NYC Squatters Are Cashing In On Legal Loopholes and Crowded Courts To Take Over Homes — and Good Luck Getting Them Out: Experts; NYC Squatters Jump as Much as 20% in Two Years — Thanks, Democrats!
NYC squatters are cashing in on legal loopholes and crowded courts to take over homes — and good luck getting them out: experts:
The Big Apple is seeing a troublesome trend of unwelcome squatters illegally bedding down in private homes and apartments in the five boroughs — and it’s gotten much harder to kick them out.
A backlog of housing court cases and changes in the law in recent years have made it a bigger and longer-lasting headache for landlords to boot unwelcome tenants, legal experts tell The Post.
“This is happening far more now than in the past,” real estate attorney Josh Price said. “Squatters have become far more sophisticated than before. They set up elaborate schemes, fake documents and investigate the homes before breaking in.”
Two changes in city law in 2019 now dictate that landlords can’t just boot a squatter without a “special proceeding,” and have to file a lawsuit to get them out.
Manhattan real estate lawyer Alan Goldberg said he’s seen a 10-to-20% bump in squatter cases over the past two years, attributing it to the migrant crisis, post-pandemic homelessness — and media coverage.
“The irony is the more publicity it gets the more people think about it,” Goldberg said.
“I think it’s got media attention and also the migrant crisis, more people homeless,” he said. “The media, by telling people about squatters, is kind of encouraging it.”
Goldberg said the term squatter is often misused — squatters are intruders who illegally break into a property and stay, while licensees move in “under color of law” and remain.
That can include relatives of deceased property owners or legal tenants who overstayed their welcome. —>READ MORE HERE
NYC squatters jump as much as 20% in two years — thanks, Democrats!
Expert analysis puts squatting in New York City at as much as 20% higher over the past two years, and the bungled approach to COVID is clearly part of the problem.
The high-profile nightmares run the gamut, from the crew of illegal immigrant criminals who took up residence in a Bronx squat to the Queens scammer trying to steal a $2 million house out from under an elderly couple with a disabled son.
And the legal absurdities the actual owners face are ugly.
A different Queens homeowner, Adele Andaloro, got arrested for having the temerity to try to get a squatting thug out of her house — which the squatters were reportedly subletting.
Yet another duo sued the legal owners of the house they’d sought to steal and tried to use a Shake Shack receipt as proof of tenancy. —>READ MORE HERE
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