A New York City homeowner was recently arrested after she tried to remove a group of squatters from a $1 million property she said she inherited from her parents.
Adele Andaloro, 47, was arrested after she changed the locks on the $1 million home in Flushing, Queens, as first reported by ABC's Eyewitness News.
The ordeal started after Andaloro decided to put the house up for sale. During the selling process, she noticed someone had changed the front door and the lock of her home. Speaking to the outlet, Andaloro said two squatters illegally moved into her home in February and refused to leave.
Fed up, she and the Eyewitness News team visited her family's home and called for a locksmith to change the locks for her. The squatters, however, called the police on Andaloro.
During the encounter, Andaloro was armed with the deeds. The police also asked the squatters whether they had documentation showing they had been staying at the house for over a month. The squatters did not provide any documentation, leading the police to escort them out of the property.
Less than 10 minutes after the police left and Andaloro had the locks changed, a man, identified as Brian Rodriguez, barged through the front door and claimed he was on the lease.
Police were called a second time. During the second encounter, Rodriguez failed to produce the documents he claimed he signed with a realtor he would not name. Instead, he showed the officer the bills for the work he claimed he had done to the house.
The police later told Andaloro that Rodriguez could not be kicked out as it was a "landlord-tenant issue" and by law, it had to be handled through housing court. She was ultimately arrested for unlawful eviction after changing the locks. She is also being forced to start an eviction filing in court.
What Is New York City's Policy on Squatting?
The dispute is the latest involving squatters in New York City in recent weeks. In the Big Apple, a person can claim "squatter's rights" after 30 days of living at a property. A squatter can either be a former tenant who now refuses to pay rent, a relative of the property owner, or an outsider who got onto the property and refuses to leave.
To claim "squatter's rights," the squatter must prove they have a reasonable basis for believing that the property belongs to them. They must also be living in the home and treating it like how a homeowner would, for instance, maintaining the lawn or making home improvements, per the law firm Nadel & Ciarlo.
To remove the squatters, a homeowner would need to file for eviction in landlord-tenant court. On average, eviction cases in New York City take 20 months to resolve.
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