Levitt and Sons Files for Bankruptcy

The Ft Lauderdale, Florida based builder Levitt and Sons filed for bankruptcy today, becoming the nations largest builder to file for bankruptcy during the credit crunch.

Levitt and Sons filed for Chapter 11 Bankruptcy in Broward County, listing assets of less than 1 million dollars and debts of more than 100 million dollars. They also said that they will explore the sales of assets to repay owed creditors. During the past two months they laid off most of it’s 412 employees and stopped building homes. This just as they defaulted on more than 300 million dollars in Florida mortgages with Wachovia and Bank of America, among other lenders. The builder’s five largest unsecured creditors are Wachovia Bank owing 112.5 million, Bank of America owing 103.9 million, KeyBank owing 96.5 million, Regions Bank owing 24.7 million, and Ohio Savings Bank owing 1.1 million. Levitt and Sons parent company Levitt Corp had assets of $900 million and debt of 780 million dollars as of September 30th, according to a filing with the SEC. As of Friday the parent company moved Levitt and Sons’ finances off of it’s books.

Unfortunately this is bad news for anyone with existing purchase contracts on unfinished homes. Paul Singerman, Levitt and Sons bankruptcy lawyer stated that ” There is not a single, simple answer that will apply across the board. The Circumstances will vary depending on the decisions that each of the lenders make. We are very sensitive to the difficulties of our valued customers. We know this is not easy.” Unfortunately for their customers if Levitt and Sons goes into chapter 13 bankruptcy they’re at the end of a very long list of people owed money by the builder.

To read more about the Fort Lauderdale based home builder Levitt and Sons filing for bankruptcy head on over to the Sun Sentinel.