Originally published at: NY condo developer files $25 million lawsuit against apartment dweller who won't move out | Boing Boing
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He rejected the developer’s offer of $30,000 and ignored an eviction order. Now the developer is suing him for $25 million. But thanks to a non-eviction rule the City of New York put in place during the pandemic, Ozsu might be able to stay in the apartment for years.
What will the suit cost the developer in legal fees, not to mention what he’d lose in lease or purchase fee for the one apartment in the meantime (years)? Just offer the tenant $100,000 and see what happens; increase if need be.
BTW: Apartment developers are fucking assholes. They fail to realize that it’s not just about an apartment. It’s also about the conveniences afforded by the long lived-in neighborhood, and proximity to job and friends.
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In the meantime, the developer installed a large, noisy air filter next to Ozsu’s door and mounted a security camera in the hallway.
Stay classy, NYC real estate industry.
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A fine opportunity for the tenant to put a chalkboard on his door where the camera can see it, listing the daily increase for how much this lawsuit will cost the landlord vs. just paying the tenant that money instead.
Also I’d imagine at this point the tenant is putting his rent money into an escrow account, which means the landlord won’t be receiving that either and possibly might never.
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My brother was living in a place in the East Village for years where they had built out separate “rooms” for everyone (some were just a sheet down the middle of the room) and they were all OK with it, most just slept there. Some were students, others the increasingly desperate service workers who can’t afford Manhattan but don’t want to spend an hour commuting. He was eventually forced to move out to Queens.
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I wonder how many real people who work nearby at real jobs that add value and diversity to the city are being displaced leaving behind an empty dwelling that exists for no other purpose than to be an asset on a hedge fund’s or oligarch’s balance sheet.
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Thousands, but that’s because it’s working as intended.
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Yep.
Louis Rossmann (of the right to repair movement) did a series of videos about the insanity that is commercial real estate in NYC. I’m pretty sure that the corporations (or whoever) actually owns the builds are using them as tax write offs or other shenanigans rather then actually renting them out and making the space useful.
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30k for a NY condo seems like a massive undervaluing of real estate. Hope this guy gets what he’s owed by the developer.
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AFAICT, he doesn’t own it. If I’m reading it correctly he’s a month-to-month renter whose building was sold to a developer who wants to turn the apartments into condos. Legally, they don’t owe him anything, except they can’t kick him out b/c of covid rules to prevent people from losing their homes.
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That, right there, is the heart of the problem. Profits ahead of human lives. We’re fucking ourselves into extinction just so a few people can line their pockets.
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The same people who complain about “the homeless problem.” 
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NYC is only getting close to the baroque fucked-up-ness that is the London property market.
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Wow, don’t read the comments. Have the definitions of “squatter” and “deadbeat” changed recently? Because I don’t think they apply to someone legally occupying an apartment they’ve tried to pay for, but have been refused by lawyers. Also, lots of fantasies about ways to get the guy out of the building, from getting the cops to do it (no dice, he’s not Black) to playing loud music, a la Noriega, all the way up to shutting off the power or flooding the basement and waiting for conditions to make the guy sick enough to leave. Like, what has happened to you that you would write that?
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Acute Republican Voter Syndrome…
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