There are lots of advantages to owning real estate, I'm guessing, but socialite Daphne Guinness could likely tell you all about the drawbacks. After buying her $15 million Fifth Avenue apartment in 2008, she proceeded to flood her downstairs neighbors three times with an overflowing bathtub, resulting in a legal battle which has lasted two years.
Even though Guinness offered to pay for damages, her neighbors Karim and Tina Samii did not take the floods in stride. They dropped a $1 million lawsuit, charging her with "emotional distress" and even attempting to legally bar her from bathing, ever again. If you're the kind of person that looks up to Daphne for her weird/amazing sense of style and high society antics, you'll likely admire her even more, now that you know she's so bad/good at taking baths, someone tried to make it illegal for her to soak in a tub.
This lawsuit business has been going on since 2010. In two years you can take a lot of awkward elevator rides. It must have been pretty unbearable, because the Irish-dry-stout heiress tried to sell her apartment earlier this year — at an over $1 million loss. (She quietly delisted four months ago and futher details haven't been made available.) The suit was finally settled, and fairly, it seems. Guinness won't have to pay $1 million dollars for causing a filthy rich couple "emotional distress" on account of some bathroom flooding, and she will also not be legally barred from bathing — although she will have to pay damages. The exact sum will be established at a later hearing.
So the moral of the story is: owning real estate is a serious headache. Sometimes it's lawsuits and tense encounters in the lobby and people trying to make it illegal for you to take a bath. I find the rental life far more satisfying: the tub's way too creepy for baths to ever be an appealing possibility (no spillage issues), the only time I hear from my neighbor is when I hear him having sex through the walls (that kind of closeness "breeds compassion" in the words of Lady Gaga), and I don't even have a lobby. Or an elevator. Downgrade, ladies and gentlemen. Simplify your lives.
Image via Wenn.com
[via NYPost]
Via: Daphne Guinness Is Going to Pay for All Those Baths She's Been Taking