We came into this entire matter as innocent people, having inheriting the home from parents, the Coopers, the home's second owners. The property existed as is when purchased by the Coopers in 1972 who were unaware of any problems. In fact, the prior owners, the Bahrs signed the required disclosure statement that the property had no legal problems, and the title company, City Title Co., upon full payment by the Coopers, conducted a title search and issued title insurance to the Coopers.
It was not until years later, once were in the home for exactly 10 months did we receive a notice from Bergen of any kind of problem. We were in contact with then Parks director Wolfgang Albrecht as we attempted to resolve the matter by offering to meet with him to discuss it and find a solution. Mr. Albrecht did not meet us at our home as scheduled, but instead rescheduled for a meeting in his office. We were met several officials from both Bergen County as well as Fair Lawn.
Bergen attempted to force us
off the property in the beginning by enlisting our town of Fair Lawn to do
their bidding, something they later denied having anything to do with. Fair
Lawn imposed violations against us with fines of $500 per week for violations
never committed.
But we fought back, and the County Board of Appeals unanimously deemed the
violations false. As further proof this case was wrong from the start see the
following February 2003 letter from Fair Lawn Borough Attorney asking Bergen
County Counsel to just “deed the property” over to us:
Facts behind this case include a multitude of statements and errors that went uncorrected, and false truths
used to favor Bergen County. All of it leads to the fact that the actual
litigation started four (4) years after the new law permits.
The facts that were used in this case were never complete, and certain acts perpetrated seemed to not matter to the trial judge - by the way there was no trial.
