Self-described “scary lady upstairs” and condominium board president Joan Rivers has emerged victorious in a suit against a squatter in her Upper East Side luxury building.
The comedienne’s 1 East 62nd Street condo board can block rental tenant Elizabeth Hazan and her unit’s corporate owners from entering the building, a Manhattan judge ruled Friday. The preliminary injunction barring them from the unit will remain in place until Hazan coughs up more than $200,000 in overdue common charges that she owes from previous years, when she owned the unit, the New York Daily News reported.
The unit’s current corporate owner, who has paid no common charges since taking ownership of the property in July, must also pay up and get homeowner insurance, according to the ruling.
The owners must also settle their Con Ed bill and restore electricity to the $2 million one-bedroom pad before hosting any other “guests,” the judge ruled. According to Rivers’ statements in court papers, Hazan had created a fire hazard by using candles to light her unit in lieu of paying the electric bill. [NYDN] — Julie Strickland