Some unscrupulous tenants in the tony Hamptons are using the state’s non-eviction order to squat in style, local landlords and real-estate brokers claim.
The short-term renters moved into their beach-town pads on Long Island before the coronavirus struck and Gov. Andrew Cuomo enacted a moratorium on evictions till at least Aug. 20 to protect those financially struggling amid the pandemic.
The tenants are now allegedly twisting the non-eviction order to their benefit, refusing to vacate their prime summer pads even though their leases are up — and exasperated local landlords say there is nothing they can do about it.
“We’re not talking about poor people,” a frustrated homeowner said of his tenant, who began paying $3,600 a month in October to rent the Sag Harbor property — and then claimed he didn’t have the money to pay for April, and just never left.
The homeowner said he could be getting $15,000 for the property for the month of May alone — and at least $55,000 to rent the home between Memorial and Labor days.
“We are middle-class people,” the owner, who lives in Manhattan, told The Post on Tuesday. “It’s a very modest Sag Harbor house. And we use our summer rental to pay our son’s school.”
A female landlord in Watermill said she began renting several rooms of her home to a “very nice” woman and her teenager in the fall for $1,600 a month.
Her tenants stopped paying rent in March, after Cuomo said there would be a freeze on evictions, the homeowner said.
The landlord said she has cancer and has to start chemotherapy again and doesn’t know how she’ll get through it.
“It’s too stressful,” she said of the situation. “I was struggling, so I decided to rent her … rooms. Now I’m afraid I’ll lose my house.”
The homeowner said she could be getting up to $90,000 in income by renting most of the house for the season — if only she were able to lease it. Her tenant hung up on The Post when reached by phone Tuesday.
The Sag Harbor homeowner said some local landlords are offering their hold-out tenants cash so they can get them out before the season and make the real money they’re due.
The landlords “are saying because it’s summer, ‘Here’s just some money, now get out of my house,’ ” the homeowner said.
“Some people might be able to afford that, but we can’t.”
The Water Mill homeowner said she tried the tactic with her tenant — to no avail.
“I’ve offered her money to leave and even found her other places to move to that she could afford, but they aren’t in the Hamptons, and she is refusing to leave,” the resident said.
“I’m at my wit’s end,” homeowner said. “I have another renter ready to move in. This is when we make our money, in the summer. [The tenant] is looking for a free ride in the Hamptons.”
Andrew Saunders, founder of Saunders & Associates, a top Hamptons brokerage firm, was one of several real-estate professionals who told The Post that such scenarios are playing out across the area.
“The laws as they are in New York allow it to happen,” he said. “It’s an unintended consequence of newer laws that prevent people from being evicted right now.
“The homeowners can’t get the March-April tenants out, and they have their higher-paying tenants set to arrive Memorial Day.”
Some of the hold-out renters are even refusing to allow brokers into homes to show potential buyers when the properties are listed for sale, Saunders said.
The Sag Harbor homeowner noted that the non-eviction order doesn’t mean that renters won’t have to eventually pay up on the months they’ve been living for free.
But he said that for landlords like himself in summer-centric areas such as the Hamptons, it’s a win-less situation. If the lower-paying tenants refuse to leave, the homeowners can’t do anything about it until at least after Aug. 20 — and the prime rental season is already over at that point.
His tenant did not respond to a message seeking comment.