Laura Glesby Photo
Collapsing back roof of 201 Summit.
Norbert Church: No hint of what's inside.
A foreclosed house on a Fair Haven Heights block of pastel-painted single-family homes eluded the hands of investors — landing instead in the hands of a soon-to-be-first-time homeowner, who hopes to live there with his family.
That was the result of a foreclosure sale that took place Saturday at 201 Summit St.
The house at 201 Summit St. was a mystery to the 20 property seekers who gathered in front of it to call out their bids. No one was permitted inside the house to inspect its contents. “You don’t know what you’re getting inside,” said Norbert Church, the court-appointed “committee” lawyer in charge of the auction.
The bidders could see the house’s caving back roof that needs replacing, the grates covering the windows, and the traces of a group of pets that live or once lived there. The current resident, they learned, is unwilling to leave.
The City of New Haven filed for foreclosure on the house in 2016, citing $17,978.71 that the owner owed in municipal property taxes and liens dating back to 2013. The house’s resident, Ralph Ferrucci, an artist and Green Party activist, has contested the foreclosure. On May 31, he filed an additional motion to extend the sale date, which the judge did not answer before the June 4 auction. (Ferrucci did not appear at Saturday’s sale and declined to comment for this story.)
Interested buyers listen to Church's instructions.
Hopeful bidders named the location, a block of Fair Haven Heights secluded beneath a canopy of tall trees, as the reason the house was in such high demand.
“The neighborhood is nice,” said Raymond Moses, a landlord with properties in New Haven, New York, and Saint Lucia. Moses said he wasn’t necessarily serious about acquiring the property; he mostly came to watch the foreclosure process because he’d been “bored.”
The city’s initial bid on the three-bedroom, one-story house was $36,400. Bidders quickly shot the price up to $50,000, then $100,000, then $110,000.
By the time the price rose to $170,000, only two interested buyers continued to bid.
One group of bidders was the Chaudhary family, who own a Whalley Avenue car repair shop called Dynamic Auto and manage properties on the side.
Umar Chaudhary, who arrived with his father and brother, said the family hoped to “fix it up and sell” the Summit Street house. Single-family homes are hard to profit from renting, Chaudhary said. “The house is fucking ugly” and needs “a lot of work.”
As bids came in increments of $100, the house reached a selling price of $179,200 — and the Chaudhary family relented to a determined final competitor.
Umar Chaudhary.
“Congrats, boss,” a family member said to the buyer: a man who stood by himself, and who later identified himself as Hassan.
“I’m not here to make a profit,” Hassan said later — a statement no other bidder that the Independent spoke to could echo. “I just want to live here.” (He declined to have his photo taken or disclose his last name.)
Hassan said he owns a limousine company, and currently lives in Westville with his wife and two kids, aged 9 and 13. He has never owned a home before.
While he knows the house needs significant maintenance, he said he felt the foreclosure was still a good opportunity “because of the market.”
“I have a good hope” for the future home, he said.
The Chaudharys approached Hassan after the sale with congratulations. They shared tips on how to fight the house’s current owner for control of the property. “You’ll have to evict him,” the father said, launching into step-by-step advice.
“Just be careful with that wasp’s nest,” Umar said, pointing to a layered, buzzing abode (pictured below) perched on a branch above the front yard.
Can anyone explain why potential bidders are not allowed to inspect the properties? Obviously, all bidders would have to be afforded the same access, and probably would need to sign liability waivers. But requiring bidders to buy a bid in a poke almost certainly decreases bids, which does not help the city.