A sex shop in Chelsea is allegedly flooding a neighboring townhouse with some decidedly unsexy materials: raw sewage and poop.
Susan Haar, who owns and lives in the townhouse at 304 West 18th Street, is suing the nearby sexy boutique at 155 Eighth Avenue—creatively named Sexy Boutique—for repeatedly flooding her entire furnished basement and clogging its pipes with materials including condoms, diapers and rubber gloves. She is seeking $2 million in damages.
The flooding has significantly damaged Haar’s townhouse, “irreparably” contaminating the walls, doors and cabinets and making the whole thing smell terrible, according to the suit. Haar has had to leave her home intermittently, and Sexy Boutique has not responded to any of her attempts to fix the problem, the suit says.
Haar had purchased the house at a foreclosure auction in 2010 and put it on the market on Nov. 5, according to the suit. Just 10 days later, the first sewage backup occurred, filling the home’s entire 600-square-foot basement with six inches of sewage that included feces and sludge, according to the suit.
She has since had to take her home off the market, as it is apparently hard to sell a house that repeatedly gets flooded with human feces—even one within walking distance of the High Line.
Father Realty Corporation, based in Brooklyn and controlled by Shapali Khandahar, owns 155 Eighth Avenue, public records show.
Haar declined to comment, and her attorney Ricardo Vera did not respond to a request for comment. Representatives for Sexy Boutique could not be reached.