A GOP New York City council member is "furious" about a current law allowing squatters to claim ownership in an empty building after 30 days, telling Newsmax on Monday she'll introduce legislation to extend the period.
In an interview on "Wake Up America," Councilwoman Vickie Paladino of Queens said "owners literally have no rights due to the laws that have been passed, both in upstate New York, as well as down here in the city."
Paladino said she was "furious about what's going on right now," referring to the arrest of Adele Andaloro, who inherited her family's home in Flushing after her parents passed away and was preparing to sell the property when squatters took over, installing a new front door and changing the locks, effectively locking her out of her childhood home.
New York state law currently states squatters are "classified as tenants and receive temporary rights as such" after occupying a property for 30 days.
"The 30 Day rule is not enough time," Paladino said, noting in Andaloro's case, "these people come in. They claim they're there for 30 days or more, which automatically turns them [into] the tenant status … now they have a right to be there, which is absolutely ludicrous.
"So you have the two people who were in there squatting … This is how sick it is — went to a legitimate real estate broker and rented out the basement so he was actually making money off this woman's home. It's … absolutely unbelievable," she added.
Paladino said lawmakers on both sides of the aisle in New York City and in upstate Albany are onboard to change the current law.
"We have … [GOP Assemblyman Jake] Blumencranz, who's from Long Island, who [is] introducing legislation, as well upstate, to help this what's going on all over now," she said.
Blumencranz, in an interview with Newsmax last Friday, detailed his legislative proposal to protect property owners in the wake of an incident in which squatters allegedly killed a woman in her deceased mother's Manhattan apartment, stuffing the victim, Nadia Vitel, in a duffel bag in a closet.
Paladino lamented the woman's horrific death "was the cherry on top of the cake."
"How much more are we going to do here? That we are leaning always towards the criminal," she asserted.
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Fran Beyer ✉
Fran Beyer is a writer with Newsmax and covers national politics.
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