Why didn’t somebody say something about the Chinese drywall?

That’s a question that’s really bugging Ken Abel.

Abel hails from Long Island, N.Y. During an Easter vacation here, he and his wife Nataliya decided to buy property on the Treasure Coast. They found what looked like the perfect candidate in Tradition.

The townhomes at the Promenade at Tradition development had everything the Abels wanted. The development is within walking distance of downtown; it’s close to the Palm Pointe school, stores and other amenities.

In May, Realtor Vincent Rossignol helped them find the unit, 5-212 at 10400 Stephanie Way.

Rossignol says he strongly urged Abel to have the unit fully inspected. There were rumors about Chinese drywall in Tradition, he said, although at that time he wasn’t sure exactly where.

Abel decided to select an inspector himself rather than using any of the names the Realtor suggested.

On May 13, A&A Home Inspections, accompanied by Rossignol, checked out the apartment.

The unit came up “clean.” There were none of the telltale signs of Chinese drywall: blackened copper wiring or corroded copper coils in the air conditioning system.

Abel went ahead with the sale. At $67,500, the unit was a bargain, having originally sold for more than $200,000 in 2006. It was a foreclosed property, being sold by a bank.

The sale closed on July 3. The following Monday, Abel says he learned from a neighbor that the place has Chinese drywall.

By now he’d uncovered blackened wiring and corroded evaporator coils on the AC unit.

Abel says he went back to the property management company office and asked why he’d not been informed of problems with the unit. The man there said that he hadn’t been authorized to disclose that. He gave Abel a copy of a letter dated April 30 addressed to the former owner of the unit from the condo association.

That letter clearly states that prior inspections had revealed that Unit 5-212 was “severely tainted.” It went on to outline that the association was negotiating with the builder, Centerline Homes, to work out a solution.

Even though the April disclosure letter was sent to the previous owner, the bank now disposing of the property apparently didn’t get a copy.

There was no evidence, right up until the closing, that anything was amiss.

“I did everything I should have done,” Abel says. “I was relying on these people (the management company and the condo association). I feel like we were scammed.”

Efforts to contact the president of the condo association were unsuccessful Monday.

So, who knew what and when?

Certainly it was no secret that many units at Promenade had drywall problems. What’s not so clear is why a prospective buyer like Ken Abel wasn’t let in on the secret, too, before he signed on the dotted line.

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