Denis Kurlyand and Juliya Fulman, Jamaica, Queens landlord couple sued by squatters for locking them out. Have squatter rights gone too far and will a husband and wife be vindicated in housing court?
Could it be more diabolical? A NYC couple are being sued by squatters that they claim broke into their Jamaica, Queens investment property only to be served legal papers by the very same squatters who claimed being illegally thrown out by the landlord couple.
The matter which is now to be decided in an emergency housing court case in early April has once again ignited the debate of how much leverage squatters have to stay in a dwelling, even if it can be shown that they are not paying rent or gained access to the property illegitimately.
NEW: New York homeowners are getting sued by squatters who claim they were unfairly evicted from a house where they weren’t paying rent.
Shortly before turning the property over to paying tenants, the owners discovered that squatters had taken over their home.
After kicking… pic.twitter.com/aMyiuD991g
— Collin Rugg (@CollinRugg) March 31, 2024
Trespassers or squatters? What’s the difference?
Matters came to the fore earlier this month when Denis Kurlyand and wife, Juliya Fulman were preparing to rent out their Jamaica, Queens property investment they had purchased years ago to new would be tenants when their real estate broker shared some bad news.
On March 5, Ejona Bardhi, a broker the couple were working with visited the property for a site check only to find the locks had been changed.
To the horror of the couple landlord, the broker found Lance Hunt Jr. and Rondie L. Francis, having set up mattresses, a flat screen TV and a massage table inside the property. The father and son duo claimed to have legally leased the property months earlier and refused to leave according to the Daily Mail.
Making it difficult for landlords to simply call police and have ‘trespassers’ removed, NYC law states that within the city’s five boroughs, squatters need prove that they have occupied a property for 30 days before a wide range of legal protections kick in, forcing landlords, to settle their grievances in housing court, leaving police powerless.
According to Denis and Juliya, the couple spent $530,000 renovating the Lakeside Avenue investment property and had already secured tenants for both rental units only to discover that the locks on the property had been changed and new ‘illegal’ tenants living at the property.
After determining the lock change was not authorized, Bardhi returned to the home and saw through the window a silhouette of a man wearing a hooded sweatshirt and holding a drill, according to the dailymail.
Surprise lawsuit arrives
Upon cops arriving at the residence, the father and son, despite claiming they had lived at the property since January 1 got up and left when they were unable to provide proof of ongoing residence.
The landlord couple were then advised that they would be arrested if they attempted to change locks – as was one Queens landlord recently upon confronting alleged squatters and physically changing locks.
But it didn’t end there.
As per the nypost: ‘Hunt Sr. and Francis returned to the property a day later, brandishing what they claimed was a lease agreement signed by Bardhi. But Juliya and Kurlyand were prepared, presenting officers with ownership documents and timestamped videos showing the house had been vacant.
Police then escorted the men from the property, and the owners changed the locks. Upon entering, the couple found their freshly renovated home marred by the trespassers’ utter disregard for their ill-gotten digs, including scuffed up wood floors, scratches on walls and the smell of marijuana permeating the residence.’
Emergency lockout hearing
But instead of the matter having being resolved, the landlord couple were 10 days later served with court documents notifying them that the squatter father and son were suing them, their broker along with the real-estate company handling the site, Top Nest Properties.
The squatters were granted an emergency lockout hearing March 22 in Queens Civil Court, during which the couple’s lawyer, Rizpah Morrow, asked judge Vijay Kitson for a trial, arguing the father and son had ‘perpetrated a fraud.’
Kurlyand said Hunt Sr. and Francis showed up to court with ‘forged documents’ cobbled together from public records documents and photoshopped.
‘They found whatever they could and threw it all together. The lease they presented is ridiculous — signed on Jan. 1 and starting Jan. 1,’ the husband told the nypost.
Juliya added, ‘I don’t know how they had the audacity to show up in court.’
The squatters’ lawyer, Dennis Harris, told the dailymail that his clients had shown him ‘enough for me to believe they were living there,’ which included a rental application, a lease and text messages.
What’s at stake?
The next scheduled court date is April 5. When the couple asked Judge Kitson if in the meantime they could proceed with letting their tenants move in, he said doing so before the matter is adjourned could complicate things further.
‘The court system is not favorable to landlords,’ Kurlyand told the nypost. ‘It could take years to evict someone who illegally broke into your house? Where’s the law in that? Why work hard to pay rent or mortgages when you can break into somebody’s house every couple of years and have luxury living?’
Despite making some progress toward resolving the matter, Kurlyand said it is still ‘scary’ to have the ultimate decision out of his hands – as opposed to vigilante justice?
‘As in any courtroom, you never know which way it’s gonna go. It’s scary — if the judge decides for whatever reason to rule against us that day, even if we have evidence, there’s nothing we can do at the end of the day — we still have to fight in court,’ the husband attempted to explain.
“Somebody broke into my house, and I’m in court getting sued by them. How can we be here? How is this possible? There have to be safety precautions in place,” he said.
Which is to wonder, how can we have confidence in the law, due diligence and procedure and good faith that not only can a trespasser force their way into a residence that a bully landlord simply doesn’t throw a tenant out either without necessary due process barring any new technological breakthroughs or record keeping and a reconsidering of a runaway real estate market that has spiralled out of reach for most Americans and leaving many landlords who managed to accumulate assets laughing all the way to the bank. Well almost…
