OPINION: Small landlords bear the COVID costs that few consider
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Some small landlords taken advantage of by their tenants say they need the state to resume eviction cases in Housing Court. Eagle file photo by David Brand
By Vanie Mangall
As a front line worker in the ER during the height of the pandemic, I have been surrounded by relentless suffering and death I never thought possible in our country in the year 2020.
It has been traumatizing for everyone involved. I have been pushed beyond my limits physically, mentally, and emotionally.
At the height of the pandemic, I left work every day struggling. I wanted to go home to recuperate for my next shift because as health care workers, we have to keep pushing for our patients, no matter what the personal cost to ourselves.
I sought refuge in a home that was a safe and peaceful place. Only my home had become a place that wasn't safe or peaceful at all. And I wasn't relieved to return there. I was terrorized and verbally abused on a regular basis upon returning from work.
My anxiety entering and exiting my own house was through the roof. Thoughts like, “is someone going to attack me today? Is today the day when I end up being a patient in the ER?” constantly raced in my head.
Who had been terrorizing me, you might wonder?
What I didn't mention before is that in addition to being a front line ER worker, I began assisting my mother in the management of her rental property last year.
This rental property is also the house where I currently reside. My elderly mother, a retired nurse, was being bullied and cursed at by the woman living in the basement of the rental.
In an effort to spare my mother from the abuse, I took over all communication with the basement tenant and eventually asked her to move out in August 2019. She refused, so I started the eviction process in November 2019.
Since that time, in addition to continuing to attack my mother, she has begun to attack me. She has: keyed my car, referred to my boyfriend as "white trash" and a "f-----,” thrown my packages from the porch to places out of reach, and repeatedly kicked down a little white fence in the front yard.
At one point, my boyfriend and I couldn't walk past her in our own yard without being belittled. If she noticed we were in the backyard, she would open and slam shut the screen door to create a racket. For fear that she was going to break the door, we removed it.
She, subsequently, purchased an entire new door and installed it — on our home, without our permission. Two months after keying my car, she was finally arrested for it. With the help of the Queens DA's office, a judge granted me an order of protection against her.
I thought this would be a turning point and we could finally get her out of the house. But, somehow, this was still not enough to remove her and she continues to live under my roof.
Her retaliation to the arrest has been to run the water twenty four hours a day; up to four to five times the usual usage. The Department of "Environmental Protection" response stated that they don't get involved in tenant-landlord issues and I am still responsible for 100 percent of the bill. I find it criminal that she has benefited from this pandemic while so many others are struggling. She has been living in our home for free since November 2019, maliciously running up our bills and terrorizing us, with no end in sight.
The other tenants on the first floor of the home had a 6-month lease that I hadn’t planned to renew after discovering that they had tried to break my surveillance camera and violated the terms of their lease countless times.
Their lease ended in March 2020. The eviction ban was put into place in March 2020, the same month they stopped paying rent. Since March, they have bought a new bedroom set, mattresses, end tables, lamps, a rug, a mini fridge, and vacuum.
They return home with Macy's and H&M bags after a day of shopping. They even installed a ring doorbell camera! They, too, have threatened us, cursed at us, stolen our mail, and continuously tried to intimidate us. We provide them with a safe, warm home and instead of paying us the rent that we deserve and they owe, they choose to splurge on non essential items.
COVID forced all of the housing courts to close in March 2020.
For some reason, even though most other businesses have essentially opened up, the housing court in Queens still remains shuttered.
I have learned that they are open for emergency cases, but emergencies don't exist for a small landlord. No one seems to care that my mother is burning through her retirement money in order to provide free housing to people who have harassed us on our own property.
Judge Lawrence Marks has said that we can move forward with pre-COVID cases in NYC that don't fall under the Safe Tenant Harbor Act. However, if they don't allow the housing courts to open, then this standstill remains. When will this nightmare for me and my family end?
There are many tenants who are sincerely trying to find employment and genuinely need help. I truly empathize with this population.
However, there are also many tenants who are shamelessly taking advantage of the eviction ban. They know that they have free reign to do whatever they choose, without consequences or an actual eviction.
What I’m left to wonder is: How is this the law? Why are we, the small landlords, being forced to provide free housing to people who are gaming the system?
And moreover, those who actively seek to hurt us? With a recent uptick in COVID cases at work, on top of dealing with this at home, I have never been more exhausted. I am sick and tired of being sick and tired. Where is the outrage for the small landlords? Why is the law so one sided?
With the state and federal eviction bans in place it seems as if lawmakers believe that all landlords are rich and deserve this abuse. I'm living proof that this is not the case. Small landlords are suffering tremendously in so many ways. These unacceptable laws need to change. Small landlords are regular citizens.
We are mothers, fathers, daughters, and sons. We are front line workers, mail carriers, teachers, fire fighters, and cops. We are the "heroes" lawmakers were so grateful for just a few months ago. The burden of a potential housing crisis should not fall on a landlord, especially a small landlord, who likely cannot weather this storm out.
Vanie Mangall lives in Ozone Park.
