Downstairs neighbor tells NY resident her shower was leaking into their home; what followed was a 3-year legal battle: ‘There is no leak to repair’
Both side have refused to back down
Two residents in a Manhattan co-op complex have been engaged in a legal battle over an alleged leak from the upstairs unit, which is supposedly affecting the bathroom in the downstairs unit. The two neighbors have been arguing their case for three years, with building management instructing the upstairs resident to pay $170,000 in legal fees and to repair her shower; however, the upstairs neighbor says there is no leak.
Guillermina Girardi told The New York Post that her downstairs neighbor, Ariane Zorgniotti, informed her of a leak coming from her unit six weeks after she moved in back in 2023. According to an email sent by the managing agent, the neighbor had reported “a small leak. It does not seem serious.” But after a number of months, the management claimed that the leak had gotten worse, leading to “an uninhabitable situation.”
Girardi and the building management, Castle Village, have since been arguing their cases in court, with Girardi claiming that there is no leak, while the management claims that there is and that Girardi must pay to have her shower fixed as well as almost $170,000 in legal fees. The legal battle has gone on for three years, with neither side backing down.
Girardi says the neighbor won’t let her master plumber examine the leak
According to Girardi, neither a master plumber nor the 10 city inspections she claimed to have had done have ever identified the supposed leak. “There is no leak to repair,” Girardi claimed. However, Castle Village’s lawyer, Ingrid Manevitz, said, “The evidence unequivocally shows that there is a leak.” She also wrote that “there is no requirement that a licensed master plumber be involved with this leak repair.”
Girardi also said that, last Spring, she and her master plumber knocked on Zorgniotti’s door to try to find the leak. However, the neighbor denied them entry into the property. “There is no reason to fix a leak that does not exist,” Girardi told The Post. “The leak is deliberately fabricated to harass a shareholder.”
Castle Village concluded that the leak was coming from Girardi’s unit after a building employee conducted an inspection and determined that the problem was her shower pan. He noted that “when the upstairs residents aren’t home for a few days, the ceiling below dries out, and when they return, the moisture levels increase.”
A work proposal involved demolishing the stall shower and replacing the bathroom tiles. The building management estimated the cost to be $9,200, although Girardi claimed a more realistic figure would be about $40,000. This would be in addition to the $170,000 management wants her to pay in legal fees.
Court documents showed that the co-op had submitted photos of the water damage in the downstairs unit as evidence, but Girardi contended that there was no data regarding the time, location, or proof that the pictures were genuine. “I am not asking anyone to simply believe me. I am asking that the evidence be examined,” she said.
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