A hard-working immigrant family in New York City is living a nightmare after unknowingly inviting an alleged squatter into their Manhattan home.
Now, more than a year later, they claim their unwelcome tenant won’t leave and is turning their apartment into a health hazard, as the houseguest from hell litters the floors with rotting feminine hygiene products and fetid heaps of garbage.
Worse still, they allege their squatter is sleeping in their deceased grandmother’s bed, has stolen over $50,000 in jewelry and is responsible for sending an elderly aunt to the hospital.
But despite spending over $30,000 on legal fees and making close to 50 calls to the police, there is seemingly nothing they can do, according to the family and their lawyer.
Speaking exclusively to DailyMail.com, the Kermanshah family says they’ve had enough.
‘She has taken so much from us,’ said Donna Kermanshah, 24, whose father Magid Kermanshah is the legal owner of the apartment. ‘She’s ruining our lives.’
A hard-working immigrant family in New York City is living a nightmare after unknowingly inviting an alleged squatter (pictured) into their Manhattan home
Despite spending over $30,000 on legal fees and making close to 50 calls to the police, there is nothing they can do except wait for NYC’s housing court to render an eviction judgement which can take months
Magid, 77, purchased the two-bedroom, east-side Manhattan flat in 1999 for $385,000 for his ailing mother. His sister, Donna’s aunt, subsequently moved in to help care for her as well.
Today, similar units in the building sell for $1.3 million.
‘My father worked hard his entire life to take care of his mom,’ Donna said. ‘He came to this country with nothing and struggled to provide for us.’
Their ordeal began in May 2023 when, Donna says, her aunt received a Facebook message from someone named Daria (The Mail has changed her name), claiming to be a distant relative from Iran.
‘She has taken so much from us,’ said Donna Kermanshah, 24 (pictured) whose father Magid Kermanshah is the legal owner of the apartment. ‘She’s ruining our lives’
Daria, a woman in her late 40s, said she was visiting New York City to offer her condolences for the loss of the family’s matriarch who died several months earlier.
The family now suspects that Daria saw the announcement of the grandmother’s death on Facebook – and set out to scam them.
Donna told the Mail that Daria begged for a temporary place to stay shortly after arriving, claiming she’d recently been kicked out of her daughter’s home in Chicago.
But days turned into weeks.
And Donna said her aunt was too embarrassed to reveal to her family that she’d allowed Daria to move in with her.
When the aunt finally did come clean, it was too late.
In New York City, squatters are granted tenant rights after 30 days in a residence.
And by the time Magid called the New York City police in June 2023 to report Daria’s alleged illegal occupation of the apartment, Daria had been living there for more than a month.
That meant that police couldn’t legally remove her by force. The family’s only recourse was to file an eviction lawsuit in housing court.
The Kermanshahs allege that the squatter is sleeping in their deceased grandmother’s bed, has stolen over $50,000 in jewelry and is responsible for sending an elderly aunt to the hospital. Above, Donna Kermanshah is pictured with her late grandmother
‘My father worked hard his entire life to take care of his mom,’ Donna said. ‘He came to this country with nothing and struggled to provide for us.’ Pictured, Magid, who owns a rug business in lower Manhattan
What followed was a labyrinthine legal case that began in November 2023, when the Kermanshahs issued Daria a legal notice to vacate the premises.
And as the case languished in housing court, the family claimed, Daria’s behavior became increasingly bizarre.
She allegedly stole up to $50,000 of the grandmother’s jewelry, a birth certificate, and a special diary – and had disgusting habits, like leaving used feminine hygiene products on the floor in piles of trash, according to Donna.
Then, the Mail was told, things got more disturbing, even violent.
Donna claimed that Daria barricaded herself inside the apartment and was afraid to open the windows because she feared someone would ‘climb through them to murder her at night,’ despite the apartment being over 30 floors high.
Daria would often sleep in the middle of the tile kitchen floor on a pile of blankets, Donna said, and rinse out paper cups before cutting them into tiny bits, allegedly ranting ‘I don’t want them to fingerprint me.’
At this point, ‘my aunt was completely and utterly afraid,’ Donna claimed.
‘[Daria] likes to taunt my aunt,’ she told the Mail. ‘She would follow her around the hallways and film her and harass her. They got into an altercation and my aunt fell and ended up in the hospital.’
With scant information available, Donna has painstakingly tried to piece together Daria’s background.
As far as she knows, Daria does not have a job, but she often claims to have been a ‘former spy in Iran for the pre-revolutionary government.’
The Mail has also reviewed videos from inside the apartment captured by a security system that the Kermanshah installed to monitor their elderly mother.
In one clip, Daria can be heard railing against the ‘corrupt’ United States government, the ‘corrupt’ NYPD, and the Chicago branch of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, whom she blames for the ‘enforced disappearance’ of her daughter.
Other footage shows Daria pacing back and forth in the apartment, appearing to be excitedly speaking to herself.
In one clip of footage recorded from inside the apartment, the squatter can be heard railing against the ‘corrupt’ United States government, the ‘corrupt’ NYPD, and the Chicago branch of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, whom she blames for the ‘enforced disappearance’ of her daughter
The squatter allegedly stole up to $50,000 of the grandmother’s jewelry, a birth certificate, and a special diary – and had disgusting habits, like leaving used feminine hygiene products on the floor in piles of trash, according to Donna
Complicating the legal process, Daria has taken the Kermanshahs to court to claim that she was entitled to legal occupancy of the apartment because she was a family relative.
According to the Kermanshah’s lawyer that case was dismissed.
The family attorney also told the Mail that Daria filed a restraining order against Donna’s aunt but that case was allegedly thrown out after Daria failed to appear in court.
On May 24, 2024, after months of delays, the Kermanshah’s case was heard and they are now awaiting a decision from the judge.
Eviction lawsuits in New York City can reportedly take six to eight months to come to a resolution but in a court system blighted by budget cuts and a backlog of cases, particularly difficult cases can take years to conclude.
Now, while the Kermanshahs wait, Daria lives rent-free. And Magid must continue footing the apartment’s lofty $2,000-per-month condo fees.
Daria recently returned to court to file a second restraining order against Donna’s aunt.
To avoid violating the order, the aunt has moved out of the apartment and is now living with her son in Queens.
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