Celebrity chef Madison Cowan has relied on soft eviction laws to avoid paying more than $145,000 in rent at her Brooklyn apartment over the past four and a half years, the landlord claims.
The British-born former champion of Food Network’s Chopped and Iron Chef is 53 months behind on rent on the one-bedroom Boerum Hill property he has occupied with his family since October 2019. , said landlord Gus Sheha.
Cowan hasn’t paid a cent in rent since January 2020, according to his landlord, relying on legal loopholes such as repeatedly challenging eviction orders to keep him in his State Street apartment.
“I have never seen anything more absurd in my life,” Sheha fumed. “This is why people are leaving New York. This system is completely broken and intentionally set up to punish landlords.”
“I’ve lost more than $140,000 in rent, but I still have to pay insurance, taxes and water bills,” he said.
Cowan – Whose website is it written on? He has catered lavish events for former President Bill Clinton, actress Scarlett Johansson and other A-listers, but he initially catered the event from March 2020 to mid-January 2022 due to the pandemic. It took advantage of the state’s eviction moratorium.
Since then, judges have ordered Mr. Cowan to leave five times, but Mr. Cowan has avoided each time by rushing to court and filing new appeals.
Sheha and her brother John, co-owner of the three-story building, learned of the latest appeal Wednesday when they arrived accompanied by City Marshal Robert Renzulli to evict Cowan.
Mr. Cowan boasted that he was receiving advice from state Attorney General Letitia James on how to avoid eviction, and then claimed that while standing before the state attorney general, he called her office in the state Legislature. Sheha recalled.
James’ office said it was unaware of any contact from Cowan. Renzulli did not return messages.
Cowan is scheduled to appear in Brooklyn Housing Court on Wednesday regarding the latest eviction bid.
He did not respond to phone messages and refused to open the door when The Post knocked on Friday.
An hour later, two officers responded to a 911 call about a “crime in progress” inside the building, but determined no crime had occurred, an NYPD spokesperson said. It is unclear who made the call.
