The four-story mansion at 111 East 81st sits on a tree-lined block just off Park Avenue and a quick walk from the Met. The last time the limestone townhouse sold was in March 2022, for $13.2 million, to the founder of several DTC mattress brands, Craig Schmeizer. But, neighbors have said, the house has been quiet since Schmeizer’s death late last year. Apparently there weren’t even footprints at the door after a recent snowfall. But according to a lawsuit filed in Manhattan Supreme Court on Monday, there’s definitely someone still living there.

Schmeizer’s estranged wife, Sarah Shalev, says the house has been occupied by a woman who moved in with Schmeizer at some point after the couple separated. Shalev, who is the executor of Schmeizer’s will, claimed in court filings that Hilarie Page has refused her entrance to the home, where, in addition to preparing it for sale, Shalev says she’d like to get inside to retrieve family heirlooms and photos. She also wants, per the suit, to check in on the “large amount of valuable wine” in the cellar, which needs to be inventoried, and on artwork that requires “proper care.”

According to an affidavit, not long after Schmeizer died in November 2025, Shalev called Page. Their conversation apparently didn’t go well. (“She was extremely hostile, told me she was not going to leave the house because Craig was dead and it was clear that I would not be allowed into the Building,” Shalev said in the affidavit.) Letters from Shalev’s lawyers asking Page to hand over the keys to the house and let their client in, meanwhile, received no response. (Shalev and her attorney didn’t respond to requests for comment; Page couldn’t be reached for comment.)

So Shalev showed up to the building in person with an attorney on February 5, according to the lawsuit and police records. “We rang the doorbell many times. [sic] pounded on the door and even threw snowballs at windows to get the attention of anybody who might be inside,” Shalev said in her affidavit. No one answered, so she called a locksmith to get inside. It turns out Page was indeed there and ran to the door to deny them entry. Page and Shalev’s attorney both called the police, who, per the affidavit, called Page a “squatter” but nevertheless told Shalev and her lawyer that they needed to leave.

Estate disputes aren’t all that surprising in a city where some of the world’s richest people live, split up and, well, die. Still, the specifics of the case involving No. 111 stumped several brokers who regularly deal with the ultrawealthy. “This is a pretty 0.1-percent-type thing,” Serhant’s Peter Zaitzeff says. “How often do you have a couple not divorce, but have someone die, and then a person is living there, squatting?”

Shalev seems to be a realist about her predicament. Despite giving Page a notice to vacate by February 20, the complaint suggested Page likely will not leave by then, and an eviction proceeding to get back possession of the townhouse almost certainly will drag on for a while. For ongoing use of the home since Schmeizer’s death, Shalev thinks Page owes her some rent — at the market rate of $49,000 a month.

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