due to freezing $12,000 per month in lost wages
Of course, this is just a summary that hits the major points of the situation. I've completely skipped the mortgage foreclosure, the tenant lawsuits, the mounting debt, actions by the town, the mental and physical toll, missed opportunities, etc. I could easily write ten times this much and not cover all the relevant information. Maybe I will, when this is all over.
Thank you for reading this far. I'm open to questions and discussion and advice. Dealing with this situation will continue to be my full time job until it's resolved or I find an attorney.