Thomas has a t-shirt that says “8-Year Squatter.” He’s already making the one that says nine. Before this episode is done, he knows he’ll need the one that says ten.
In Episode 49 of The Padernacht Podcast: Brick by Brick, Steven Padernacht sat down with a Brooklyn landlord who has spent nearly a decade in housing court, lost close to $300,000 in unpaid rent, burned through his savings and his 401k, watched his kids take on part-time jobs to make ends meet — and still doesn’t have a ruling.
Disclaimer: This show is built for open conversation. The views expressed by our guests are their own and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Padernacht Podcast.
His name is Thomas. He bought an 8-unit building in Brooklyn in 1988. And what he describes is a masterclass in exactly how New York City’s housing court system fails small landlords.
The Number
The tenant stopped paying rent in 2019. The last agreed rent was $2,600 a month. She paid partial rent by court order for two years before that, then stopped — claiming the post office was inconvenient.
Steven ran the math on air. At roughly $2,500 a month, that’s $30,000 a year. Seven-plus years. The number comes out somewhere between $250,000 and $300,000 in uncollected rent — not counting legal fees.
To cover the $5,000 a month gap between lost rent and legal bills, Tom has tapped his savings, his 401k, and his pension. His kids have part-time jobs. His daughter is crisscrossing the country doing food service management because, as Tom put it: “She shouldn’t have to work quite that hard because my squatter chooses not to work.”
How the System Actually Works
Tom walked through the eviction process step by step. What he described isn’t a broken system — it’s a system that functions exactly as designed.
First, you have to wait three months of nonpayment before you can even file. Then it’s six to eight weeks to get a court date. The tenant isn’t required to show up to the first court date — automatic adjournment. Not the second either. By the time you reach the third court date, you’re already four to five months in, and the city sends an inspector the morning of court to find violations you’ve never seen before. The judge adjourns the case. It repeats. “A paint drip, a squeaky doorknob,” Tom said. “They’ll find something.”
Add it up: by the time you get any resolution, you’re easily twelve months in. And throughout all of it, there is no mechanism forcing the tenant to pay a single dollar.
The 516-Page Document
Tom’s case has been in front of five or six judges. Nobody has issued a ruling. The latest move: legal aid filed a 516-page document one week before a court hearing — essentially rewriting the entire case from scratch, nine years in. “It was a huge make-work project,” Tom said.
Legal aid is funded by taxpayer money. Tom estimates the cost at $100,000 to $150,000 in representation for this one tenant. “Your tax dollars,” Steven said on air, “are actually paying to fight against you.”
Tom’s own attorney filed a motion citing appellate division case law that owners should receive use and occupancy rent while cases are pending. The judge called it premature. The case was nine years old.
Professional Tenants
Tom described what he calls professional tenants: people who move in with no intention of ever paying. His office secretary was evicted seven or eight times. A friend rented a house to a family that turned every room into a sublet, collected rent from sub-tenants, and paid nothing to the actual owner for two years. “It becomes a business,” Tom said.
The Political Reality
Tom has sought help from elected officials for years. A dozen landlords — half of them in tears — sat down with a state senator. The response: “Most people are paying their rent,” and the senator walked away.
Tom believes the structure is working as intended. The politicians pursuing this agenda, he says, are not business people. They’ve never run a business. “Why do you think the city’s broke?” he said.
The Story Behind the Story
What gets lost in the political framing of landlords as villains is what actually happened here.
Tom bought the building in 1988. There was a woman named Linda — a tenant, later a building super, later a friend — who fell ill and stopped paying rent for years. Tom never took her to court. He made her the super. He offered to buy her a house in Florida. She turned it down because, she said, he had taken care of her when everyone else had abandoned her.
When Linda needed a companion, Tom brought someone in to help care for her in exchange for a below-market room. Linda died. The companion refused to leave. And everything that came after is what we’re hearing about today.
“I should have, the minute Linda died, told her to pack her bags,” Tom said. “Looking back. But that’s not me.”
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What Tom Wants
Two things. First: mandatory rent deposits — every tenant puts the rent in escrow within thirty days, owners get half, the court holds the other half. Tom estimates this ends 80% of housing cases.
Second: inspections with photos, completed thirty days before the court date — not the morning of court. Fix what’s broken. Hold the cost from the rent. But “a little broken outlet cover is not equal to the rent.”
Steven Padernacht is a third-generation Bronx realtor with nearly 20 years of experience serving buyers, sellers, investors, and landlords across the Bronx, Riverdale, Westchester, and greater NYC.