World's Worst Landlord? (PROJECTILE VOMITING ALERT)

Sky News UK ^ | August 28, 2002 | Sky News UK

[MadIvan]

A heartless New York landlord is suing relatives of a September 11 victim, claiming she is owed £18,000 in unpaid rent.

Denise Lyman said tenant Danielle Kousoulis, killed when hijacked planes crashed into the World Trade Centre, should have given three months notice before leaving her flat.

Ms Kousoulis, 29, signed a £1,700-a-month lease for the city apartment 10 days before dying in the disaster.

She worked on the 104th floor of the World Trade Centre's north tower as a vice president for trading firm Cantor Fitzgerald.

Greedy

Her family have been told by the the landlord she is an unpaid creditor and will be taken to court, America's CBS News reported under the headline "The world's worst Landlord?".

"We're going through enough without having to go through this as well," Danielle's mother, Zoe, said.

"I can't see how greedy people can be."

Barred from flat

Under New York law, a tenancy agreement does not automatically end when a tenant dies.

The New York Daily News reported that one of the complaints against the dead woman was that she failed to give three months notice that she was leaving.

The family also claim Lyman refused to let them into the apartment to get a hairbrush for a DNA sample to identify any remains. The family finally obtained the sample with the assistance of the police.

Shocking

Attorney Jack Lester, who specialises in real estate law, told CBS News: "I think it's outrageous from a legal standpoint, and it's even worse from a moral and humane standpoint.

"It's shocking that she would have no regard for the survivors of the people that perished in the worst attack on American soil."

[weegee]

I guess that things are complicated by NYC's rent control which alters the lease agreement (compared with other cities).

What happens when someone dies of a shooting, car accident, drug overdose, illness, etc. in NYC?

Is their estate bound to payoff the rental contract?

I thought that the payoff to survivors of the 9/11 attacks was supposed to go to covering expenses from the sudden loss of job/breadwinner.

Are landlords in NYC forbidden from terminating the lease agreement upon death (contract signer is no longer involved in the lease)?

[steve-b]

The family also claim Lyman refused to let them into the apartment to get a hairbrush for a DNA sample to identify any remains. The family finally obtained the sample with the assistance of the police.

Why do I have a hunch that this process involved hints about the next housing-code inspection being done by somebody known around the office as "Old Anal-Retentive"?

[weegee]

That was what I was thinking. Who else was in the running?

[PsyOp]

"...she could've just torn up the contract and re-rented the place. That is, if she had a conscience."

No conscience. She figured since the survivors were going to be getting big money from the charities she'd slice off a piece for herself.

[CdMGuy]

You don't know what you are talking about. In any state, a landlord cannot collect twice for the same rental unit. If I have a one year lease and move out after one month, if the landlord finds a new tenant to move in at the start of month 3, all the landlord suffered as a loss was two months rent plus the cost to find a new tenant, assuming the new tenant paid the same rent. The courts will not let the landlord collect rent from the new tenant and collect a windfall full 12 months rent from the old tenant.

[weikel]

I thought in America you couldn't inherit debt.

[MadIvan]

I thought the title was talking about ALGORE

Oh I'm sure he's in the top 10. ;)

Regards, Ivan