Every Co-op and Condo Board’s Darkest Nightmare

If you’ve ever wondered why noise complaints between neighbors are every co-op and condo board’s darkest nightmare, you need look no further than a dust-up now taking place in Greenwich Village. There, in an enclave known for its quaint architecture and artistic residents, a co-op shareholder claims that his downstairs neighbor is in the practice of banging his ceiling with a broom or cane and screaming obscenities “at the top of his lungs” at “all hours of the day and night.”

And so the offended cooperator, 28-year-old Kyle Cameron, resident of apartment 6C at 165 Christopher Street, has filed a lawsuit in Manhattan Supreme Court against his broom-banging, obscenity-spewing downstairs neighbor, 60-year-old Keith Dunn. Cameron’s suit claims that Dunn, the management company, and co-op board have done nothing to address his complaints about the noise. “For nearly two years,” according to the suit, “Mr. Cameron has been unable to feel safe within, and/or quietly use and enjoy his own home.”

If you know anything about noise complaints, you know what’s coming next: the accused party is actually as quiet as a church mouse. Dunn’s lawyer, Brian Delaurentis, tells the Daily News that his client “is not the aggressor here.” It’s all a big misunderstanding, Delaurentis asserts: “Mr. Dunn is caring for his 93-year-old mother, who lives in the apartment with him. I know Mrs. Dunn, and Mrs. Dunn is very, very hard of hearing. So those allegations in the complaint where he’s heard yelling at his mother — he’s trying to communicate with her.”

Maybe so, but Cameron wants the co-op board to evict Dunn and pay him $750,000. And now you understand why noise complaints are every co-op and condo board’s darkest nightmare.