C. Gershon Co., a Manhattan property management company, is trying to evict Marianne Semiletov, a 73-year-old retired home health aide, from her rent-stabilized Upper East Side apartment by depicting her as a hoarder and a crazy cat lady, the New York Post reports.
The landlord sent Semiletov an eviction notice on May 31 accusing her of “causing leaks at 16 E. 98th St. by ‘dumping cat litter down the toilet,’ living in a ‘dirty and grimy’ apartment, and entering neighbors’ homes uninvited,” according to the Post. The landlord also alleges that she rides the elevator up-and-down 100 times a day, which is weird, but not against the rules, I think.
But Semiletov says she has just two cats (the “crazy cat lady” stereotype requires more cats than that) and a cleaning service comes once a week. The Post visited her apartment and observed that it’s “clean, albeit trinket-filled.”
Semiletov pays $972 a month for the two-bedroom apartment, which still seems like it could be a stretch for a retired home health aide to afford. The apartment would rent for about $4,000 a month or sell for $1 million at market rate. This is not a new struggle: two years ago, she came home from visiting her sick mother and found the owners had changed the locks.
(Photo: julochka)
