Frustrated Landlords Put Huge Banner Shaming Tenants For Not Paying

A frustrated NYC family posted huge banners about their tenants in a bid to force them to pay their rent.

The landlords said their tenants owe them $17,000 in back rent.

Queens landlords, Calvin and Jean Thompson, said they have been trying to evict Marie and Eugene Lamour and their daughter Kathia from their two-family home in Springfield Gardens. They have owned the house since 1989.

The Thompsons said the process of evicting the Lamours saw no progress as nearly 200,000 eviction cases are pending in a historic backlog in the city. The large number of pending cases came about as a result of pandemic protections and the state’s eviction moratorium, according to India Times.

When their hopes of evicting their tenants stalled, the Thompsons resorted to humiliating them in public to pay rent. The two families live in the same building with nothing but floorboards separating them.

“The signs are very embarrassing and shameful for them,” the Thompsons’ son, Calvin Jr, told the New York Post. “That’s the only voice we have at this stage: freedom of speech.”

The landlords hung a huge banner on the building that reads: “MY TENANTS ON THE FIRST FLOOR ARE NOT PAYING RENT.”

Passersby have seen the banner and posted about it on TikTok.

Calvin Jr. claims the sign has been working as Kathia once tried to cut the sign down.

“When she calls Uber, she won’t do it in front of the house anymore,” he told the publication. “She runs to the end of the block, so they don’t see them.

“It’s uncomfortable that we have to hang these up, but we’re $20,000 uncomfortable, so I think a sign is very minor,” Calvin Jr. continued.

The issues between the landlords and their tenants began when the former increased the rent for the three-bedroom space from $1,800 a month to $1,900 in July last year. Calvin Jr. said this was the first hike in nine years.

Kathia, who works for the city Department of Social Services, said her family refused to pay the increased rent and reportedly tried to pay them $1,800 instead. However, when the Thompsons refused to accept it, she said she stopped paying them anything.

“It’s like all of the sudden, we’re bad tenants. They were bamboozling me into an increase. They went ballistic on me because I wouldn’t give it to them,” Kathia, who has been on unpaid medical leave job since the summer, told the New York Post.

On the other hand, Calvin Jr. told the outlet, “I don’t think a $100 increase for almost a decade of living is unreasonable. There are plenty of landlords in our situation because of COVID. A lot of eviction cases are backlogged. She knows this and is going to ride this out.”

Lamours’ lawyer, Andreas Spiker, believes the sign will only be an obstacle in the Thompsons’ case and sees it as a form of harassment.