58-Year Old NYC Woman Who Persuaded Dying, Senile 85-Year Man To Adopt Her In Attempt To Inherit His 2-Bedroom, $100/Month Rent-Controlled Apartment Continues Six-Year Fight To Dodge Boot Despite Now Renting The Rooms Out On Airbnb

In Long Island City, Queens, the New York Post reports (via The Real Deal (NYC)):

• First she got herself adopted by a dying old man to hang onto his rent-controlled flat — and now she’s turned it into a hotel.
  
  Maria DeTommaso not only refuses to vacate the two-bedroom apartment in Long Island City, Queens — for which she has no lease — but she’s advertising for paying guests through Airbnb.
  
  “She can’t rent rooms. This is not a rooming house,” said Sugrim Outar, the landlord who has been fighting to evict DeTommaso since her adoptive dad, Nicholas DeTommaso, died in 2009.
  
  Maria DeTommaso was 58 when she was adopted weeks before the death of Nicholas, a senile 85-year-old who paid $100 a month as the legal occupant.
  
  The state ruled in 2013 that she was not entitled to the rent-controlled apartment, but she has fought to keep it.
  
  DeTommaso refers to it as “my father’s home for 85 years” in her Airbnb ad titled "Spectacular Manhattan Skyline View.” The row house has no such view.
  
  She is charging $55 a night for a room in the apartment. It has 100 reviews from visitors, some of whom left unhappy. “That was the worst place I’ve ever been,” visitor Tim Martin wrote.
  
  Another left early, citing a sign saying, “Please leave bathroom door open for the doggies.” Another wrote, “The shower is used by her dogs to poop and piss.”
  
  DeTommaso moved in with Nicholas in 2002 and became the beneficiary of his life insurance and pension.
  
  Outar tried to evict her after the state’s 2013 ruling but withdrew the suit last year over technical issues. He is now waiting for a final determination from the state.
  
  DeTommaso has paid $600 in rent since 2009. Outar says he is owed $100,000. “I have bills to pay,” he said.
  
  DeTommaso refused to discuss her Airbnb operation with The Post. “It’s my personal business,” she said. “He doesn’t consider me his tenant. When I have a lease, I will abide by whatever law is necessary.”.

Source: Landlord irate after ‘squatter’ rents out pad on Airbnb.