Brooklyn Landlord vs Tenant – Whose Side Are You On?

Patterson also shot down Eccles’ claims of homelessness.

“She is not homeless. She still lives in the house,” Patterson said of Eccles. “She uses the back entrance, and her other family members use the front door – the same door that I use.”

Patterson, a single mother-of-three, moved into the $2,100-per-month two-bedroom apartment at Eccles’ two-story East 91st Street building in Canarsie on Aug. 1, 2019.

The tenant says the city’s Department of Social Services paid her rent for a year.

In mid-May of last year, Eccles sent Patterson a notice telling her that her lease would not be renewed when it would expire on July 31.

Ever since, Eccles has been trying and failing to evict Patterson, who has filled out a state “hardship declaration” form, claiming she’s been financially impacted by COVID-19 crisis and is unable to move.

Patterson has until at least May 1 before any New York housing court would consider a case against her, thanks to the state’s pandemic-inspired eviction moratorium and recently enacted housing regulations.

“If I offered to pay, how am I considered a deadbeat tenant?” Patterson asked. “It’s apparent [Eccles] just wants her property back. It’s not about the money.”

Patterson explained, “After the lease was up, she did not communicate with me at all. She would just say, ‘Speak to my lawyer.’”

“I think what she is doing is evil,” added Patterson, who says she worked as an officer with the city’s Administration for Children’s Services for a year before she resigned in March of 2020.

Patterson repaired a key that broke off in the door using her own money and says she never got reimbursed by the landlord.

Patterson claims she got another city job in law enforcement, but the hiring was put on “pause” due to the coronavirus pandemic.

“I’m receiving pandemic unemployment [benefits]. I would give [Eccles] whatever I can,” said Patterson. “I’m unable to move. How can I move with pandemic unemployment?”

Eccles says she thought she was close to a legal settlement with Patterson in December, and believing Patterson was about to vacate, she rented the home’s first floor to an elderly woman and moved out to temporarily live with friends.

Eccles has also claimed in court papers that Patterson bought a new car during the pandemic – a charge Patterson declares is also false.

“I did not buy a new car. It’s a 2017 Chevy Malibu. I bought in March 2020 — a week before the shut down, and I wasn’t even responsible for paying my rent at that time. My rent was paid up until July,” Patterson said.

Patterson described the entire situation as “more than a nightmare.”

“After [Eccles] got $28,000 [from DSS] for the whole year, she tried to bully me to move so that she could move her family in,” Patterson claimed. “She wanted that lump sum of money.”

Eccles refused to comment when reached by The Post Thursday. Her attorney did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

I can say one thing, OP, I'm not on the side of someone who posts links to the NY Post.

Tenant is a deadbeat just playing the system for everything she can get. She should be evicted at the first opportunity, and sued for back rent.

[quote] Patterson, who says she worked as an officer with the city’s Administration for Children’s Services for a year before she resigned. Patterson claims she got another city job in law enforcement, but the hiring was put on “pause”

New York City government worker. No wonder she is a deadbeat but expert in how to play the system.

The article says the Dept of Social Services pays this tenant’s rent. Why isn’t this money going towards the amount owed? Wouldn’t it be paid directly to the landlord by the city?

I wouldn’t feel comfortable living anywhere the landlord wanted me out. Between this woman and Kate Gladstone, the West Village Grifter, the sense of entitlement is strong.

This sad tale of woe and misery has been making rounds of NYC news media for awhile now. IMHO only reason why dead beat tenant is speaking up in rebuttal is because now that her name is out in media no LL will touch her with a barge pole.

On another unfortunate note this sort of situation is hardly unique. Since King Cuomo stopped commercial and residential evictions plenty of tenants are running game. They can't be evicted and know it so despite having adequate income to do so, don't.

R5

Deadbeat tenant Sharita Patterson, likely received some sort of voucher or other payment via NYC's vast welfare system that covered rent for one year. Landlord obviously decided after that initial year she wanted to do something else with that apartment, but cannot evict Patterson thanks to NYS moratorium on residential evictions.

New York State and City are great places for those who know how to work system.

On another note Canarsie, Brooklyn is now largely an area of mostly POC homeowners. Many are Afro-Caribbean descent or even recent immigrants who struggled to buy their homes. Good number need all adults in household working, and or rent out part of house in order to keep up with mortgage payments and other associated homeowner costs.

Lol, the wig on the landlord in the last picture. This should be a Lifetime movie.

Even though I think the tenant is probably lying about some stuff, I could believe that (1) she has the money to pay and offered to pay (even if disingenuously) and (2) the landlord didn't accept it knowing that if she did then she'd be in even deeper.

Straight mess. It's impossible to sort out. I'm nominally on the landlord's side.

The tenant should lose one finger or toe for each month she delinquent on her rent.

R9 When your tenant isn't paying rent, you can't afford a good wig.

I’m On the landlord’s side with this but I understand why the tenant is still there

Why does it seem like the options for renting in this country are the tenant has no rights or the landlord has no rights? Could there not be a happy medium?

I'll forever be on tenants' sides 🤓

A happy medium does not exist in America @R13

It's a messy situation

Decades ago, my mom rented to people that knew how to work the housing system and it almost bankrupted her.

There were only two lawyers in Massachusetts back then that knew how to get them out, and when we hired one of them, he took one look at the file- and said it was going to take over two years to get them out. They would open all the windows in the winter, turn the heat up, and created damage to the roof- claiming it was leaking to the court to buy three more months. Another time they wired the common hallway lights to their apartment then went to the judge, who decided against my mother (who had no idea) and got another three months. My aunt gave terrible advice about writing an eviction letter, and that got them ANOTHER three months free. My brother and his wife went through so much hell they almost divorced over it and the renters left the apartment in shambles. My brother turned the house back into a single family and though there’s a cottage behind it, never rented it out again.

If my mom had bothered with references, she would’ve found out they had done the same thing to their prior landlord. The guy was found dead on a beach several years later, he must’ve tried it with the wrong landlord after he moved out.

I don't trust anyone with Patterson as their last name.

R14, until you become a landlord.

Who is this troll that keeps posting links to the right wing Murdoch owned Post?

KNOCK IT OFF.

Sorry Sweetie, but for those of us who live in NYC you've only a handful of choices; NY Post, Daily News, New York Times.... Oh and you can chuck Newsday and some local papers like Brooklyn Eagle and Staten Island Advance.

R17 That was fascinating and infuriating. It really is a lesson to consider before deciding to rent your property.

I wonder what happened to that guy...

You lost my interest at “Sharita”....

Long time NYC landlord here. Even in the best of times NYC courts always favor tenants, they don't want to make anyone homeless. I haven't had to evict in years, but every time I did, the tenant was given 3-6 months rent free before they had to leave. I've had some crazy tenants and could tell stories all day. One was truly insane and we feared for our safety. He turned the water on in the bathtub. Not enough to fill it but to keep the water flowing 24/7. I had a $2,500 water bill for one quarter on a building with a $3,000 annual water bill. He destroyed the apartment and my insurance company went after him for the $25,000 they had to pay out to me.

London landlord here. Once the lease with my current tenants expire, I’ll sell the place. I’m done dealing with tenants. I don’t have any horror stories to share like R24 and R17, but I’m fed up with the incessant stream of demands. No, just because you pay the rent doesn’t entitle you to treat the property as your own, and me as some kind of walking wallet you can hit anytime for any whims and fancies of redecoration, replacement of furniture you don’t like, etc.

What would happen if a landlord goes bankrupt and is foreclosed upon? Is the next property owner obligated to keep the tenant or can they evict?

R26

At least in New York, yes, lease or rental transfers with ownership. Hence you see advertisements about property being delivered "vacant".

If tenants are market rate, month to month or something new owner just has to tell them "good bye" with proper notice. In case of market rate leases simply not renew.

OTOH if tenants are rent regulated, Section 8 or some other subsidy or voucher forget it, they are so protected that unless want to move, simply won't.

You cannot even buy a brownstone or townhouse with rent regulated tenants and turn it back into a private home. Most can claim is one (1) apartment out of entire building for family use.

Why should the taxpayers NY Soc Services pay this deadbeat's rent. Let her go to a shelter and have some respect for the overburdened taxpayers. This woman is a leech to the system and has no shame. Disgusting.