An incredible video captured by WABC’s Eyewitness News shows an incredible situation out of Queens, New York City, where a woman who inherited a million-dollar home attempted to evict squatters and, instead of the law helping her, she got arrested. The situation is a shockingly common one in New York, where property law makes it incredibly difficult to evict squatters.
As background, the law in New York is very pro-squatter. It classifies the squatter or squatters as tenants, even if the owner doesn’t want them in the space and never agreed to rent the space to them as a tenant, if they manage to stay in it for more than 30 days. Further, once the tenant is ensconced in the property, the property owner cannot turn off the utilities or otherwise try to force them out.
In this situation, WABC reports it was a woman named Adele Andaloro who had to deal with the squatters and police protecting them. She inherited a home in Flushing, Queens, when her parents passed away, a home worth about a million dollars. She attempted to sell it, but then found that someone had changed the front door and lock on it, locking her out of her own home. Squatters had done so; they moved into the house in February and refused to leave.
It got worse. When she entered the house after managing to get through the locked door, she found two individuals inside the house. One, WABC reports, admitted to having moved in two days before. The other refused to answer questions. The squatters then called the police on her. When the police arrived, WABC reports, they started interviewing those involved and the neighbors.
Eventually, the police found out that the men could not provide documentation showing that they had been living there for more than 30 days. At that point, the police escorted the two squatters off the property. They warned Andaloro about changing the locks, as doing so, or turning off the utilities or removing their belongings, would run afoul of New York law if either man claimed to be illegally evicted.
She did so anyway and, when the man claiming to lease the house arrived minutes later with a squatter who had been kicked out just minutes before, and the two pushed through the door and called the police. Police showed up a second time and told Andaloro “he can’t be kicked out, you have to go to court.”
Then, in a gut-churningly unjust turn of events, the police arrested Andaloro because she changed the locks, which, as mentioned earlier, is considered a violation of housing law, unlawful eviction. So Andaloro not only now has to go to housing court to get the squatters removed, but was arrested for trying to keep invaders out of her house.
Andaloro, commenting on the situation, told WABC, “It’s not fair that I, as the homeowner, have to be going through this.” She continued, explaining how the situation has shaken her faith in the security of her property rights, “I’m really fearful that these people are going to get away with stealing my home.” She added, “By the time someone does their investigation, their work, and their job, it will be over 30 days and this man will still be in my home.”
Watch the video of the incident captured by Eyewitness News:
Featured image credit: screengrab from the embedded video
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