Do you remember the story of the elderly lady in her nineties from Fresh Meadows in Flushing, Queens, who encountered a troublesome tenant, leading to her developing cancer due to the stress of having to go to the tenant’s doorstep every day to demand rent? Well, here’s some good news: the elderly lady and her daughters have finally ousted the troublesome tenant, with the landlord incurring a loss of $60,000 in total from unpaid rent and moving expenses.
One of the elderly lady’s daughters, Joey, told the Epoch Times that they plan to repair the damages caused by the tenant and then immediately put the house up for sale. She has a message for Chinese small landlords who are still considering investing in real estate for rental purposes in New York: “Think twice before taking action!”
Joey revealed that they rented out an entire house to a family from Eastern Europe known as “gypsies” on April 1st last year, consisting of a couple with four children. Just one month after they moved in, they stopped paying rent.
“On one occasion when I went to demand the rent on behalf of my mother, they refused to pay, so I stood at their door and refused to let them close it until they agreed to pay.” Joey said. The tenants boldly and unashamedly claimed, “Why should we pay you rent? This is our house!” They even went as far as calling the police, who told Joey, “You can’t demand rent from them, you are being a ‘harasser’ by doing so! The police acknowledged that this was a legal issue.”
Since the tenant refused to pay rent, they also started damaging the property, with their children using knives to scratch and break all the glass, damage the toilet, paint cabinets, indoor stairs, floors, and balcony black with black paint. “They expressed their hatred towards us in this way,” Joey said.
According to Joey, their family’s experience is just the tip of the iceberg of the crisis faced by small landlords in New York. One Chinese neighbor of theirs has repeatedly dealt with troublesome tenants, with one tenant even returning multiple times after being evicted by the authorities, and the neighbor has reportedly lost over two hundred thousand dollars in rent.
“It’s been a terrifying experience!” Joey said, “My mother developed cancer because of this situation, and our whole family has been enveloped in a strange and abnormal atmosphere.”
Starting from last October, the gypsy tenants repeatedly told Joey’s family that they had no money to move, but if the landlord could give them four months’ worth of rent back, they would leave. Everyone advised Joey not to give any money to the troublesome tenants privately, as numerous examples showed that such tenants would take the money and still refuse to leave.
Joey and her family decided to take the tenant to court, with a court date initially set for August 20th this year. However, during this time, there were disagreements within the family, as her sister advocated for agreeing to the tenants’ demands to expedite their departure, while Joey insisted on following the legal process.
“We, as older people and women, need support and protection from the courts and government agencies; on the other hand, we also have a responsibility to society to ensure that these people are registered with the courts and government agencies, so they cannot harm the community again,” Joey expressed. “Additionally, the tenants kept saying ‘pay us and we’ll leave,’ but I don’t trust them. I insist on going through the legal process and obtaining an eviction order.”
The tenants threatened, “If you take us to court, we will drag it out, and the judge will allow us to stay for another year.”
Just last week, Joey’s determined sister once again entered the tenant’s residence, waiting at the staircase for them to return home; when the tenant arrived but refused to come out of their car, Joey’s younger sister Michelle went to the front of the car and asked the tenant to come out.
This time, the tenant acted pitifully, saying, “We really have no money to move.” Upon hearing this, the sister took out $12,000 in cash from her pocket and said to the tenant, “Move out now, and we’ll call a car to help you move.”
Faced with such a significant amount of cash, the tenant finally relented and agreed to move. So, the three sisters themselves helped move the tenant’s belongings into the moving truck, ending this year-and-a-half-long nightmare.
“Even though the tenant has left, seeing the house in such a ruined state, my mother is not particularly happy,” Joey said. “However, as soon as they left, the negative atmosphere in our house disappeared all at once, at least we no longer have to live in fear.”
Joey cautioned Chinese small landlords that times have changed, with many undocumented immigrants now in New York, coupled with a potentially worsening economy in the future, leading to more people being unable to pay rent.
“So being a landlord now is really not a good idea,” she concluded, “We are going to sell the house immediately.”