A celebrity chef who skirted rent payments for four and a half years has officially been evicted from his Brooklyn apartment, according to media reports.
Madison Cowan, who won the Food Network’s “Chopped” in 2010 and “Iron Chef” in 2012, had already vacated his Boerum Hill, Brooklyn apartment before the landlord and a city marshal arrived Tuesday morning to evict him under a court order, the New York Post reported.
Cowan first moved into the 1-bedroom $2,700/month apartment in October 2019, but he hasn’t paid any rent since January 2020, the Post reported.
In his first few years of rent-free living, Cowan took advantage of a pandemic-era eviction moratorium, and when that expired, he avoided five eviction orders by repeatedly filing appeals, according to the outlet.
Cowan chose not to appeal the judge’s sixth eviction order delivered two weeks ago, the Post reported.
Cowan — who has catered to celebs like Scarlett Johansson, Mos Def, and Halle Berry, according to his website — told the judge in May that he was “seriously impacted by the pandemic,” WABC reported.
“I couldn’t get a job,” he said, according to WABC. “It all went away.”
But the more than $145,000 he owes is seriously impacting his landlord, Gus Sheha.
“We’re just happy that he is out,” Sheha told The Post. “I would hope others see this and understand what type of tenant he was and are not left in the same position I was.”
“Unfortunately, it is small landlords who get hurt the most here and could potentially go bankrupt when you have tenants not paying the rent for four and a half years,” Sheha added.
Sheha told the Post that he doesn’t expect to ever see any of the money Cowan owes him, adding that hiring another lawyer would be too expensive.
Issues between landlords and tenants have made national headlines this year.
In Queens, New York, a couple is in a legal battle with a man refusing to leave their recently purchased $2 million home.
According to the squatter, he had permission from the previous owner to remain in the home.
Unfortunately for the couple, New York City law grants those who live at a residence for more than 30 days temporary rights, as they are seen as tenants.
The couple has struggled to remove the squatter and have been countersued for harassment.
In Texas, a man bought a home for $175,000 only to find the previous occupant still living there. And she wasn’t alone. Her pet goat was alongside her.
“I tried approaching the door, and it was a pretty big goat,” he told Fox News. “It wasn’t friendly either. I couldn’t get past the damn goat.”
And between October 2023 and February 2024, a group of squatters stayed in a 5,875-square-foot mansion in Beverly Hills and were even making money by hosting parties and charging entrance fees that went up to $1,500. They also posted rooms for rent on Booking.com, charging $150 to $300 a night.
The four-bedroom home had a pool, a spa, and a cabana — a lush dwelling while not paying rent.
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