NYC Landlords Post Giant Signs Calling Out Alleged Non-Paying Tenants!

Landlords in New York City are making it known that the tenants on the first floor of their building are allegedly not paying rent!

Last week, a video from TikTok user @spinkii.baddest went viral, showing a large poster on a building at 175th Street in Springfield Gardens that read, “MY TENANTS ON THE FIRST FLOOR ARE NOT PAYING RENT.”

“Do you think the [landlord] went a little [overboard] or you would do the same thing?” the social media user asked followers.

As reported by the New York Post, landlords Calvin and Jean Thompson — who have owned the two-family home since 1989 — posted the banners in an attempt to get renters Marie and Eugene Lamour to cough up the rent they allegedly owe.

The outlet says the Thompsons began the process of trying to evict the Lamours — who share daughter Kathia — in Queens Housing Court last month.

“The signs are very embarrassing and shameful for them,” said the Thompsons’ son, Calvin Jr. “That’s the only voice we have at this stage: freedom of speech.”

According to Calvin Jr., Kathia tried to cut one of the two banners down, and refuses to summon a rideshare in front of the property.

“When she calls Uber, she won’t do it in front of the house anymore,” Calvin Jr. claimed. “She runs to the end of the block, so they don’t see them.”

“It’s uncomfortable that we have to hang these up, but we’re $20,000 uncomfortable, so I think a sign is very minor,” he added.

Calvin Jr. says the drama began in July when the Thompsons raised the rent on the Lamours’ three-bedroom pad from $1,800 a month to $1,900, the first rent hike in nine years.

Kathia told the Post that she tried to instead pay the original amount, but the Thompsons allegedly refused to take it — prompting Kathia to stop paying altogether.

“It’s like all of the sudden, we’re bad tenants,” said Kathia, who has been on unpaid medical leave from her job for the city’s Department of Social Services since the summer. “They were bamboozling me into an increase. They went ballistic on me because I wouldn’t give it to them.”

However, Calvin Jr. defended the rent increase, telling the outlet, “I don’t think a $100 increase for almost a decade of living is unreasonable. There are plenty of landlords in our situation because of COVID. A lot of eviction cases are backlogged. She knows this and is going to ride this out.”

According to the Post, the Lamours reportedly did not file any COVID hardship forms.

In 2020, amid the COVID-19 pandemic, our hosts discussed how landlords should handle tenants who are unable to pay rent.

Watch that clip, below: