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We’ve all heard horror stories about terrible neighbours. It’s an oft-discussed topic amongst friends, family members and coworkers and everyone probably has at least one anecdote they could recount. Living in close proximity to people who don’t share your views on certain things (e.g. playing exceptionally loud music at 1 o’clock in the morning) can be difficult, to say the least.
To quote the “crying girl” in Mean Girls, I wish we could all get along like we used to in middle school… but sometimes not even a rainbow-filled cake is enough to quell the drama. Some disagreements go beyond that as Justin Theroux has learned. In fact, he’s been embroiled in a nasty legal battle with his own neighbour for years now. As one New York court noted, the two “do not get along, to put it mildly”.
According to Curbed, it all started back in 2017 when Theroux filed a lawsuit against Norman Resnicow, a real estate attorney who lived just beneath him in the same building. The actor, who was living there with his now ex-wife Jennifer Aniston, claimed that Resnicow had orchestrated a “targeted and malicious years-long harassment campaign” against him that deteriorated while the couple was renovating their Washington Place apartment.
“In the past six months, Mr Resnicow has demonstrated a bizarre, troubling obsession with my life and my property and has proven unwilling or unable to stop himself from entering my property, in direct violation of my rights – despite my lawyer’s written demand that he cease doing so,” Theroux said in an affidavit made public in late 2017.
Resnicow retaliated by inviting a Daily Mail camera crew into the building for an interview… one in which he claimed that he was “under siege” by Theroux’s dogs, later adding “loud yowling”, Theroux’s choice of footwear (he apparently liked to “walk around in his biker boots”) and a basement filled with “Justin’s junk” to his list of grievances.
That essentially sparked an over five-year-long tit-for-tat clash between the two involving restraining orders, alleged water leaks and physical divisions being erected to divide their shared patio. Resnicow was also photographed trespassing on Theroux’s property. Things got even pettier still when he decided to rip up the ivy on their shared patio for no other reason than because “he knew that Mr Theroux enjoyed the aesthetic provided by the ivy.”
Meanwhile, Theroux’s Greenwich Village co-op also filed a lawsuit to kick Mr Resnicow and his wife Barbara out of their apartment alleging “verbal abuse, threats and offensive language” towards other residents/employees. Resnicow argued that the board failed to follow the proper protocol to kick him out, saying that it was trying to make his life “as miserable as possible” and accusing them of turning against him only after Theroux became a member in 2018.
The lawsuit came after Resnicow brought his own case against the board. Both sides have asked for a summary judgment, which means they’re waiting on a decision from a judge – one that could come any day now, as per Curbed. If the judge rules against Resnicow, the co-op board would assign a lawyer to handle the sale in a “Pullman proceeding” which would ultimately take the sale of his home out of his hands. Reniscow has accused the board of trying to sell at “a distressed price.”
Which is probably why he has decided to sell the property himself now, though his lawyer, Peter M. Levine, told Curbed that he couldn’t speak as to why Resnicow was leaving. “There are many reasons people buy and sell real estate”, he commented, citing the couple’s age, the duplex’s layout and the fact that their children do not live in the city as potentially motivating factors.
According to Levine, there has already been interest in the apartment and no, he doesn’t think the conflict will be a deterrant. In his words, “It’s not like it’s haunted.”
Fair enough.
Feature image via @justintheroux.