A New York woman says she was scammed out of over $10,000 after a state report listed a man she’s never heard of as the tenant of her apartment

A Bronx tenant says her landlord charged her more than the legal rent on her rent-stabilized apartment for about three years by listing a stranger as the official tenant. Court (@court0o0) calls it an “illusionary tenant scam,” and her TikTok explaining it has tens of thousands of views. In the caption, she says she was scammed “out of over $10k.” Her landlord hasn’t responded publicly, and her account hasn’t been independently verified.

Court says she signed a real lease and paid rent every month to the landlord’s management company. Nothing seemed off until the issue came up during a housing court case. She then ordered her apartment’s report from the DHCR and found a man listed as the legal tenant from the day she moved in. She says she has never heard of him and doesn’t know if he exists. The report also put the legal rent at about $200 less than she’s been paying.

The way she describes it, a landlord registers a collaborator or a made-up person with the DHCR at the legal rent, while the real tenant signs a separate lease at a higher price. Court admits she’s “still a little lost” on why. After her first post about it, she says, so many people messaged her with similar stories that she realized how common it is. Problems at home have gone viral before, including a woman who said a hole appeared in her ceiling while she was in the shower. Several commenters on this video tagged New York City’s mayor.

Viewers tag Mayor Mamdani and promote a housing rally

Two commenters tagged Zohran Mamdani’s account under the video. Neither mentioned the DHCR or rent stabilization rules, and one of the tags came with no other text.

The other wrote “boy do we have a re-election campaign for you!” along with the tag. A separate reply promoted an Oct. 21 rally in Washington, D.C., to “DEMAND housing as a human right.” That commenter asked people who couldn’t attend to share their stories with #HousingNow.

Court responds to a comment about her English

“Wow you speak perfect English,” one viewer wrote. The comment didn’t mention rent or the landlord, and it’s one of the few in the thread that Court answered.

She laughed it off in her reply. Court wrote that she “taught preschool and ESL for awhile,” so she took the remark as “a great compliment.”

Toward the end of the video, Court tells other rent-stabilized tenants to request their apartment’s paperwork through the DHCR website and check who is listed as the tenant. An unfamiliar name or a missing one is a red flag, she says, as is a legal rent far below what they pay with no explanation. She suggests taking the records to legal aid or someone at housing court. A landlord found to have broken the rules could owe “up to three times the amount that you overpaid,” she says, though the process “can take years.”