Want to hear a weird story? The Post has got one for you, with their ongoing coverage of a landlord-tenant battle that is currently playing out in Long Island City. It begins in 2002, when a woman named Maria moved in with Nicholas DeTommaso, the elderly renter of a $100/month rent-controlled apartment. In 2009, three weeks before his death, DeTommaso "adopted" Maria, effectively (and quasi-legally) passing the apartment on to her. (The Post paints this as a con job, although it seems equally likely that DeTommaso intentionally meant to just give his companion the apartment.) The landlord has been trying, unsuccessfully, to evict Maria since, and giving quotes like, "She has made my life a living hell" and "I have bills to pay." (Just imagine what a living hell that landlord's life would have been if DeTommaso had simply lived another ten years!)
Now, the landlord and The Post are both even more incensed, as it turns out that Maria has been renting the apartment out on Airbnb, to overwhelmingly positive reviews, although The Post goes out of its way to quote the two negative ones.
· Landlord irate after 'squatter' rents out pad on Airbnb [NYP]
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