It\u2019s been a nightmare on East 119th Street.<\/p>\n
The owners of a recently completed East Harlem rental building have been unable to evict a tenant they claim is violent \u2014 even though they commenced eviction proceedings in August 2024 and his lease ended on Feb. 28, 2025.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe happily destroys our lives for two years and I can\u2019t get a judge to remove him from this apartment,\u201d landlord Amy Simek told The Post.<\/p>\n
Police were called numerous times about Falade Aderidigbe\u2019s disturbing behavior. Matthew McDermott for NY Post<\/p>\n
Tenant Falade Aderidigbe destroyed his 450-square-foot studio at 309 E. 119th St. by \u201cbreaking down the walls, ripping out sheet rock and destroying the bathroom,\u201d Manhattan Supreme Court documents indicate.<\/p>\n
The damage has cost Simek and her son Kevin about $30,000, plus $40,000 in legal fees, she said.<\/p>\n
Aderidigbe moved into his pad in the four-story, eight-unit market-rate building on March 1, 2024, paying the $2,350-a-month rent with a NYC Human Resource Administration voucher.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cBecause the [area median income] for the area met the [CityFHEPS rental assistance program] criteria, we were forced to accept a tenant who was previously in the shelter system,\u201d Amy said.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou walk a delicate line,\u201d she said. \u201cIf you don\u2019t accept a city applicant, you fall into the discrimination category. We had to go along not knowing this guy was just a horror.\u201d<\/p>\n
Aderidigbe has allegedly destroyed the walls in his studio apartment. Matthew McDermott for NY Post<\/p>\n
She said other problems Aderidigbe has caused include leaving his third-floor apartment with all of the burners on, aggressively banging on walls, running through the hallways naked and ranting loudly in his apartment at night for hours.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Plus, \u201cDefendant has repeatedly sent threatening messages to Plaintiff`s employees, accusing the employees of bestiality, stealing Defendant\u2019s mail and being drug dealers,\u201d court documents allege. \u201cOn June 21, 2024, Defendant harassed a tenant of the building by repeatedly knocking on their door in the middle of the night, looking through the tenant`s peephole and crouching in front of the door.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Kevin called 911 after Aderidigbe \u201ccontinually texted and called me like 100s of times with explicitly nasty, sort of deranged comments,\u201d he said. Aderibigbe was taken away by ambulance that day.<\/p>\n
The alleged damage by Aderidigbe has totaled about $30,000. Matthew McDermott for NY Post<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s been complete stress, non-stop frustration not knowing when his next episode will be,\u201d said Kevin, who completed the building in 2023. \u201cI feel terrible for other tenants in the building. It hurts. I built that building.\u201d<\/p>\n
Cops have come and gone to no avail.<\/p>\n
The landlords filed a termination notice on July 18, 2024. The case has wended its way through the court and finally, this May 6, a judge officially authorized Aderidigbe\u2019s legal removal. The Simeks are \u201cstill waiting for them to schedule eviction,\u201d Amy said.<\/p>\n
Eviction proceedings are long underway and his lease is long over, but Aderidigbe still occupies his unit. Matthew McDermott for NY Post<\/p>\n
Upstairs neighbor Miguel R., who asked for his surname to be withheld, has lived in the building on a two-year lease since January 2025.<\/p>\n
For the first two to three months all was quiet downstairs.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Then one night Aderidigbe was speaking \u201creally, really loud\u201d in another language, and \u201cthrowing things,\u201d per Miguel.<\/p>\n
Landlord Kevin Simek called police after getting a barrage of nasty text messages. Matthew McDermott for NY Post<\/p>\n
He figured Aderidigbe got into a heated discussion with someone.<\/p>\n
But then it happened again. Come fall, Aderidigbe threw heavy objects that shook Miguel\u2019s apartment, he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI would wake up and feel my apartment shaking,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Tenants have moved out of 309 E. 119th St. due to Aderidigbe\u2019s allegedly scary behavior. Matthew McDermott for NY Post<\/p>\n
Miguel puts the onus on the city.<\/p>\n
\u201cI understand he\u2019s a vulnerable person and someone has to take care of him, but I don\u2019t think we should have to take care of him,\u201d Miguel said.<\/p>\n
If he doesn\u2019t move back to Spain at the end of his lease, Miguel plans to relocate from the building.<\/p>\n
Amy also points her finger at the city, saying Aderidigbe \u201cdidn\u2019t do this intentionally.\u201d<\/p>\n
Aderidigbe occupies a $2,350-a-month pad. Matthew McDermott for NY Post<\/p>\n
\u201cThe city takes no responsibility,\u201d Amy said. \u201cYou take people in a homeless situation and put them in a private landlord situation and \u2026 they put the burden on us. We\u2019re not social workers. We do this as a business. I can\u2019t understand why they don\u2019t help this guy. He needs so much supervision. He\u2019s a threat to the neighbors.\u201d<\/p>\n
Fearing for their safety, three tenants cut their leases short or didn\u2019t renew them, Amy said.<\/p>\n
Kevin said the city puts mentally ill people in private residences, \u201cwashing their hands of it.\u201d<\/p>\n
The bathroom vanity was allegedly a target of Aderidigbe\u2019s.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn a city that says they care about tenants and tenants\u2019 rights,\u201d he added, they allow Aderibigbe to stay put to \u201cthe detriment of everyone else.\u201d<\/p>\n
It\u2019s not so easy to evict someone for being a nuisance, according to prominent real estate attorney Adam Leitman Bailey, who is not involved in this proceeding.<\/p>\n
But the city should take some action.<\/p>\n
Cops have been repeatedly called on Aderidigbe. Matthew McDermott for NY Post<\/p>\n
\u201cThe city should stop paying the rent for this mentally ill tenant, but I have never seen that happen,\u201d Bailey said. \u201cI have never seen involved CityFHEPS social workers commit a tenant either.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Simeks\u2019 situation is not unique.<\/p>\n
\u201cSmall property owners across New York City are increasingly finding themselves powerless when dealing with tenants who are destructive, threatening, severely disruptive or suffering from serious untreated mental illness,\u201d said Ann Korchak, board president of SPONY, an advocacy and education association for small property owners in New York.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cWhile owners have a legal and moral obligation to maintain safe and habitable buildings, the current housing court system often leaves them with virtually no meaningful tools to protect other residents or building staff when one tenant creates dangerous conditions.\u201d<\/p>\n
Aderidigbe\u2019s Department of Social Services caseworker declined to comment. A spokesperson for the agency, as well as the mayor\u2019s office, didn\u2019t respond to a request for comment.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It\u2019s been a nightmare on East 119th Street. The owners of a recently completed East Harlem rental building…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":248204,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[6808,15438,68,53965,9,56,63,65,64,1491,3006,14835],"class_list":["post-248203","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york-city","tag-east-harlem","tag-eviction","tag-exclusive","tag-landlord-tenant-dispute","tag-new-york","tag-ny","tag-nyc","tag-nyc-headlines","tag-nyc-news","tag-real-estate","tag-residential-real-estate","tag-squatters"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/248203","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=248203"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/248203\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/248204"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=248203"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=248203"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=248203"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}