CONDO ASSOCIATION ARREARS ARREST

• Jesse Newhouse, board president of the luxury condominium, who has proclaimed with heavy heart, "When someone doesn't pay … oil is not going to get paid for [and] Alvin, who is our handyman, is not going to get paid."

• Ken Nahoum, famous photographer, who refuses to pay common charges on his eight-figure penthouses, even while enjoying expensive courtside seats at Knicks games

• Basia Milewicz Nahoum, his supermodel wife, a Polish immigrant who sought and found The American Dream

• And what about … the children???

A quick recap: The board and the couple at the upscale condo in Manhattan's Soho neighborhood have been feuding for nine years. In a November 2008 settlement, the board dropped a previous lawsuit with Ken Nahoum in exchange for Nahoum giving up a disputed 306 square feet of roof space and 744 square feet of mechanical space. Nahoum has claimed the board never reapportioned his common interest in the building, which would lower his monthly common charges, and has alleged that the board has failed to address persistent leaks that began in fall 2009.

Of Lawsuits and Liens

The couple — who had individually and together purchased four penthouses from 1999 to 2003, comprising one-fifth of the common interest — has a contentious history. They sued the lawyer who'd handled their three-apartment renovation/combination, later dropping it, and their architect had filed a lien against them, later settled, over a relatively piddling $7,060. They put the combined apartment for sale for $25 million in 2005 and the remaining apartment for sale for, initially $3.95 million in 2009. They didn't sell and so bank foreclosure proceedings, still ongoing, began two years ago. In the meantime, the apartments remain on sale.

At some point, the Nahoums stopped paying their common charges, and the board filed suit for what was at the time a mid-five-figure amount including late fees. The board also held a unit-owners meeting this past Feb. 17,  in which the residents ratified bylaw amendments which the board created in January. These amendments allow the board to

• key code the elevator so that it can only be used to unit-owners who are not seriously delinquent
• post and distribute information in the lobby and by mail about seriously delinquent owners
• require such delinquent owners who rent their condos to have their tenants' rent paid directly to the condo association, and, among other things,
• prohibit seriously delinquent owners from serving on the board and from voting at annual or special meetings.

On June 15, the board's lawyer sent the Nahoums' attorney a letter stating that if the arrears weren't paid, the board would begin denying the couple and their three children elevator access — which the board did, two days later. By coincidence, that was the same day the Nahoums filed a countersuit against the board.

Fob Story

Around this time, says board-attorney Braverman, of Braverman & Associates, the board deactivated the Nahoums' electronic key fob for the six-story building's elevator. The board also initiated, not to put too fine a point on it, public shaming within the community — something the public, throughout the case's high visibility in the media, has appeared to find more palatable when it involves a top photographer and a supermodel in arrears as opposed to a disabled widow.

The board may have gone too far, however, when it pushed the concept of a simple public notice and instead mounted an 8 ½ x 11 framed poster of Milewicz in what appeared to be a Halloween superhero costume and Nahoum wearing a cape — captioned, "Why aren't these 'caped crusaders' paying their common charges?"

Nahoum, says Braverman, "came down to the lobby and ripped the poster down. Then the board put the poster back up. Then he came down again with a can of spray paint and spray-painted the poster. In response to that the board filed a complained with the New York City Police Department."

Next page: Here comes the judge >>