A cunning squatter extorted the landlord of at least $72,000 in rent for a Lower East Side apartment, then sublet it for tens of thousands of dollars in profits, the owner alleges.
Computer programmer Thor Boucher hasn’t paid a dime for three years on his discounted $2,000 a month apartment on Essex Street, a two-bedroom, one-bathroom apartment, and has to pay because the building is so noisy and shakes. He claims that there was not. , According to landlord Ed Yau and Manhattan Civil Court documents.
However, the alleged freeloader has been charging as much as $1,950 per month per room on platforms like Airbnb and Craigslist since November 2021 without any hesitation for the space.
“I feel betrayed by the politicians and the bureaucracy,” Yau told the Post.
“The system needs to be fair because it’s currently open to abuse,” he added. “Rent is optional because the housing court is not working. They don’t have to pay it and nothing happens to them.”
A man currently living in Ms. Yau’s apartment said he moved in in October and admitted that he had paid Ms. Boucher rent, but declined to say how much and had no claim that Mr. Boucher had defrauded the landlord. He said he didn’t know.
“I need to talk to Thor,” he repeated before closing the door.
Yau accused Boucher, who stopped paying rent less than three months after signing the lease in December 2020, of being a “professional fraudster.” Efforts to bail out Boucher are hampered by tenant-friendly state laws and a housing court system that “bends over backwards for tenants,” Yau said.
Boucher had also applied for the state’s coronavirus rent relief program in 2022 and 2023, and during the application process, Yau was effectively prohibited from evicting tenants.
Yau argues that state Sen. Brian Kavanaugh and state Rep. Grace Lee, who chairs the Legislature’s housing committee and are strong advocates for tenant protections, have been of little help.
“They showed sympathy, but they didn’t take any action,” he said. “It’s just lip service.”
Yau said elected officials are likely to pursue laws and policies that benefit tenants rather than landlords in order to appeal to a broader base of voters.
Governor Hochul and top state lawmakers on Friday agreed to the first housing deal to supplement the state’s delayed budget, including a variant of the “just cause eviction” bill long pushed by leftist lawmakers.
The preliminary agreement would allow tenants in market-rate units facing eviction to force their landlords to rent if their annual rent increases by more than 5% above the latest Consumer Price Index, or 10% overall, according to officials. They say they will be able to take the case to court.
Landlords will also be required to automatically renew leases for tenants who are on current rent payments.
Meanwhile, horror stories of squatters like Yau will scare landlords into taking their units off the market, warns Ann Korchak, president of the trade group New York Small Property Owners.
“For a small building, if someone stops paying, that can be the difference between being able to pay taxes and paying the mortgage,” she says.
“The average person who owns a one- to three-family home is very risk-averse because they hear these stories. [and think] “Without any support, I would be living with someone for this long.”
Boucher, Kavanaugh and Lee did not respond to requests for comment.
