Top 10 Worst Landlords on The People's Court

Larry Stahl hasn’t returned a security deposit. Not so unusual in Judge Milian’s courtroom, but the tenants usually get to move in before they have to sue for a deposit. Two plaintiffs gave Stahl money for a future move-in. The house was never ready. It turns out Stahl isn’t even the owner, and he has no real right to sublease it as he is being evicted. In the kind of dramatic twists courtroom dramas are made of, the plaintiffs surprise the judge and the defendant by bringing the actual landlord into court with them. All the facts make this guy look more like a thief than a landlord. The judge is so outraged she awards the plaintiffs double what they sued for.

Plaintiff Shaneice Hawkins paid Gladys Hoffman a deposit to secure an apartment, only for the landlord to change her mind. That’s the exact opposite of what Hoffman says happened. It’s a case of she said-she said, only the judge knows the law. That’s unfortunate for Hoffman. She asked Hawkins for more money than she paid because other prospective tenants would pay more and move in sooner, which is exactly what a landlord can’t do once they accept a deposit. Judge Milian asks plainly why the landlord is still showing an apartment that’s been spoken for? It sounds like extortion to her. The defendant still doesn’t understand how dishonestly she behaved.

You should present the best version of yourself in court. But this plaintiff may have gone a little too far, because as more and more details emerged, she looked less innocent than she pretended to be. Rita Heydenburg rented a room to defendant Tiana Nishell Lauger, and didn’t think to ask for pay stubs until after Lauger moved in. Heydenburg makes references to the defendant’s career as an exotic dancer, exaggerating it to the point of accusing her of illegal activities. She even admits to calling CPS on the single mother, but it looks more like retaliation than real concern. Although she is owed the money, Heydenburg’s handling of tenants says that maybe this line of work isn’t for her.

Aaron Royals secured a room for his daughter, a college student who was living away from home for school. Unfortunately, the room was the only way to get to the kitchen without going outside the house. The landlord, who lives on site, said he would not use her rented bedroom for kitchen access, but that turned out to be a lie. Things devolved as the landlord became nosy and overstepping and belligerently demanded access to the room. The idea that anyone, landlord or not, could just traipse through your room without warning is nightmare fuel. This guy doesn’t seem to get it. In fact, he thinks he suffered undue stress. While he does get some money back, the judge is less than sympathetic.

Try as she might, Ann Marie Mahoney can’t keep up the pretense that she’s a level-headed victim of bad tenants for long. She dated a woman briefly, then rented a room to that woman’s family as tenants, all within the span of a few weeks. Mahoney has no compassion. She speaks callously about her ex’s mental health struggles, but seems unable to see just how horribly she acted in all this. However, the plaintiff’s manipulative behavior gets under the judge’s skin. When she realizes she’s caught, Mahoney makes the great decision to accuse the judge of homophobia. It goes about as well as you’d expect.

Although plaintiff Richard Crespo is trying to blame everything, even his weight gain, on his landlord, it’s understandable why he’s so upset. The judge agrees that he and his family were neglected by defendant Helen Theodore, who took a month to fix a busted boiler in the middle of January. When it became too complicated, Theodore gave up and told them to buy a bunch of space heaters to keep from getting hypothermia. She simply didn’t want to spend the money. She just smiles as the judge explains why she’s awful. Even Doug Llewelyn, the court reporter, gets his jabs in when the woman has the nerve to laugh about it.

Exes Sarah Louthe and Ben Rosenzweig have a list of complaints against their landlord, who rented them a room in his house, that has to be heard to be believed. Both sides throw allegations of substance use disorder, harassment, and unsightly damages to the house, but that’s just the tip of the iceberg. Louthe explains how she found the landlord’s friend dead on the floor. Defendant Lee Phillips thinks that’s irrelevant to the case. Phillips is clearly not cut out for renting out rooms. In fact, he doesn’t even seem to realize he is the landlord. He’s just the owner of the house. Which he rents rooms out of. The judge has to set him straight on this and a few more of his responsibilities.

The plaintiff is suing for his deposit plus rent paid because his apartment was illegally rented. But after talking with the judge, he explains he’s really just interested in the deposit. When Judge Milian meets his landlord, Roberta, she doesn’t buy any of her stories and evasions about why she was renting an illegal apartment and making bank while her tenants lived in filth. Pictures show all the plaintiff endured, from leaks to sewage backup to general squalor. Given the condition of the property, the judge takes pleasure in hammering the careless defendant. She even calls her a slumlord, and forces her to give back a month’s rent. It’s hard to imagine someone allowing tenants to live like this, no matter how good the money is.

In this case, Judge Milian untangles a twisting web of lies, conspiracy, and scams. Kirby Gaston and Nicole Reason rented an apartment that defendant Natalie Jean didn’t even have the right to sublease, and she failed to make good on the lease. Jean’s defense is that the real owner foreclosed on the house. This, of course, isn’t true. The true landlord appears on the side of the plaintiffs, who says the defendant is a squatter who doesn’t even have a lease with him. What little evidence Jean does bring, the judge suspects are forgeries. Watching the defendant’s whole story unravel in real time is a sight to behold, and Milian has a great time eviscerating her weak arguments, shaky evidence, and moral character.

Ellen Rea sounds like the landlord and roommate from you-know-where. Plaintiff Su Hoay Tan and her witnesses, one of whom is a former tenant of Rea, say she would enter bedrooms when tenants weren’t there. Rea’s reasoning, demeanor, and testimony is questionable to begin with. It soon becomes clear she has a history of combative and unhinged behavior with her tenants. The judge soon realizes the landlord is not allowed to charge people to stay in her rent-stabilized apartment. She accuses Rea of running a scam that allows her to run out roommates and get them to pay her rent. The landlord’s eccentricities aside, there’s clearly a lot more to her lowdown tactics than meets the eye.

Which of these landlords would be your worst nightmare? Tell us in the comments.