Margaret Josephs and husband Joe Benigno have been a staple of The Real Housewives of New Jersey for several years.
On the current season, Margaret went after co-star Jennifer Aydin and exposed her husband’s affair. In a later episode, Margaret explained that Jennifer’s kids would get over it because children are resilient.
Radar Online recently reported that Margaret and Joe have some problems of their own. The stars will go to court after allegedly failing to pay $180,000 in the settlement of a former lawsuit (relating to a New Jersey home foreclosure).
According to the lawsuit, Margaret and Joe couldn’t meet the deadlines for the mortgage payment. Because of this, another couple was allegedly forced to default on other properties.
The plaintiffs are Charles and Camille Ardito, and they say that they bought two houses in New Jersey in conjunction with the reality stars after Margaret said one of the homes “could be quickly flipped for a profit.”
The alleged deal was to pay $1.1 million for one property and $1.4 million for the other. The Arditos, however, are now saying the reality TV couple paid $1.5 million for the first house and $1.8 million for the second. Margaret and Joe are currently living in the second property.
Legal papers state, “The agreement called [the Arditos] to provide $400,000 for the purchase of the properties. [The Arditos] eventually provided $440,000 to be used by [Josephs and Bengino].” The Bravo couple allegedly promised to contribute $180,000.
The documents assert that Margaret and Joe “falsely represented that there were no judgments against them” as they applied for the mortgage loans. “Between the two of them, Defendants had judgments entered against them totaling over $330,000 that would constitute liens on the Properties, if docketed, and they soon were after the closing.”
The Arditos are saying they “were unaware that the Foreclosure Action had been filed” because the reality stars didn’t tell them. Joe and Margaret reached an out-of-court settlement, which was supposed to be made in payments. The Bravo couple supposedly “defaulted” on those payments.
The reality stars are being sued for the amount of money they haven’t yet paid for the settlement.
Photo Credit: Bravo