Wealthy tenants are SQUATTING in multi-million dollar homes in the Hamptons and refusing to pay rent after NY issued a non-eviction order due to the coronavirus crisis
Wealthy tenants are SQUATTING in multi-million dollar homes in the Hamptons and refusing to pay rent after NY issued a non-eviction order due to the coronavirus crisis
- Hamptons landlords are losing money as tenants try to stay during peak season
- One uses the summer rent to pay his son’s tuition and is out of pocket this year
- NY Gov Andrew Cuomo issued a moratorium on rent payments until 20 August
- Here’s how to help people impacted by Covid-19
PUBLISHED: 04:30 EDT, 20 May 2020 | UPDATED: 10:14 EDT, 20 May 2020
Some wealthy tenants in the Hamptons are using New York state’s non-eviction order to squat in luxury while weathering out the coronavirus crisis, local landlords have claimed.
One homeowner, who chose to remain anonymous but identified as middle-class, said that short-term renters are overstaying at his property in Sag Harbor and refusing to pay rent.
Properties in the Hamptons rent for much less in the winter and early spring months, when the coronavirus outbreak began, but can ask for thousands more in the summer months.
‘We’re not talking about poor people,’ the anonymous told the NYPost. ‘[…]It’s a very modest Sag Harbor house. And we use our summer rental to pay our son’s school.’
The squatter was paying $3,600 a month between October and March but claimed he didn’t have rent for April and dismissed the homeowner’s requests to vacate the property.
The landlord said he is now looking at huge losses for the year – $15,000 in May alone with an extra $55,000 between Memorial and Labor days.