Airbnb ‘tenant from hell’ threatens landlord with lawsuit after squatting for 575 days and demanding $100,000 to leave
Callum Jones
Featured Image Credit: Facebook/ Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times via Getty Images
An apparent 'tenant from hell' is planning to sue her former landlord for defamation after he claimed police had escorted her off the much-talked about Airbnb property last week.
The legal battle between Elizabeth Hirschhorn and former landlord Sascha Jovanovic has been a longwinded one, and there still doesn't appear to be an end in sight.
A Santa Monica judge on Monday (6 November) dismissed the eviction case against tenant Hirschhorn after the court heard she 'abandoned' the house she hadn't paid rent on for 575 days.
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Jovanovic has issued a motion of dismissal through attorney Sebastian Rucci as he believes the tenant leaving the property 'abandoned' should mean the case is dismissed.
Judge George Bird, who received an email over the weekend detailing Jovanovic's intentions, told the court that 'police escorted' Hirschhorn from the building last Friday as three man took away all of her personal belongings.
Hirschhorn's attorney Amanda Seward protested this motion, saying: "That is not true, your honor. The police did not escort her from the building."
Outside of the court, Seward told the Daily Mail: "The police did not escort her out. They were there on a different matter.
"If Jovanovic said the police escorted her off the property, that is a defamation claim."
Judge Bird dismissed the eviction case on Monday 'without prejudice', meaning Hirschhorn could challenge the dismissal.
Reports claimed earlier this week claimed that Hirschhorn had moved to a luxury stay in a downtown Los Angeles hotel, though attorney Seward denied the former tenant has already found another place to live.
"She's not on the street but she had to find another place because he locked her out," the attorney said.
"She did not voluntarily abandon the guest house."
An investigation into Hirschhorn revealed she has previously been linked to a similar situation with a rental in Oakland, California. The previous case came to an end with a cash settlement just weeks before Hirschhorn moved into Jovanovic's home.
After that had been put in the public eye, Jovanovic and his lawyer Sebastian Rucci asked the judge to take a new look at the case, pointing to the fact that this example proves Hirschhorn is a 'serial squatter'.
But last month, Hirschhorn's attorney, Seward, responded with a written statement arguing Rucci's motion for a judge to take another look at the case 'goes against everything the American justice system stands for.'