Sephardic School Work Damaged UES Townhouse, Says Lawsuit

UPPER EAST SIDE, NY — Tikkun olam is Hebrew for “fixing the world,” but the owner of a townhouse next to this Upper East Side Sephardic school says maybe start with fixing their roof.

The neighbors at 152 East 74th St. sued the next door Sephardic Academy of Manhattan, claiming that their renovation work enlarging their school has caused "substantial damages" to their property, including to their roof and to every living thing —including a tree — that once grew in the townhouse's backyard.

Representatives for both the townhouse and the school did not reply to a request for comment.

The suit, filed on Wednesday in Manhattan Supreme Court, seeks unspecified damages, but an estimate from a contractor submitted as an exhibit suggests the townhouse suffered nearly $180,000 of roof damage alone.

Other damage suffered by their backyard flora, their sidewalk and a car owned by the plaintiffs totals at least another $10,000, according to the suit.

The townhouse is currently on the market for $14 million.

Back in January 2022, the suit states, the neighbors had an agreement to allow the school and its contractor access to their property for 10 months, allowing workers to access the school and a shared party wall on the lot line between the two buildings.

The agreement also allowed the school to install temporary overhead protections on their roof.

Not only did the workers continue to access their neighbor's property past the agreement, the suit claims, but the school's workers went way beyond the amount of access granted, including into their backyard.

The workers, the suit says, "are responsive for severe damage to Plaintiff's roof and to the party wall, which, in turn, caused severe damage to numerous other areas."

The suit contends that multiple metal scaffolding structures built along the townhouse roof were responsible for the damage — one of which was use to hold a "manlift," used to hoist materials and workers to elevated levels.

Workers also stored "significant volume" of material and debris, including plywood, scaffolding and equipment, on the roof, the suit claims.

All of which "added up to the roof being subjected to substantial weight and structural stress, among other things," reads the suit.

Additionally, workers employed by the school failed to install drainage mats or a gutter system on the roof and failed to properly waterproof work done on the school building, leading to flooding and water damage in the townhouse, the suit claims.

"Within a month," the neighbors claim in their suit, "the basement of the Townhouse had already been subjected to significant flooding," causing over $17,000 of damage to rugs and walls.

In the top two floors, which the owners rent to tenants, the damage was the most acutely visible, the suit claims.

A month after new tenants moved in at the start of the year, evidence of intense water damage was obvious, says the suit, with cracking, staining and mildew getting worse and worse.

One of the tenants was in the middle of a high-risk pregnancy "and feared potential harm to her baby," the suit reads. Ultimately, the owners had to waive seven months of rent — which they charged an eye-watering $11,100 per month — forgoing $77,700 in rental income, the suit says.

On Jan. 6, the Department of Buildings issued a $10,000 penalty, citing the school's failure to waterproof and "protect adjacent buildings," the violation reads.

Repairs from the school's contractor failed to remedy the damage, the suit claims.

An inspection by a contractor hired by the townhouse owner in April concluded that “many areas of the roof due to the weight of the scaffolding have left an indent on the roof not allowing water to flow as needed” and that “[m]any tears and punctures were found on the roof,” along with an estimate of $178,000 to repair the damaged roof.

The suit also states workers for the school caused extensive damage in their garden by staging wood and materials there — which they were not allowed to use according to the license agreement — damaging a wall, lighting and killing everything that was once growing in their small backyard plot.

"Even a tree growing in that area did not survive," reads the suit.

The townhouse owners also claim that the workers damages a sidewalk on their property and that a cement truck spilled wet cement on one of their cars, causing $3,600 in damage.

While the cement company footed half of the bill, the suit says, the school offered nothing.

The suit seeks damages to be determined at trial.