More Anger For Unfinished Homes' Owners
Builder Allowed To Finish 3 Homes, Start New Ones
GILBERTSVILLE, Pa. - Residents of a Montgomery County development left unfinished are even more furious after their bankrupt builder has started building more houses, and they're finding out there's little help coming their way.
The foundation is laid for three brand new homes going up in a T.H. Properties development that was never finished in the first place.
New Hanover Township officials told Fox 29 News they can't do a thing to stop it.
Neighbors here want to know why not?
"There doesn't seem to be an answer to that," said Kingston Hills resident Chris Larkin.
Insult to injury is how Kingston Hill homeowners see it when you look at the conditions of at least a half-dozen quarter-million-dollar properties left undone when T.H. Properties filed for chapter-11 bankruptcy protection last summer.
"It's not getting any better. It just gets older, and overgrown, more ugly," Larkin said.
While a new house is going up at one end of the block, contractors are working late into the night to complete another home at the end of Centennial.
Township officials said it's one of two homes bankruptcy court ordered T.H. Properties to finish in order to build three new houses to turn a profit.
"That might be a good way to sell houses, but it's not exactly a way to fix these problems," Larkin said.
People left with their properties unfinished or liens on their homes from sub-contractors never paid by THP are angry.
Problems are much worse at THP's Burbank Grove property in nearby Upper Providenc.
"I couldn't sell this house if I wanted to," Sean Simpson said. "At this point, I'm almost beyond mad."
The Simpsons live in one of only three houses that were habitable before the bankruptcy. And they're still not finished.
"What happened? You know, the end of the world came, and I'm still here with my house, and nobody's here to finish it."
"It still doesn't make any sense," said state Rep. Mike Vereb.
Vereb and township officials said they haven't found any legal recourse yet to force the developer to take care of Burbank Grove or Kingston Hill homeowners first.
"They will not respond, so we'll have to – we'll have to take it to the next level," Vereb said.
Fox 29 News reached out to THP for comment, but our calls had yet to be answered Wednesday night.