The home at 1190 Bay Drive in Miami Beach is owned by Jean-Christophe Babin and his wife, Marzia Porta.

Jean-Christophe Babin, the chief executive officer of Italian luxury brand Bulgari, is accused of neglecting his Miami Beach home by leaving tenants to deal with issues such as pipe leaks that caused thousands of dollars in excess water bills, according to a lawsuit and mold report.

Babin and his wife, Marzia Porta, own a four-bedroom home at 1190 Bay Drive, according to Miami-Dade County property records.

The couple, Miami Beach-based Doric Property Management Inc. and CEO Denis Doric are being sued over building problems that current tenant Mayur Shetty and previous tenant Roderick Faith said they paid to fix, according to the Miami-Dade Circuit Court complaint.

“The landlord is very difficult to reach, and we haven't gotten any responses out of them,” said attorney Eric Scott Brumfield of The Law Office of Eric Scott Brumfield in Miami, who filed the lawsuit last December on behalf of the tenants. “They are negligent, and they failed to upkeep the property, and they have breached their duty to the tenant on multiple occasions.”

Babin declined to comment on the lawsuit in an email.

“I'm surprised you heard about that story, which under European or Swiss law would have been strictly regulated,” he added in the email.

David Pollack of The Law Office of David H. Pollack in Coral Gables is representing Doric and his property management company.

“My clients vigorously deny Mr. Shetty's allegations and look forward to presenting the full story of what occurred. There was absolutely nothing that Mr. Doric or Doric Property Management did that was negligent,” Pollack said. “Nothing was misrepresented to Mr. Shetty. Mr. Shetty rented a home that he never saw on a two-year lease before arriving at the house.”

The lawsuit lists breach of quiet enjoyment, failure to provide a safe and habitable living environment, constructive eviction, fraudulent misrepresentation and unjust enrichment counts.

This, however, is a two-way legal battle. Babin and Porta turned around and sued Shetty about a month after he filed suit. They say he didn't pay the second rent installment in full and seek eviction, the rent owed and the rest of the rent for the lease expiring in February 2019, according to the Jan. 29 complaint. Their lawsuit lists an eviction and a breach of contract claim.

Shetty moved into the home March 2017 from California with his three Dobermans under a two-year, $196,800 lease to be paid in four installments, according to the lease.

Shetty, who still lives in the 53-year-old home, owns a real estate lending company, Los Angeles-based Curobanc. He moved to South Florida for business, according to Brumfield.

One of the issues was excessive water bills that Shetty received, and his water was turned off a month after he moved in. The city of Miami Beach cited $3,100 owed and $1,643 past due, according to the lawsuit. While Shetty paid the past-due amount, the defendants paid the rest, according to the lawsuit.

Then on the same day last July when Shetty paid $2,005 for water, the city called to say another $1,087 was owed, according to the complaint.

There had been an underground leak since before Shetty moved in and also affected prior tenant Faith, according to the lawsuit. He moved into the house in October 2013, and the water bills started rising to as high as $1,700 a month in 2015. He claimed he paid the bill but wasn't reimbursed, according to the complaint.

Shetty also claimed he dealt with a water leak through the walls in the garage and two air conditioning repairs totaling $720. He claimed Doric took two months to fix the roof after Hurricane Irma.

Shetty also claimed he was forced to stay in a hotel for three days after the lease began because the house wasn't ready. His real estate agent visited the property before moving day and found it in “complete disarray,” realtor Roberto Cuneo wrote in an Aug. 3, 2017, letter to Babin and Porta.

Shetty hired Miami Mold Specialists, which in an April 18 report found evidence of mold in the dining room, living room, kitchen and bedrooms.

Emails between Shetty and Porta and between her and Doric seem to show different understandings of who was responsible for maintenance.

Shetty and Porta appeared to have an amicable relationship before the lawsuits with Porta in several emails apologizing to Shetty for the problems and asking how she can repay him, according to emails included in Shetty's complaint.

In another email, Shetty said Porta was being taken advantage of because she doesn't live in Florida. Living far away, Porta said, “It's difficult to have someone really trustful.”

Doric said by email to Porta that it's the owner's responsibility to maintain the home, not his.

“I have been going above what I was hired for and have been handling things I should not have because I am not responsible for them. If my generosity has confused you, you can revert back to our property management agreement,” Doric wrote. Shetty “continues to arrogantly and misleadingly bash on my competence without having any single slightest idea of what my responsibilities even are.”

In total, Shetty is seeking $96,185 for repairs, rent and his hotel stay, and Faith is seeking $11,000 for repairs and damages, according to the lawsuit.

Pollack, Doric's attorney, has filed a motion to dismiss. Babin and Porta haven't been served with the complaint as attorney Nick Felzer of the Law Offices of Nicholas Felzen in Coral Gables refused to accept it.