ANGOLA, N.Y. — A landlord in Angola has been arguing with a squatter about his ‘possessions’ appearing to be a pile of trash that is disrupting local business. A local lawyer shared input on that landlord’s rights.
For four months, Phil Vankoughnet had to see a large pile of garbage sitting outside his hardware store, Shultz & Co., on Main Street in Angola.
WATCH: ‘It looks like the dumps’: Angola squatter’s possessions raise questions over downtown clean up
Everything in that pile came from a long-closed restaurant next door.
“It looks like the dumps,” Vankoughnet said. “Nobody seems to have an answer about when it will go away.”
7 News reporter Derek Heid got to work for Phil, and he made some calls.
He was able to find the owner of the building, Al Violanti, and within 20 minutes of speaking to him on the phone, Violanti showed up to clear the trash with the very dumpster Phil has been waiting for.
But why weren’t the objects thrown in a dumpster sooner? When Violanti bought the building, he inherited a squatter.
“The current squatter living upstairs claimed he owned the contents,” Violanti said. “Per squatter’s rights, we had to give him the proper amount of time to remove his belongings, we left it as it is.”
“It’s been four months now?” Derek asked.
“Yeah, which was the required time per the squatter’s law that we had to leave it,” Al said.
With all of that just now happening, 7 News reporter Derek Heid spoke to attorney Justin Friedman, who specializes in landlord-tenant law for Friedman & Ranzenhofer Attorneys at Law, about what protections that squatter and the landlord actually have.
“It looks like it was abandoned. It was outside in the elements; I think that squatter may have just been feeding him a line,” Friedman said.
“As far as their possessions, is that covered?” Derek asked.
“This is a unique case and not something I’ve seen before… but the landlord is under no obligation to store a tenant’s trash,” Friedman said.
Just how long do these fights to evict take?
Landlords must give a squatter a 10-day notice to vacate, and if they willingly leave it’s over quickly.
However, if they overstay their welcome past that 10-day window, then it goes to court.
“You’re at the mercy of the court system and the respondent,” Friedman said. “At the very least, you’re looking at a couple of months, but that’s being optimistic.”
All of that could be changing very soon.
Language in the 2025 New York State Budget makes it clear that squatters are not tenants, and thus are not entitled to these and other tenant protections.
“We will see how that plays out in practice,” Friedman said. “On the surface, that means you can call the police if there’s somebody on the premises without your permission, and they can be arrested for trespassing.”
With this budget just passed over the weekend, Friedman feels that it’s too early to tell how this change will take effect.
