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Landlord and Tenant Take Turns Being Evicted in Far Rockaway Legal Battle

By Katie Honan | December 19, 2016 12:32pm
 Marshals have kicked out both Beverly Schlackman and a man claiming to be her tenant since last August.
Marshals have kicked out both Beverly Schlackman and a man claiming to be her tenant since last August.
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DNAinfo/Katie Honan

BAYSWATER — A semi-attached home on a quiet street corner has been the center of a housing court battle, where both the owner and a man claiming to be a tenant have taken turns being evicted amid a fight over residency. 

Beverly Schlackman purchased the two-family home on Dwight Avenue and Bay 31st Street with her husband, Stephen, in 2009, envisioning it as a haven for her family, she said.

She spends most of the year traveling around the country as a medical consultant, but her husband and three grandchildren live in the house, she said.

In August, a city marshal knocked on their door and evicted them from the home's second floor — without any of their possessions — which was a shock to the family who said they were never notified of any issues.

She later found out a housing court judge had awarded a "judgment of possession" to Timothy Washington Sr., on June 23, 2016, records show. Washington Sr. had gone to housing court five times in May to file papers claiming he was illegally locked out of the home’s second floor where he had rented for years.

Schlackman claimed she had “never seen this man before in my life" and was never notified of the court proceedings, according to her counter lawsuit filed in civil housing court on August 11, 2016.

She wrote in the lawsuit that she had never met Washington and “was understandably in a state of bewilderment and shock” when informed of what happened.

Schlackman said Washington illegally switched their PSEG bill into his name — which her husband noticed in May but thought was just a mistake. A spokeswoman for PSEG declined to comment, saying it was a “landlord/tenant issue.”

He preyed on the family “in order to wrest ownership from what he believed to be a senile, elderly couple,” she wrote in the suit, adding that her husband Stephen Schlackman had to live with a friend in New Jersey and their three grandchildren were sent off to live with friends across the city while she working across the country and continued to fight the eviction to get back home.

“It was with amazement that I realized fraudsters had followed through with the unlawful scheme to gain possession and control of our home by submitting forged documents to court and pretending to be new owners,” Steven Schlackman wrote in court papers, adding that he didn’t know Washington “in any fashion,” and denied he rented at the home.

But Washington told DNAinfo he had been renting the second floor of the house for years, paying more than $1,000 each month.

He alleges the Schlackman family ran up a more than $5,000 bill on his PSEG meter, and illegally locked him out of the apartment in May so they could take over his apartment while they renovated their home after a fire.

“[Stephen Schlackman] illegally locked me out from my house to live in himself personally,” Washington told DNAinfo New York.

Washington, Sr. said he had paid both Stephen Schlackman and his son, also named Stephen Schlackman, thousands of dollars in rent for the second-floor apartment over two years.

The younger Stephen Schlackman is now in prison after he was convicted of attempted murder for trying to set his girlfriend’s lover on fire at another home in Bayswater in 2011, according to the DA’s office.

Washington, Sr. said his rent checks were cashed every month, and was surprised to find his door locked last May. 

He laughed at the suggestion that the Schlackman family didn't know who he was.

“He don’t know me but he know my money,” Washington, Sr. said of Stephen Schlackman, Sr. 

Washington Sr. — along with five other family members — were evicted on Nov. 18, 2016 by city marshals and the NYPD, records show. But days later, he returned to the home, breaking down a door and changing back the locks, according to the criminal complaint.

He was arrested on Nov. 21 and charged with criminal mischief and criminal trespassing, court records show.

Washington Sr. said he’ll continue to fight to get back into the apartment he says was his home. His possessions, including furniture he rented from Aaron’s and important medical prescriptions, were all gone after the November eviction.

“Everything that I own is in that home,” he said.

Beverly Schlackman said she and her family are back in the home, and are currently in the process of cleaning it up. She said she’s also installing a security system.

“I’m a little bit scared,” she said.

“But sometimes you have to be determined not to let people chase you out of your own home.”