Queens Landlord Upset With Court System After Tenant Gets Away Without Paying Rent
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) - A landlord in the Ozone Park section of Queens says that the court system is completely unfair to landlords, and he cites one specific example to prove his case.
Since July, Rene Mediavillo has been trying to evict the woman who is currently occupying his two bedroom walk-up on Liberty Avenue.
Mediavillo is so fed up, in fact, that he has a new name for the "squatter" that lives in his building: "The professional tenant from hell."
1010 WINS' John Montone reports
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According to Mediavillo, four trips to housing court has resulted in four adjournments, and the woman still hasn't moved.
"She's still living there, she doesn't pay rent and she doesn't offer to pay rent at all," Mediavillo said.
The dire situation began when the landlord's prior tenant moved out in June, and this woman just showed up.
"I said, 'You don't have a lease, you don't have a right to be here and I'm going to call the police,'" Mediavillo said. "And she laughed at me. She said, 'Go ahead.'"
A spokesman for the civil court responded to the landlord's claims that the system is unfair, saying, "Before a judge throws someone out into the street there has to be sufficient proof, and there can be a protracted period of fact-finding."
A judge has finally ordered the woman to move by March 31 after eight months of living rent free.
When it's all said and done, Mediavillo believes that his troubled tenant will end up costing him $8,000, plus attorney's fees.
How would you handle a tenant that doesn't pay rent? Sound off with your comments below...
