Landlord fed up with tenants who owe back rent in Lancaster

tonight a landlord blasting his tenants with a blunt message for all of western new york to see good evening once again thanks for joining us the frustrated landlord using the bold approach spray painting his own property hoping his tenants will pay up now this rent dispute comes at a time when so many people out there are really having a hard time making ends meet the state just recently extended the eviction moratorium through the end of august that's going to make matters even worse for landlords all over new york 7 eyewitness news reporter ali tui shows us tonight some neighbors though believe that this particular landlord may have gone a little bit too far we can't just sit back idle and let this government do what they're doing kevin nowaks at his wit's end with no recourse because of the state's eviction moratorium the landlord says he's beyond frustrated with tenants who have fallen months behind in rent i know i can't evict them the law say i can't a victim i can't even take them small claims to get a 3 000 claim for only 11 000 or whatever whatever they may owe me so he's taking matters into his own hands by spray painting his tenant's roof with their names and what they owe like here on central avenue in lancaster quote lisa and ray owe 11 000 in rent maga which stands for make america great again a phrase made popular by former president trump it's on display for anyone to see i'm not lying i'm not slandering i'm not calling anybody any names i'm just saying so and so owes this much in rent no walk says he owns about 50 properties across erie county and the one here on central avenue isn't the only one where he's owed back rent take this duplex on livingston street it was destroyed by a fire in march but prior to the fire there were tenants living in both apartments nowhack says one of those tenants still owes him ten thousand dollars he spray painted the tenant's name and his debt on the front of this building last week this is not helping him it's not going to get him anything nicole mcmurray lives next door to one of noah's tagged properties she says she's called the village code enforcement officer several times i just don't understand why it's being allowed to get this far and you know he's defacing lancaster not just the houses what do you say to the viewers who think this is inappropriate that you're embarrassing your tenants well it's i i've i'm sorry you feel that way i can't i can't help that you would feel that way but i'm guessing it's like anything else unless you're in somebody else's shoes you really don't know according to the association for neighborhood and housing development on average renters owe eight thousand one hundred fifty dollars in unpaid rent now says he believes the problem is a product of a government policy i don't mean to do this to be vengeful towards the person themselves i'm frustrated with the government this is really bad for both sides involved in a dispute like this allie here's a question is the landlord doing anything illegal here or broken any kind of code keith that is a great question so far what we can tell the answer is no while he is shaming his tenants he's not breaking any laws here he's on his own property and the message isn't harassing we did reach out to the code enforcement officer in the village mayor we haven't heard back all right thank you

Channel: WKBW TV | Buffalo, NY

Views: 556,060

Keywords: Lancaster, WNY, anger, eviction, frustration, landlord, moratorium, owe, payment, recourse, rent, spray paint, tenant

Id: QxdHIQOfg0E

Length: 3min 23sec (203 seconds)

Published: Wed May 12 2021