Squatters get boot
‘Racist’ LI deadbeats must go after 2-yr. feud
Don’t let the door hit you in the rear.
Allegedly racist Long Island squatters who apparently hadn’t paid their mortgage in more than a decade and repeatedly gamed the court system have finally gotten the boot.
On Wednesday, the Nassau County Sheriff’s Office arrived to change the locks on the Friendly Lane home in Jericho after the Chawla family won their 23month legal battle to evict Barry and Barbara Pollack.
“We got it!” owner Bobby Chawla told The Post of the successful eviction.
“The sheriff handed us over the document finalizing the eviction and it was just an amazing sense of relief,” Chawla, 32, told The Post.
“These last two years have just been so exhausting for me battling the Pollacks in court, and I am just excited to finally move on.”
He is now faced with the deplorable condition the four-bedroom, twobath house was left in.
The basement is soaked and smells “rancid,” the home’s oil tank is empty, the boiler needs $550 in repairs and the garage is littered with debris.
Chawla, with his family, bought the home at a bank auction for $762,200 in February 2022, intending to give it to Chawla’s now-pregnant sister, Gege, and her husband.
Barry and Barbara Pollack, both 72, purchased the 1,536-squarefoot split-level in September 1990 for $255,000 before falling into financial trouble.
The couple was foreclosed on twice, dragging out one of those proceedings by asking for 13 delays over the course of 11 years before the house was auctioned.
Once the home went on the block, the Pollacks turned to bankruptcy court, filing seven times but failing to follow through, pay court fees or respond to court requests, according to records.
Chawla accused the Pollacks of filing “skeleton” bankruptcy filings. A judge eventually barred Barry Pollack from filing any more bankruptcies.
Oddly, among the items the Pollacks left behind was a statement showing the Pollacks had more than $58,000 in the bank last month.
“I never felt fully confident I would get my house back today,” Chawla said.
“I was definitely concerned that he would pull some new scheme to stay in the house,” he added.
“Only once the sheriff handed us the document confirming the completion of the eviction did I truly feel that the home was in our possession.”
Amid several clashes with the Chawlas, Barry Pollack was caught on video telling Chawla, whose parents are from India, to “go back to Pakistan.”