Metro

Storm over UWS sunroom

An Upper West Side woman is refusing to remove a makeshift sunroom that her co-op board claims is causing leaks and threatening the landmarked building’s structure, a lawsuit says.

The board of The Oliver Cromwell at 12 W. 72nd St., having battled 22nd-floor resident Alison Hilary Bickford since 2005 over the addition she built on her west-facing terrace, will ask a judge to order its removal on Wednesday.

Engineers for the building claim Bickford’s installation of a commercial kitchen in the sunroom has allowed rain to seep in, driving her downstairs neighbor out with chunks of falling plaster and creeping mold.

“The board is simply seeking to protect the shareholders and prevent any further damage from occurring,” said The Cromwell’s attorney, Steven Sladkus.

Bickford, who summers on Cape Cod, challenged the board’s claim that her porous sunroom is causing problems for her neighbor.

Bickford filed a lawsuit in Manhattan Supreme Court last year to block the demolition. Her architect, Scott Hensen, agreed that “the concrete slab” below the addition “is not adequate to support the glass structure.” However, he attributed the leaks to “more widespread deficiencies in the . . . building itself,” according to a letter in the Manhattan Supreme Court suit.

She wants the board to pay to fix it, not demolish it.

But the board says it’s already spent $100,000 repairing damage from the leaky structure and points to provisions in the lease both preventing owners from building out terraces without prior approval and requiring them to pay for any related maintenance.

Bickford declined to comment.