As a new owner plans the future of a vacant lot in Westville, two neighbors in Cheshire are fighting over debts. Those two matters are actually connected, though that might not affect the transfer of the property.  The property in question is 882 Whalley Ave., the long-vacant site where the for mer Delaney’s restaurant burned down in 2014. The New Haven Parking Authority bought the lot on Nov. 21 for $825,000 — and has held a community meeting about short-term parking plans, long-term building plans for the property. The holding company that sold the property to the parking authority is called 882 Whalley Avenue LLC. That holding company used to be controlled by local excavation company owner Lior Israel. State court records show that Lior and Perla Israel are currently wrapped up in two lawsuits filed by their Cheshire neighbor, Mark Gancsos. The initial lawsuit, filed in 2023, stems from a property line dispute and a fight over a fence between the two Cheshire neighbors. In May 2024, a state judge granted Gancsos a $101,209.95 judgment in damages and attorney’s fees in that case. Less than a week after the judgment was issued in that Cheshire-neighbor fight, 882 Whalley Avenue LLC switched out Israel as the company’s manager, replacing him with Isaac Pinto of New York. Seven months later, Gancsos still hadn’t been paid — so he filed a judgment lien on multiple properties associated with the Israels, including 882 Whalley Ave. The judgment lien filed on New Haven’s land records database on Dec. 20, 2024 states that the $101,209.95 judgment still had not been paid by Israel to Gancsos; therefore, the lien was “hereby placed upon the interest of Perla Israel and Lior Israel, in the real property known as 882 Whalley Avenue.” In September of this year, Gancsos filed a separate lawsuit in an attempt to claim the foreclosure of the judgment lien. Then, after the Independent reported on Nov. 23 on the sale of 882 Whalley to the parking authority, Gancsos filed on Dec. 5 a court document refencing the sale — and decrying it as fraudulent. “Astonishingly, despite the Plaintiff’s judgment lien attaching to the 882 Whalley Avenue property, it was nonetheless sold to the New Haven Parking Authority only days after Lior Israel was served with post-judgment interrogatories specifically concerning his involvement with that LLC,” Gancsos’ Dec. 5 filing reads. “The timing and structure of these transactions strongly suggest an intentional transfer to an insider to hinder, delay, or avoid satisfaction of the judgment, followed by the sale of attached property in an effort to evade the Plaintiff’s lien.” On Thursday, a state judge scheduled a hearing in that court case for Jan. 5, 2026. Reached for this story, Israel’s attorney David Weiss declined to comment. In a separate interview on Wednesday, New Haven Parking Authority Executive Director Doug Hausladen said that the problem is that Gancsos’ and the Israels’ lawyers haven’t communicated. If they did, he said, Gancsos would receive his money. “It’s been handled in the closing of the sale,” Hausladen said about the lien. “It’s not the parking authority’s problem to solve.”  Hausladen made it clear that he doesn’t believe Gancsos’ legal actions in relation to 882 Whalley were proper. “It’s not an appropriate measure to take,” he said of a judgment lien being placed on an LLC, particularly one that the debtor in question is no longer involved with. Still, Hausladen said that there is no doubt that the parking authority does own the property, and that there’s nothing more on their part to do to satisfy the lien.   The December 2024 judgment lien in question. The post Cheshire Resident’s Lien Remains On Westville Crossroads Lot appeared first on New Haven Independent. ...read more read less