EXCLUSIVE: NEW YORK CITY — A Brooklyn landlord says he has been trapped in a nearly decade-long legal nightmare that has cost him hundreds of thousands of dollars in unpaid rent and legal fees, while New York courts repeatedly delay resolution as his tenant continues living in the apartment without making direct rent payments to the landlord.Thomas Diana, who owns a small eight-unit building in Park Slope, told Fox News Digital he has spent the last nine years trying to remove a woman who originally moved into one of his apartments as a live-in companion for an elderly, disabled tenant.Court records show the woman moved into the apartment in 2014 after responding to a Craigslist advertisement seeking a live-in companion for the tenant, who later died in 2016.What followed was nearly a decade of litigation spanning multiple courts and proceedings.After the elderly tenant's death, disputes arose over the woman's tenancy status, rent obligations and whether the apartment remained subject to New York rent-stabilization laws as Diana sought unpaid rent and possession of the apartment.SQUATTER TURNS COUPLE'S DREAM HOME PURCHASE INTO NIGHTMAREBrooklyn landlord Tom Diana told Fox News Digital that a legal battle with a "9-year squatter" has drained his finances and negatively affected his personal life.
(Fox News Digital/Andrew Mark Miller)"This has gone on for nine years.Nothing about this is justice," Diana told Fox News Digital.
"Every time the case gets close to resolution, there’s another delay, another lawyer change, another new story."Diana says the tenant has changed lawyers at least eight times in the ongoing legal saga, which Diana refers to as a "9-year squatter situation," although the case technically centers around a dispute over rent stabilization laws with the two sides disputing nearly every aspect of the case."It drained my daughter’s college fund," Diana told Fox News Digital inside his home while wearing a now-outdated T-shirt that says, "Stuck w...