Montauk Share-House Citations Follow a Chance Admission

Not long before the summer season began, the owners of a Kettle Hole Road house in Montauk heard it was being used as an illegal share house, and, they said Monday, there was nothing they could do about it. "It's a nightmare," Dr. Marie Savard said.

Dr. Savard, a best-selling author of books on health and fitness and a former on-camera contributor to ABC News, and Dr. Bradley W. Fenton, an internist practicing in Philadelphia and the former team doctor for the Philadelphia 76ers of the National Basketball Association, have owned the four-bedroom house at 37 Kettle Hole Road since buying it 18 years ago from its original owner, Jeanette Rattiner. The 2,500-square-foot house, on 1.37 acres, has over 1,200 square feet of decking, a 700-square-foot pool and hot tub, and a view of Fort Pond Bay. It is extensively landscaped.

In East Hampton Town Justice Court on Sunday, Scott D. Shulman of Dix Hills, 32, said he was "a share-house manager in Montauk," as he was being arraigned on a felony drunken-driving charge, having been arrested early that morning on Flamingo Avenue in Montauk. Mr. Shulman told East Hampton Town Justice Steven Tekulsky that he had been living at 37 Kettle Hole Road since Memorial Day weekend.

Justice Tekulsky asked him if he was aware share houses were illegal in East Hampton. "I am, your honor. I'm just trying to be truthful," Mr. Shulman replied.

"I'm trying to be truthful, as well," Justice Tekulsky replied, before setting bail at $7,500.

When a visitor knocked on the front door of the house Sunday afternoon, the woman who answered said she was not one of the renters, but was there as a guest. Behind her, an L-shaped couch in the middle of the living room had sheets and blankets on it and appeared to have been slept in.

For the two doctors in Philadelphia, none of this was news. Their three sons are now adults, and this was the first summer that everyone in the family was headed in a direction that did not include Montauk. Dr. Fenton and Dr. Savard decided to rent the house for the season.

They had gone through a broker, Atlantic Beach Realty Group. As subscribers to The Star, they said, they had read of horror stories involving Montauk houses rented through online web sites. They wanted to do this rental the right way, through an agent.

Atlantic Beach Realty presented them with two men who were interested in renting for the season. The price would be $85,000, less the 10 percent commission for the real estate company. The men agreed to pay an additional $8,500 as a deposit. All this was done by the end of April.

Dr. Savard and Dr. Fenton, to prevent the possibility of the house being used by a group, included a stipulation in the lease restricting occupancy to eight people, allowing for guests.

The names on the lease were Christian Arcello of West Islip and Anthony Pisciotto Jr. of Lake Grove.

Betsy Bambrick, director of the East Hampton Town Ordinance Enforcement Department, announced in a release yesterday that Mr. Pisciotto, who lives in East Setauket, has been cited for multiple violations at the house. They include "health/safety violations (smoke/carbon monoxide detectors) zoning violations relative to change of use converting rooms to sleeping quarters, partial occupancy, and no Building Permits or Certificates of Occupancy, plus additional charges."

Mr. Arcello's LinkedIn page identifies him as a real estate and restaurant investor.

The homeowners, who said that they in no way blamed Atlantic Beach Realty Group for what happened after the lease was signed, interviewed the two men. Lynden Restrepo, head of the real estate company, said Tuesday that the company and the two doctors worked together to screen potential renters, checking references.

Mr. Pisciotto and Mr. Arcello asked whether they could move in a couple of days earlier than Memorial Day, and leave a little after Labor Day. The homeowners agreed.

"The biggest mistake we ever made," Dr. Savard said.

The week before Memorial Day, the doctors discovered that a carbon monoxide detector in the house had malfunctioned and kept going off. They sent a handyman to fix it. It was May 20, the day the tenants took possession.

The handyman called the homeowners soon after he arrived at the house. In the basement, he found that new wallboard partitions had been installed in just hours, creating new rooms. The garage, which is large enough for at least two cars, had been divided as well.

In addition, the couple's home gym had been cleared of equipment and set up as a bedroom.

According to Mr. Pisciotto, the handyman entered the house illegally.

"These young kids are so savvy, knowing how to pull things like this off," Ms. Restrepo said. "It amazes me how smart they are."

Mr. Pisciotto denied the allegations yesterday. "We put up a divider, not a wall," he said. He pointed out that until yesterday, he and Mr. Arcello had not been cited for any violations.

For his part, Mr. Shulman said that he was aware that questions had been raised about the house he was staying in and managing. "I wanted to give you a heads-up, absolutely there will be a defamation-of-character lawsuit, minimally, in regards to anything of that nature published," he said.

In a subsequent phone call, Mr. Shulman said there was a "fixed number" of renters in the house, six. The East Hampton Town Code limits rentals to four unrelated adults and prohibits the selling of shares, fractionalized interests, or partial occupancies.

After receiving the call from the handyman, the doctors wanted the tenants evicted. But all the lawyers they consulted with told them the same thing: The eviction process would be costly and likely not successful until the end of the season.

Instead, they contacted code enforcement. According to Dave Betts, the town's director of public safety, officers visited the house on May 22. They issued a warning, and when code enforcement officers returned on May 23, the walls were gone. No summonses were issued.

Mr. Pisciotto asked yesterday how it would be possible, if they had put up wallboard, to clear it out so fast. He called the charge "ridiculous."

The owners, however, demanded weekly inspections, and the tenants agreed, to a point; weekend inspections would not be allowed, Ms. Restrepo said.

"In all my years in the business, I've never had something like this happen," she said. The problem for the homeowners, she explained, is that once a lease is executed, the broker can only visit the property with the lease-holders' permission.

Ms. Restrepo has been allowed to visit the house on Mondays or Tuesdays. She has never seen any violations, she said.

But on Tuesday afternoon, code enforcement officers revisited the house. Yesterday morning, they returned, summonses in hand.

Mr. Pisciotto defended himself and Mr. Arcello yesterday. For example, he said, they were cited for putting a lock on a door. "That is to protect our valuables," Mr. Pisciotto said, adding that because the handyman had entered the house without their permission, they felt the need to secure their belongings.

Another summons was for storing multiple beds in the erstwhile gym room. Mr. Pisciotto said those were for guests, in the event they had too much to drink. "We're in our 30s. We are in Montauk to have fun," he said.

He denied that they were using the premises as a share house. "I think some things have been misconstrued."

The arrest and arraignment of Mr. Shuman, the house manager, is reported elsewhere in this issue. Mr. Pisciotto and Mr. Arcello are to appear in Justice Court on Aug. 10.