House at centre of Sudbury dispute listed for $9M

A legal analyst says selling a house that's in the middle of a legal dispute will be nearly impossible since it is "the literal nightmare of most buyers."

Ari Goldkind, who is not a real estate lawyer, was reacting to news that a couple in Sudbury embroiled in a real estate dispute with Laurentian University has listed the house at the centre of the battle for $9.35 million.

A two-bedroom, two-bathroom home in Sudbury involved in a land dispute with Laurentian University has been listed for $9.35 million. June 8/22 (Alana Pickrell/CTV Northern Ontario)

The two-bedroom, two-bathroom home located next to the university on South Bay Road is the highest-priced listing in the city right now.

The couple, James Crispo and Dominique Ansell, bought the house in 2016. Later, they found out part of the land (including a pool shed and part of their septic tank) encroached on LU’s property.

Since then, they have engaged in a high-profile battle with the university, trying to convince LU to sell them the land. A website highlights much of the media coverage the case has received.

In 2019, the couple offered to bail out the university's radio station CKLU by donating $25,000 if Laurentian agreed to sell the land.

Goldkind said these issues will drive buyers away.

"This is something that can be extremely difficult to finagle one's way out of," Goldkind said.

"The legal bills are going to be astronomical. It also has an effect on whether you can sell the house and the duties you have to disclose to another buyer. It raises questions (about) what your real estate agent should know and what your real estate lawyer would do if there was a sale."

Adding, "so this is a mess that is the literal nightmare of most buyers and sellers of residential real estate."

For their part, the owners said they don’t really want to move.

"I think we feel like we don’t have any other options, to be honest," said Ansell.

"We don’t necessarily want to move but we definitely want to move on with this whole issue and our lives."

Crispo said they have made "good faith" offers to Laurentian to buy the disputed property at market value, but the university has refused to sell.

"We presented an offer at the university's request, they rejected that offer, and then have subsequently rejected a number of offers from us to settle and sued us in April 2019," he said.

"Our highest publicly reported offer was up to $70,000, but we can say within the court proceedings we have offered the university well north of six figures and they’ve declined that and insisted on suing us."

When asked how they came up with the $9.35 million price, the couple said "the Laurentian University Board of Governors that established the value of this property."

"Our property as a whole is roughly 1.2 acres and the university is on track to spend over $500,000 on this little piece without any certain outcome," Crispo said, of the land that is in dispute.

"So it was really just simple math. We took their spend, we applied it by the total land value or the land size, we added a small multiple for the house, we’ve considered a hot market, and we’ve listed at $9.35 million because we believe that’s what the university values this property at."

In a statement to CTV News, Laurentian University said "unfortunately, and because this is an ongoing legal matter, Laurentian University is unable to provide commentary at this time."

Crispo and Ansell said they did look into moving their septic tank, but found it wasn't a feasible option because of topography, other existing structures, cost and environmental impact.

For his part, Goldkind said the only way the house could be sold is if the new owner knew all the details of the dispute and didn't care.

"Why would anybody want to get into this dispute over a septic tank?" he said.

"That’s different than just a swimming pool that is maybe on the border. A septic tank raises a whole bunch of other different issues."