Results tagged “deposit”

A coalition of bottled water companies—including Nestle Waters, which owns Poland Spring, and Keeper Springs, a smaller company owned by environmental advocate Robert F. Kennedy Jr.—filed a lawsuit yesterday to challenge a new state law that would require bottled water companies to charge a 5 cent deposit fee. The complaint argues that the law violates the Constitution’s equal protection clause because it exempts drinks with sugar added, such as competitors like Glacéau, makers of Vitamin Water. Lawyers also say the deposit would violate the Constitution’s interstate commerce protections the law because it could be interpreted as prohibiting companies from selling the New York-labeled bottles in other states.

This weekend, the NY Times real estate section looks at tales of would-be condo buyers who have their deposits (many in the six-figure range) with banks now suddenly worried about lending. In 2005, one couple put down a 10% deposit—and were approved for a mortgage—for a Toll Brothers two-bedroom in Hoboken; when they tried to close last fall, many banks told them to increase the deposit by 15-25% for a mortgage. Since the couple couldn't, "Toll Brothers declared them in default and kept their deposit" of $93,199. That couple is suing, as is another who forfeited their 10% deposit ($173,000) on a (non-Toll Brothers) Chelsea two-bedroom, because "mortgage brokers told them that 90 percent financing no longer existed." Some buyers buying smaller units or scraping up more money for deposits, but many contracts before last fall required buyers to be committed to the property "regardless of whether they could get financing." Jonathan J. Miller, of research and appraisal firm Miller Samuel, tells the Times, “It’s going to get worse before it gets better, because it will only start to ease when credit stabilizes.”