Okay, so where's this house?
/Former Disney executive suing rental holdover/squatters occupying his Greenwich home.
A former Disney CFO says a couple used a legal loophole to squat in his $2.2 million Connecticut mansion — but the couple claims the castle was far from the fairytale promised.
Lawrence Rutkowski — who also steered the finances of Petco and NBC/General Electric — says he rented his nearly 8,000-square-foot Greenwich home to lawyer A. Mark Getachew and his wife, Denora.
But the couple hasn’t paid rent since they moved in in June, taking “advantage of the no-eviction moratorium,” according to an affidavit filed by Rutkowski in Norwalk Housing Court.
“It is clear that they have no intention of paying rent — now or in the future because they know Governor [Ned] Lamont keeps extending the ‘no-eviction’ moratorium,” Rutkowski alleges in the affidavit.
Lots of claims and counter-claims, but the squatters’ assertion that they’ve been making repairs in lieu of rent has a familiar ring. I once represented a tenant who claimed exactly the same thing while occupying a house on Vineyard Lane, and I’d kept him in there through various legal stratagems for several months before I finally figured out he was a scam artist and fired him as a client.
Before that firing, but as my suspicions grew, I was able to derail one of his other scams: he was selling a Belle Haven (penninsula) home for the then-princely sum of $1 million and, violating all applicable legal cannons governing confidentiality, I voiced my suspicions about the man to the buyers’ out-of-state lawyer, and suggested that he hold his clients’ $100,000 deposit in escrow, rather than have me release it to my client as was the usual practice then. Once my guy learned he wasn’t getting the money, he walked from the deal. After firing him, I was curious about the aborted land deal and looked up the title to the property: there was a $1.5 million IRS lien attached to the million-dollar house, and two seperate mortgages totaling another $1.1 million. Turns out, the feds were on his trail for other crimes and he was looking to grab some cash and go.Sheesh.
None of which is to say that these people are pulling something similar, of course. In any event, it’s a fun read. And if you know the location of the house, please let us know.
Here’s a former listing for 9 Stallion. I actually showed this to a client years ago. Decent house but it had a failed Dryvit/stucco finish, and we passed.