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Judge moves to evict LI man who didn’t pay mortgage in 23 years

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By Hellen Zaboulani

A judge has ruled to evict an East Meadow resident, who has not made his mortgage payments for 23 years. The Sept. 14 decision was made in Nassau County Housing Court by Judge William Hohauser, noting that the Long Island man does qualify for pandemic housing protection because he has been residing in the home illegally for years.

As reported by the NY Post, Guramrit Hanspal had purchased the three-bedroom, 2.5-bath home in 1998 for $290,000, but only ever made one mortgage payment. The house was foreclosed in 2000, but the 52-year-old man stayed in the home, filing numerous lawsuits and bankruptcies in an ongoing bid to push off the eviction.

The home is owned by Diamond Ridge Partners, a company which has been trying to oust Hanspal long before the pandemic eviction moratoriums were even set.

“As this matter continued winding its serpentine meandering way through the state and federal court systems,” the judge said, noting that Hanspal and another resident, Bhagwant Srichawla, decided to use the pandemic and the historic backlog in the housing courts to their advantage. Srichawla died in a July car crash. In April, the two men had also filed COVID-19 Hardship declarations. The judge said the form should not apply to Hanspal and Srichawla, because they are not even legal tenants.

“The protections of the COVID declaration would inhere to tenants, but not to those who have no financial obligation,” Hohauser ruled, including those who stay in a home illegally despite foreclosure who “could be considered occupants at ‘sufferance’ if not outright squatters.” Hanspal’s history, “which reflects no payments of any kind for decades, augurs strongly against any protection,” Hohauser announced.

The judge noted that “Diamond Ridge and its predecessors have been waiting for more than two decades” for their turn in housing court. Lawyers for Hanspal and Srichawla had trying to argue in court that Ridgewood should not have their case expedited ahead of other small landlords in housing courts. They did not return a request for comment made by the Post.

Diamond Ridge’s lawyer, Jordan Katz, said they were “very satisfied” with the court’s decision, and added that they “intend on immediately enforcing the court’s order and ending this illegal occupancy.”

 

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