The late Rosalind “Roz” Cole, an agent to celebrities including artist Andy Warhol and British film star George Sanders, was the Waldorf Astoria’s longest residing guest. But now, the Waldorf is taking Cole’s estranged relatives to court over nearly $1 million in unpaid rent and meal charges.
Cole moved into suite No. 38J in 1961 and lived there until she died in 2014. But in 2013, Cole made an unusual agreement with her landlord, according to the New York Post: to quietly give up her apartment in exchange for wiping out $650,000 in unpaid bills. However, Cole never left and stopped paying her $12,110-a-month rent for the last five years of her life.
Cole had no immediate heirs or will, but she did own an oceanfront summer home in Bridgehampton, valued at around $2 million. The Waldorf is battling in Manhattan Surrogate’s Court for $818,000 of that.
However, a court-appointed attorney overseeing her estate argues that her wealth should be split among 10 cousins. He claims that the hotel’s rent demand is “unreasonable” and should have been resolved while Cole was alive, according to the Post. [NYP] –Christopher Cameron