Landlord Ken Podziba, who sued a tenant for allegedly making illegal alterations to her 250 Elizabeth Street pad and later illegally subletting it on Airbnb, will pay $12,500 to get rid of her for good.
Podziba agreed to hand over the nuisance fee to tenant Amy Parness, though it was considerably less than her original demand in early April for $65,000 — six months of free rent totaling roughly $8,700 and forgiveness of her back rent, which at that point totaled $4,200, Podziba said.
Despite the payment, the lengthy legal campaign did not seem to go well for Parness. Her lawyers abandoned her in July after she falsely claimed that a subletter was her stepbrother from out of town. A judge later told her that she could only have immediate family members in the apartment.
Parness did not respond to requests for comment. David Stern, Parness’ new attorney, declined to comment.
However, on September 21, Podziba — armed as before with a private investigator — noted an “unknown Asian female” appeared at the apartment and stayed over, Podziba said.
“She said it was her best friend, but we were not buying that story,” Podziba said. “She violated the judge’s order, and her lawyer knew the judge would not tolerate her continuous lies. Then they wanted to settle.”
The eviction was first reported by the New York Post, though not the details of the settlement.