A seemingly entitled poker participant is taking dwelling the excessive life slightly too actually.
Alleged pot-head Chau Shing Lam has been smoking cigarettes and weed in any respect hours of the day and evening, and burning up his Kips Bay neighbors’ endurance, in response to an explosive new Manhattan Supreme Courtroom lawsuit.
Property information present Lam paid $4.15 million in August 2022 for a condominium unit within the luxurious Kips Bay constructing — which has all the time had a transparent non-smoking coverage.
Hoping to lastly nip his “near-daily” weed behavior within the bud, the board on the luxurious 368 Third Ave. condominium — the place a penthouse is presently listed for $8.7 million — is suing the high-flying resident who let $87,000 in fines go straight up in smoke, court docket information obtained by The Publish present.
Lam is an avid poker participant who has competed in worldwide tournaments in Monte Carlo, Paris, Barcelona, incomes a whole bunch of hundreds of {dollars} in winnings.
He has allegedly been lighting up pot and tobacco in any respect hours and sending “noxious smoke” wafting by means of hallways and into neighboring properties.
The secondhand fumes are seeping into the bed room of a 12-year-old little one battling a extreme respiratory situation, the go well with claims.
The child in unit 31A, “has been identified with reactive airway dysfunction syndrome, a critical respiratory situation that’s immediately exacerbated by publicity to secondhand smoke,” court docket paperwork state. The kid’s father is a training doctor.
“Within the final month, goal air high quality monitoring has persistently documented PM2.5 (nice particulate matter 2.5 micrometers or smaller in diameter) within the neighboring unit at harmful ranges, together with ranges labeled by the [US Environmental Protection Agency] as “Unhealthy” for all individuals and intensely harmful for a kid with this situation,” per July 17 court docket information.
That’s the similar classification used throughout excessive wildfire occasions, just like the orange haze that blanketed the East Coast from Canadian wildfires, and respiration that air is the equal of smoking about seven to 10 cigarettes.
The go well with comes because the household with the sick little one “will probably be completely transferring into the adjoining unit the week of July 20, 2026,” public information present.
The lawsuit asks a decide to declare Lam, who didn’t reply to an emailed request for remark, in breach of constructing guidelines.
The neighbors above and under Lam, who additionally goes by the title Andrew Lam, allegedly reported smoke odor made its manner into their properties.
To make issues worse, Lam allegedly throws late-night ragers full with “loud banging, working round, and yelling.” And, there’s “loud, incessant canine barking” coming from his unit, per court docket paperwork.
Regardless of neighbor complaints, 16 board violation letters over a roughly two-year interval, “escalating fines,” suspension of amenity privileges, and workers trying to talk to Lam in regards to the points, the cussed smoker refused to vary his methods.
In complete, Lam’s behavior has run up an eye-watering $87,250 in penalties, which have been utilized to his month-to-month frequent expenses statements.
In 2024, the board levied varied fines in opposition to him for smoke and canine barking complaints, and stripped him of “non-essential companies.” He was additionally prohibited from utilizing the constructing’s facilities together with the laundry room, health club, frequent roof terrace, residents’ storage rooms, the media room and occasion room and bike storage room for lengthy durations.
Friends, supply staff, and repair folks have been strictly barred previous the concierge desk except Lam personally escorted them. Doormen have been forbidden from calling as much as announce arrivals or holding packages apart from commonplace US mail, whereas all routine unit repairs — apart from constructing emergencies — have been flat-out suspended.
By late 2025 and early 2026, the fines surged because the complaints saved rolling in.
Over the course of almost two years, he racked up extra facilities bans, and properly over $75,000 in fines and penalties.
Board attorneys referred to as Lam’s conduct “egregious and unacceptable,” and an “inexcusable and unrelenting sample of willful misconduct.”
“Hello, are you able to please cease making these non sense [sic], I’ve been smoking right here the previous two yr [sic] and the constructing is aware of and didn’t say something about it, and extra folks smoke within the buildings,” Lam wrote again to the board in an e-mail on June 16, per court docket paperwork.
“And after I discuss to my neighbor I attempted to cease and after our final dialog on the tenth I haven’t even smoke within the house, I’ve weed saved and carried, however that completely nice it my proper to try this. So please cease.”
Lam is understood to the constructing workers (and is within the constructing system) as Andrew Lam, concierge attendant Michael Bonilla informed The Publish. Lam was not residence when The Publish paid a go to Wednesday afternoon.
Bonilla informed The Publish he’s presently in Asia. Footage of Lam at a poker event earlier this month in South Korea noticed organizers confer with him as each Chau Shing Lam and Andrew.
Bonilla, who works on the constructing from 11 pm to 7 am, says he personally has had no gripes about Lam, and his entry to constructing companies and facilities have since been restored.
On Monday the court docket issued a brief restraining order pending the listening to of the movement, which suggests Lam is court-ordered to stop lighting up in his house, on the balcony or within the constructing’s frequent areas — not less than for now.
“The Board made repeated good-faith efforts to resolve this matter with out resorting to litigation, however after exhausting each accessible avenue, we have been left with no alternative however to carry this motion to enjoin the unit proprietor’s ongoing misconduct and defend the pursuits of the condominium group,” the board’s lawyer, Jake Bedor, a accomplice in Fox Rothschild, mentioned in an emailed assertion to The Publish.
Victor Kamara, senior property supervisor at FirstService Residential, didn’t reply to a request for remark.
Accomplished in 2021, Vu apartment has 100 items and rises 36 tales. Constructing facilities embody kitchen and pantry for entertaining, a residents’ lounge, a screening room, a health middle, a quiet studio and a rooftop terrace.
