Guramrit Hanspal, 52, has filed four lawsuits and claimed bankruptcy seven times to avoid being booted from the 193sq m East Meadow home he “bought” for $US290,000 in 1998.
At least three other people listing the home as their address have also filed for bankruptcy in Brooklyn Federal Court, winning the “automatic stay,” only to have the claims eventually dismissed, court records show. Hanspal got the mortgage from Washington Mutual in 1998 and made exactly one payment – $US1602.37 , – before defaulting, prompting the bank to begin foreclosure proceedings a year later, court records show.
If bankruptcy filings didn’t work, Mr Hanspal simply went to state court seeking relief, sometimes acting as his own lawyer, according to an August 2005 order from Nassau County Judge Burton S. Joseph. The new bank was also unable to boot Mr Hanspal, and has been locked in litigation with him for years, with Mr Hanspal filing at least three lawsuits against JP Morgan Chase in Nassau Supreme Court.Mr Hanspal claims in court papers that Chase committed “blatant fraud” in 2010 by trying to evict him when it didn’t have proper title to the home, and accused the bank of withholding “surplus” funds from a previous auction of the property.
“There always seems to be a new occupant who pops up at the last moment,” said Diamond Ridge lawyer Mr Katz. “They never show up in court.”“The history of this case going on for approximately 20 years must come to an end,” Nassau District Court Judge Scott Fairgrieve wrote in a December 2019 housing court proceeding.