Rep. Maloney has lucrative stake in Va. rental properties
“They were like, ‘Give us your money, I don’t care what type of condition it is in.’ ”
Lacasse said he was evicted from a two-bedroom apartment in one of the complexes a year ago, after he lost his job and fell behind in rent.
Records show Linkhorn still has a $2,142 judgment against him.
He said he tried to work out a deal with the property manager to pay back the debt.
Instead, she took him to court and tried to get the judge to boot him the very day of the court appearance.
A judge denied the property manager’s request and gave him more time to leave.
“I was trying my hardest to pay them and make things right,” Lacasse said.
The motorcycle mechanic said his apartment had black mold and its heating and air conditioning occasionally conked out.
“There was so much s--t there that I felt needed to be fixed,” he said.
Roberta Short, 74, said she moved out of her Linkhorn twobedroom in September 2016 after she faced eviction for failing to pay her month’s rent — $895 — when she lost her job.
She said she eventually borrowed money from her sister to pay back the debt. But she said Linkhorn didn’t renew her lease because it didn’t want her keeping four cats in her apartment — even though she had the pets when she moved in three years earlier.
When she moved out, Linkhorn tried to charge her $2,200 to replace a living room carpet that was already worn before she moved in, she said.
“I felt like they were trying to extort a lot of money out of me that — honest to God — I feel like I didn’t owe," Short said.
A Maloney campaign spokesman said the congresswoman and her three siblings each inherited a 4.8% stake in Linkhorn, but none of them have any control over it.
“Throughout her career on the City Council and continuing into the Congress, Carolyn Maloney has been an effective proponent for, and defender of, affordable housing, rent regulation and tenant protection,” the spokesman said.
“She, along with her siblings, inherited a nonmanagerial passive minor interest in the Linkhorn apartments after the death of her father and has no role in managing the property. It is wrong to suggest otherwise.”
Records show Maloney, who had an estimated net worth of $28.5 million in 2016, also owns Athena II, a six-unit Virginia Beach rental property worth between $1 million and $5 million.
From 2014 to 2016, she earned between $165,000 and $1.15 million a year from Athena, which filed eviction proceedings against two tenants in December.
Linkhorn did not respond to a request for comment.