The 26-year-old cabby used an obscure law to score a $226-a-month lifetime lease on a Chelsea apartment he says he isn’t even sure he wants to live there for long.
“I am planning to stay if all the conditions are right,” Hamidou Guira told the New York Post. “If it’s clean and I can live there without being harassed, I will stay.”
Guira added that the former SRO, which currently operates as a hostel at 184 11th Avenue, is “not a five-star hotel,” but “the bathroom is clean and it seems safe.”
The law states that “an occupant who requests a lease of six months or more … shall be a permanent tenant.” Theoretically, the law applies to any hotel in the city.
The Chelsea Highline Hotel’s manager tried to physically prevent him from entering the room, but Guira took the hotel to court, represented himself and won. [NYP] –Christopher Cameron