The government of Somalia is facing
foreclosure on a unit in the office condominium building where the
country’s Permanent Mission to the United Nations is located.
Washinton (TNN)--The unit, #703
at 425 East 61st Street, is slated for a foreclosure auction May 7,
2010, according to court documents and PropertyShark.com.
The foreclosure suit, filed by the condo board in 2008, stems from
$194,332 in unpaid common charges dating back nearly 20 years,
according to court documents. A January court judgment also required
the Democratic Republic of Somalia to pay the condo $58,751 in
attorneys’ fees.
Elmi Ahmed Duale, Somalia’s current ambassador to the U.N., told The
Real Deal that the government is working to pay the condo board in
time to prevent the auction from taking place.
“We are seeing how best to pay those to whom the property owes
something,” Duale said.
He added that the mission will not have to move even if the auction
takes place, because his office is located in another unit the
Somali government owns in the building, #702. Problems paying common
charges in the building followed the overthrow of the Somali
government in 1991, he added, but declined to go into further
detail.
The BBC reported in February that Somalia’s cash-strapped government
would close three of its five embassies in Europe due to a shortage
of funds. Somalia has been wracked by civil war since 1991, and the
UN-backed coalition government, formed in 2009, controls only parts
of the country. Somalia closed its embassy in Washington, DC years
ago.
The Somali government bought unit #703 in 1987, and #702 a year
later, according to city documents.
Duale told the condo board’s attorney in 2009 that unit #703 was
vacant and not used for diplomatic functions, court papers say.
Instead, it was used as a rental property to generate income for the
mission.
In 1993, the condo board filed a $56,689.62 lien for missing common
charges and other payments, city documents indicate. Another lien
for $61,542.21 was filed in 1998 and a third for $44,955.16 in 2007.
The attorney representing the Somali government, Robert Thabit, and
the lawyer for condo board, William Rifkin of Belkin Burden Wenig
and Goldman, declined to comment.
Source: THE REAL DEAL
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