Long Island resident Guramrit Hanspal made one mortgage payment for his East Meadow home in 1998 — and hasn’t made another since, according to a report from the New York Post.
Despite continued non-payment for over two decades, Hanspal has somehow avoided eviction by filing lawsuits and bankruptcies, according to court records.
The property was foreclosed on long ago, and is now owned by Diamond Ridge Partners, which recently brought Hanspal to court, seeking to evict him from the home.
But Hanspal evaded eviction yet again during a Wednesday hearing in Nassau County court when Judge William A. Hohauser delayed the case after Hanspal’s attorney, William D. Friedman, pleaded for more time on the case since his co-counsel, David Gevanter, was hired to the case just one day before.
The move is apparently not a new one in Hanspal’s playbook, and Diamond Ridge’s attorney said as much to the presiding judge.
“This is the last of approximately 40 attorneys who have appeared on the eve of a hearing,” Diamond Ridge Lawyer Jordan Katz told Judge Hohauser.
Diamond Ridge employee Max Sold added, “This is very typical of the defendant — he recycles lawyers to buy himself more time. This guy is basically mocking the courts.”
When approached by the Post about why Hanspal hasn’t paid his mortgage all this time, Hanspal’s attorney pointed to the state’s eviction moratorium, stating New York Governor Andrew Cuomo had made paying rent “a moral obligation.”
However, Hanspal’s non-payment, of course, preceded the pandemic by about 20 years. Furthermore, evictions protections in place due to the pandemic only apply to those who have faced hardship as a result of the pandemic, and therefore, likely do not apply to Hanspal since he was not making payments well before the pandemic began.