Great blog.

Below is a tale of a renter who currently owes $164K in unpaid rent (28 months) on her luxury two bedroom in downtown Manhattan and it seems like there is nothing the landlord can do. Despite the renter receiving $6,000 per month the whole time in tax free child support meant for rent.

I’m aware that people involved the NYC rental market are amazed at the abuses suffered by landlords from the COVID eviction moratorium. Hearing about abuses is strangely fascinating, but also instructive. If you think your readers would benefit from occasional reporting on these abuses and how some tenants game the system, here is a particularly egregious example:

Rachel Lang has lived in a luxury doorman building at One Dutch Street in FiDi (also known as 45 John Street) and she has not paid her $5,850 rent for her two bedroom two bath spread since June of 2020. It is now 28 months and she owes $163,800. The building has a doorman, fitness center and rooftop lounge with river views of downtown Manhattan and Brooklyn. The landlord started eviction proceedings in April 2022 when the eviction moratorium ended. Lang then applied for the “ERAP” (emergency rent assistance program) which “stays” the eviction while the application is pending. Since April there have been three adjournments in the case, with the latest delaying proceedings until December 2022. Because Lang has not paid almost $164K in rent the landlord also applied for government money under for the landlord rental assistance program.

The incredible part is that I have been paying Lang $6,000 per month as tax free child support for two children the whole time. The money is tax free to Lang and I also pay all medical insurance and bills. Lang only has the children (aged 9 and 11) half the time (15 days a month) and they are in school full time most of those days. COVID shut Langs’s face massage business but it was allowed to reopen in March 2021 and many competitors reopened. Yet Lang did not reopen or seek work of any kind since March 2020. She previously was the spa director at the Gansevoort Hotel in the meatpacking district. According to Lang, when she was earning income the child support from me prior to COVID was 2/3 of her income. So even during the first year of COVID (March 2020 -21) Lang only lost 1/3 of income but she decided to abuse the eviction moratorium and pay 0% of her rent. Since March 2021 Lang has been free to reopen her business or work any other job (as jobs go begging) but she elects not to work.

Neither I nor the owner of 45 John know what Lang has done with the $164K in child support she received which was meant for rent. Since Lang stopped paying rent she has taken extended trips to Costa Rica, California, New Mexico, Montreal, Nashville, Atlanta and other places. She bought a pure breed dog from a breeder in North Carolina and paid the breeder to personally fly to NY with the dog to deliver it to Lang.

I calculate Lang’s tax free annual child support to be equivalent to about $110,000 in pre-tax salary. Yet Lang has applied for the ERAP program seeking the maximum payment which the landlord claims could be worth around $87,000. This would come at the taxpayers’ expense. And because Lang has not paid rent the landlord is seeking government rent relief, also at the taxpayers expense. To add insult to the taxpayers injury, the court appointed a free lawyer for Lang to help her continue to live rent free in her luxury building.

The joke is that even if the Landlord “wins” its motion (scheduled to be heard on December 1) regarding lifting the ERAP eviction stay, that only moves the case out of the stay and into eviction. Eviction could take another six months or longer. This case seems destined to hit the three year mark and cost the landlord over $200K before legal fees, making it an impressive grift.

The case and documents are public.

Case: 45 John NY LLC v. Rachel A. Lang, et. Al

Case No: LT-306016-22/NY

Landlord’s Rep: Vladislav Tsirkin 646-403-9700

Landlord’s Attorney: Noah Levenson at Butnick Levenson 212-362-1197

Attached are some of the documents filed in the case which are part of the public record.

My contact is:

Joseph Brosnan

Regards,

Joe Brosnan