Do you have any pinot and popcorn left over from yesterday's long and crazy tale of the sale/notsale of Joe and Melissa Gorga's mansion in Montville? If not, go get a fresh batch of both because the story isn't over! Kai Patterson is sharing many more details and further explanations today in a statement he prepared. Lies, money issues, shady business dealings and back-outs, and much more..just another day in the RHONJ hood!
I'm going to warn you in advance that this is hella long. I was going to find a way to trim it down and summarize, but really..it's just too detailed and fascinating to cut up. In a nutshell, there's a possibility that Joe wasn't totally up front with Melissa about his side deals, repair promises and other agreements with Kai. They did ask Kai to participate in an episode of Real Housewives of New Jersey where he would say he purchased the house. Also, Patterson didn't get the keys to the house until February of this year. Melissa shut off all the utilities when they moved out in September and -big shock- the pipes allegedly froze and burst over the winter.
Settle in because here is his statement and explanation almost in its entirety!
"First I would like to say that I have no ill thoughts or ill will against Joe and Melissa Gorga. I think Joe Gorga put a lot of effort into building the home, but I do think existing problems in the home need to be seriously addressed. Having the confidence in Mr. Gorga’s ability to fix the problems allowed me to move forward with renting and agreeing to purchasing the home. I know that he has the ability, because there is a lot of great craftsmanship that he put toward building the property. The property is not a dump, but it does need the problems to be addressed, before more serious problems arise."
"I entered into the Lease/Purchase Agreement to purchase the Gorga’s Montville home because I through it was a good investment that enabled me to focus on building my company without wasting money on just renting. I decided to relocate to Montville, New Jersey because it was close to my company’s main office, and the Gorga’s house met my requirements, as well as my taste in aesthetics. Rather than spend the next year throwing away money on renting a residence that I have no intention of owning, I decided to lease a home that I would purchase, and spend my time and resources building my company. The Lease/Purchase Agreement allowed me to put money down towards the purchase of the property, have the problems within the property resolved and each month make payments towards the downpayment of purchasing the home, while continuing to build my business."
"When I entered into the Lease/Purchase agreement with the Gorgas, we executed a separate lease agreement and a purchase agreement. The lease agreement required we comply with the leasing laws, and purchasing agreement required that we comply with the purchasing laws in the State of New Jersey. Until the home was purchased, all of the Landlord/Tenant laws apply to the transaction, which require landlords to repair problems within a residence without any financial contributions of a tenant other than the payment of rent. A landlord can’t spend a tenant’s security deposit, and is required to place the funds into a interest bearing account and provide the tenant with a copy of the deposit. Since I wanted the Gorgas to have the cash-flow to resolve all problems within the property and be able to meet their financial obligation they disclosed to me, I structured the deal to enable the deposit to be available for their use, to enable the problems within the property to be repaired."
"Prior to executing the agreements with the Gorgas only a few problems that currently exist were known and agreed to be resolved. These problems included missing shower doors, the fireplace in the living room not working, chips caused by the accident and the damage to the rear of the property that was caused by the fallen tree. These problems were all disclosed and agreed to be repaired during the inspection in September of 2013. On February 28, 2014 when I was given the keys to the property and took possession, I noticed there was hardly any water pressure on some faucets, and some faucets had no water pressure at all. I also noticed the faucets that had water pressure needed to run almost 5 to 10 minutes before the hot water would get hot. I immediately called Joe and he agreed to meet me at the property. Now, understand that I just moved three (3) moving trucks of furniture into the property and had over 100 boxes to unpack. When Joe met me at the house, he stated that Melissa turned off the utilities without knowing the water would freeze in the pipes and cause them to burst. He also stated that several pumps were damaged, but he was aware of the problem and was waiting on receiving the pumps that he ordered to fix the problems. Joe gave me a tour of the problems and stated the pumps would arrive in a day to enable the problems to be fixed. Understand, these issues occurred after I had inspected the property in September of 2013, so I asked Joe why was I not told of these issues. He assured me the problems would be resolved within a day and since I had been given possession a day earlier than I was contracted to take possession, I did not make an issue out of the problem and decided to stay in a nearby hotel."
"The next day when I returned to the property, I noticed there was no hot water at all. Thinking the problem might have been caused by the replacement of the pumps, which I later learned had not been replaced, I called Joe and his realtor. After 3 weeks of Joe’s plumbers coming to the property to fix the problem, which only enabled the hot water heater to work for a few hours, Joe and I agreed the hot water heater needed to be replaced. Although he agreed to replace it the next day, it was not replaced until April 1, 2014, and it took several days for Joe’s plumbers to configure the new water heater so it would not shutoff after working for a few hours."
"I issued Joe the check for the next month’s rent on or about April 7, 2014, Joe met me at the property to pick up a check for the rent. Unaware the hotel I stayed in while the water heater was being repaired accidentally charged my debit card for another month, the check I wrote Mr. Gorga on the account, was returned for insufficient funds. Although I immediately moved the funds from another account when I received the overdraft notice in my e-mail, my bank told me they already issued the return before the e-mail was sent. The accidental charge and returned check caused a ripple effect with my account that was eventually resolved and the returned rent check we replaced. Even though the check was replaced and I had paid Joe $25,000 to cover any expenses required to fix the property, he failed to make any additional repairs. I never received credit for the property not having hot water for the month of March 2014, or credit for my hotel expenses, which should all be accrued towards rent."
"In April of 2014, I told Joe that I did not want to make any additional payments towards the purchase of the property until the problems were fixed on the property and provided him with a list of the needed repairs. He stated that he would make the repairs, but no repairs were made after the replacement of the water heater. On the morning of April 16, 2014 I heard a crash in downstairs bedroom. When I inspected the loud noise, I saw where the ceiling fell in and immediately called Joe and sent him pictures of the ceiling from my cell phone. When I inspected the missing area in the ceiling, I noticed that water was dripping from that area, but I did not see any pipes. When I went upstairs to laundry room above the guest bedroom, I noticed water was leaking from a broken pipe into the floor behind the sink, washer and dryer. When I called Joe and explained there was a water leak that caused the ceiling to fall and if not stopped further damage could ensue, he immediately responded by sending his partner to stop the water leak. His partner spackled the ceiling and stated that he would return a few days later to sand and repaint the ceiling, but he never returned to complete the work as agreed. When I called Joe the following week to ask why his partner did not finish the work or refused to return my calls, Joe stated that he and his partner were working on a important construction job and once the job was completed he would complete the ceiling. To this day, the ceiling was never completed."
"A week later in April 2014, the faucet in the kitchen was dripping water in the enclosed cabinet, which I noticed when I almost slipped on the water. I immediately called Joe again and he arranged for the same partner who had not completed the guest room ceiling to come that evening to fix the faucet. When he arrived that evening, he removed the faucet and stated that he needed to get Joe to give him the money for the faucet. He stated that Joe did not want to spend any money on any repairs because I did not pay the payment towards the purchase in April. Rather than make any statements about Joe to his construction partner, I offered to pay for the faucet. I was told the faucet would cost $250 for the parts and labor, so I wrote the gentlemen a check, which was cashed two days later. Once the checked cleared, I placed several calls to the gentlemen, but he did not answer calls or return my messages. Understand the broken faucet was totally removed from the counter, which left a hole where the faucet was mounted. After about a week no returned calls, and having paid $25,000 for outstanding repairs, I went to Home Depot, found the exact faucet and hired a plumber to install it, once it was shipped."
"By May of 2014, I had enough and decided that I was not going to make any additional payments towards the purchase of the property, and no additional payments towards rent until the $25,000 payment I made towards the purchase and any additional fees for repairs accrued toward the rent. When Joe contacted me during the first week of May to discuss the rent, we met to attempt to come to a resolution. During the phone call before the meeting, Joe asked me how is my company doing, since he was receiving 1 million shares when we executed the agreement for him to take possession and received the initial rent and purchase deposit. I explained to Joe that I was preparing to implement a community service initiative for parents that included obtaining a recreation vehicle for an account we just received and the account would enable us to generate $600,000 per month in gross revenue beginning July 2014. Joe said that he wanted in on the deal, and requested that we meet immediately. He met me at the property within 30 minutes of the call and we discussed the requirements of the initiative. Unknown to me at the time of the discussion, his wife’s step father owed an recreation vehicle company. During the meeting we agreed to put the issues and payments related to the property aside to implement the initiative. We had a series of meetings that included having dinner in Hoboken, New Jersey with other partners of his to negotiate the terms. When I explained the initiative included renting a recreation vehicle for about $8,000 per month for an initiative for New Jersey and New York, Joe made a call to Melissa’s step father and negotiated acquiring two (2) recreation vehicles and agreed to acquire them and lease them to my company if I agreed to give him 5% of the gross proceeds. The terms we agreed to would have made Joe a sponsor of the initiative, since receiving two vehicles for less than the price of one, which included all of the construction costs and costs to wrap it with our logos and markings, would have entitled him to become a sponsor. The following week, Joe called a meeting at the residence, where he brought all of his partners he wanted to become a part of the initiative. We all agreed to move forward and after the meeting, I entered into employment agreements with the staff members needed to implement the initiative. My staff and I spent the entire month of May putting everything in place to ensure my company would deliver on our requirements of the deal. I also spoke with the recreation vehicle company, which is when I learned the owner was Melissa’s (Joe’s Wife) step father."
"While preparing the terms and conditions of the Joe’s agreement, I was able to secure a television spot on a channel 9 (My9) episode. They agreed to dedicate an entire episode to our initiative and a separate episode to Joe and Melissa Gorga. I received their commitment letter for our initiative and a separate commitment letter for the Gorgas. On the following Monday, which was June 8, 2014, Joe made an unannounced visit while I was getting dressed before 8:00 am. During the visit, he informed me that he could not move forward with our agreement, after I spent almost the entire month of May 2014 acquiring permits, staff members, capital, materials and agreements. He told me that his wife Melissa did not want him to move forward with the deal. He also stated that he needed all of the rent we agreed to defer, and the purchase deposits, even though no repairs were made. After that meeting, I called him with new terms that he agreed to, after several hours of negotiations. The following day, I began receiving several derogatory text messages form Melissa, and a text to inform me they filed an eviction proceeding. I immediately called Joe, but he refused to take my calls. Melissa’s text messages made me realize that she had no knowledge of the negotiations and terms Joe and I had agreed to verbally. The text messages were being sent at the very same time I was drafting Joe’s agreement. Since I reached the conclusion that Joe had backed out to the deal, I immediately reverted back to my initial plan, which included preparing a new budget to pay more than $8,000 per month to rent each vehicle, a security deposit of $4,000 per vehicle and $3,000 to wrap each vehicle. I also needed to acquire another sponsor, if I was going to maintain the same profit margins. By the grace of God or luck (depending on your religious beliefs), I was able to acquire another agreement to enable me to use the staff members I entered into employment agreements for the month of July 2014, to prevent losing $30,000 in salaries and wages, since I did not want to default on their employment agreements. The new contract enabled me to generate the same $600,000 in gross revenue for July, pushback the rollout of the community initiative until August, and make use of the staff starting next Tuesday."
"To this day, I don’t think that Melissa was aware of the negotiations, agreements and issues with the property. I can’t see how anyone would contact the media and release their story, while knowing the condition of the property. I was unaware they used the sale contract to represent to the public the I purchased the house, until I was asked to participate in a Real Housewives episode and represent I purchased the property in February. I declined the offer and explained not only was it dishonest, and anyone could search the real-estate records to confirm otherwise. I told Joe that I would only consider being in an episode if the truth was told about the Lease/Purchase arrangement, and I never heard anything more about being on the Real Housewives of New Jersey."
"At this point, I feel the current condition of the property, the payment of $25,000 towards the purchase, the payment of their water bill and payment of the faucet does not warrant the payment of any rent through the month of July 2014, unless repairs are made. I should not be required to pay into purchasing a property unless the repairs are made and the missing items installed. Since the rent is $10,000 per month, and I paid $25,000 to be applied for repairs, $4,416.60 for the Gorga’s water bill, $650 to fix a faucet, and $250 paid to the Gorga’s plumber ($30,316.60), I should be entitled to three (3) months credit of the months of May 2014, June 2014 and July 2014. None of these expenses include credits for the month I had no hot water, or the funds I spent to stay in hotels to take showers. I don’t think that I should be compelled to make any payments towards the purchase of the property, unless the repairs are made. I also have all of the information to support everything I have disclosed, including phone text messages, pictures, e-mails and documents."
I'm a little disappointed that filming of the new season is over. The good stuff always happens when the cameras aren't rolling!
TELL US – THOUGHTS ON THIS MESS? DO YOU THINK MELISSA KNEW ABOUT JOE'S BUSINESS ARRANGEMENT AND PROMISES TO REPAIR THE HOME THAT WENT UNFINISHED?
Sketch of the new Gorga mansion to be built? So far the Wakiles are the only ones with a real house build currently in progress.
Photo Credit: Twitter
