Rich Icelandic couple sued by former tenants for installing 'ugly' Ikea kitchen

[scandal 951]

http://www.nydailynews.com/ny_local/2010/0...fancy_bldg.html

Rich Icelandic couple sued by former tenants for installing 'ugly' Ikea kitchen

BY Randy Kreider and Jose Martinez

DAILY NEWS WRITERS

Thursday, February 25th 2010, 4:00 AM

Ikea is good enough for most New Yorkers - but it doesn't pass muster in snooty Gramercy Park.

A rich Icelandic couple are being sued by their former tenants for installing an "ugly" kitchen from the Swedish superstore in their $10 million pad.

Viking retail mogul Jon Asegir Johannesson and his designer bride, Ingibjorg Palmadottir, rented the 16th floor of 50 Gramercy Park North to an outfit called Paramount Realty Group.

But they committed what's apparently a terrible crime in the exclusive Manhattan neighborhood - renovating on the cheap.

"Defendants willfully installed what [Johannesson] defined as an 'ugly' kitchen," Paramount charged in a suit filed Wednesday.

Paramount paid $312,000 in rent to Johannesson and Palmadottir - Iceland's most glamorous pair - and didn't expect furniture for the masses.

"The kitchen installed is manufactured by Ikea, which is generally known to offer low-budget furniture," Paramount griped in the suit.

"It did not rise to the level of a kitchen suitable for a property located at 50 Gramercy Park North."

A Web site for the Ian Schrager building, connected to the Gramercy Park Hotel, boasts that each unit has custom baths and kitchens. Visitors could tell that wasn't true on the 16th floor.

"The kitchen has also been a source of embarrassment for Plaintiff and the subject of remarks by guests," the suit charged.

At Ikea in Red Hook, Brooklyn, yesterday, shoppers couldn't believe the thrust of the suit. "Are they serious?" wondered musician Paskinel Thomas, 28.

The low-rent kitchen wasn't the only problem detailed in the suit, which seeks $52,000 in damages.

The owners allegedly left lousy air conditioning, a cracked window, missing appliances and shower parts. And guests had to endure the indignity of chewed-up chicken wings being flung from above onto the 2,000-square-foot terrace, the suit said.

Johannesson and Palmadottir reportedly paid more than $10 million for the 16th floor in 2007, and bought the duplex penthouse above months later.

They had no comment on the suit. A lawyer for Paramount Realty also declined to comment and would not reveal the identity of the Ikea-hating tenants.

[luckytxn 2,265]

Wonder if they even saw the place before renting it.

[Nagishkaw 510]

[Leafgal 3]

Just when you think you have heard it all

[scandal 951]

That'll teach 'em to buy made-in-Sweden kitchens. If it had been made in Australia, none of this would have happened.

[Mr. Big Dog 10,747]

IKEA furniture is somewhat odd but suing over it because that's what the landlord installed in a rental property? That's just ridiculous. Was a gun held to the tenants head making them rent this particular property? If not, the case is closed as far as I am concerned. Good to know, though that ridiculous law suits are filed outside of the US from time to time. I always thought it was a unique American thing.

[scandal 951]

IKEA furniture is somewhat odd but suing over it because that's what the landlord installed in a rental property? That's just ridiculous. Was a gun held to the tenants head making them rent this particular property? If not, the case is closed as far as I am concerned. Good to know, though that ridiculous law suits are filed outside of the US from time to time. I always thought it was a unique American thing.

New York is outside the US? When did it secede?

[jundp 191]

My cat got his hair all over my Ikea Poang chair.

Should I sue him?

[Mr. Big Dog 10,747]

New York is outside the US? When did it secede?

Should to read the whole story, eh? Thanks for straightening this out. My belief system is fully restored now. Whew.

[Leafgal 3]

Very entertaining - IKEA rules

Maybe they should sue me lol

[Mr. Big Dog 10,747]

My cat got his hair all over my Ikea Poang chair.

Should I sue him?

Absolutely. For everything he's got. This is America. Your cat better get with the program.

[jundp 191]

Absolutely. For everything he's got. This is America. Your cat better get with the program.

Little ####### also vomited on the carpet.

Oh, he's going down.

[Mr. Big Dog 10,747]

Little ####### also vomited on the carpet.

Oh, he's going down.

I'm afraid he is - even if his ingested food appears to take the opposite direction.

[visacat 1]

Absolutely. For everything he's got. This is America. Your cat better get with the program.

[Leafgal 3]

Let's hope all the cat's don't get with the program lol