Originally published 2021-07-06.
For more than two decades, Guramrit Hanspal kept living in a house in East Meadow, on Long Island, New York, that he had stopped paying for almost as soon as he bought it. By mid-2021 the home had been foreclosed, sold on twice and fought over in several courts, yet he was still inside. His case became a national talking point because it showed how long a determined occupant can hold on to a property by working every delay the legal system allows.
Here is what the court reporting actually shows, how a single mortgage payment turned into a 20-year stand-off, and what the case says about foreclosure, bankruptcy and the pandemic eviction pause.
The short answer: one payment, then twenty years of delay
Hanspal bought the 2,081-square-foot house in 1998. According to The Real Deal, the price was $232,000 (some later stories gave a higher figure of $290,000, which does not match the property reporting). He made one mortgage payment, of $1,602.37, and then defaulted.
The lender, Washington Mutual, foreclosed in 2000. When Washington Mutual collapsed in the 2008 financial crisis, JPMorgan Chase took over its assets and later sold the house to a real estate investor, Diamond Ridge Partners. From that point Diamond Ridge became the party trying to get him out.
Hanspal was 52 at the time of the 2021 hearings. He never owned the house outright, and after the foreclosure he had no legal right to stay. What he did have was a long list of procedural tools that each bought him weeks or months.
How the delays worked
Most of the time came from bankruptcy. When anyone files for bankruptcy in the United States, an "automatic stay" under section 362 of the Bankruptcy Code freezes most collection efforts against them, including foreclosure and eviction steps, until a court decides otherwise. The rule exists so that people in genuine financial trouble get breathing room to reorganise their debts.
Court records described in the press show Hanspal filed a series of bankruptcy petitions, and a later report counted seven bankruptcy claims along with multiple lawsuits. The Real Deal also reported that the deed was transferred to friends, who filed for bankruptcy themselves, which triggered fresh stays on the same property.
The other tool was a revolving door of lawyers. A new attorney appearing just before a hearing often leads a judge to grant an adjournment so the newcomer can read the file. Diamond Ridge's lawyer, Jordan Katz, told the New York Post in July 2021: "This is the last of approximately 40 attorneys who have appeared on the eve of a hearing."
The July 2021 hearing
That pattern repeated at a hearing in Nassau County in early July 2021. Judge William A. Hohauser postponed the case after Hanspal's attorney, William D. Friedman, explained that co-counsel David Gevanter had been brought in only the day before.
A Diamond Ridge representative, Max Sold, told the Post that it was typical behaviour, saying Hanspal "recycles lawyers to buy himself more time." Several viral retellings attributed that line, and a remark about "mocking the courts", to Katz, but the original Post report gives both comments to Sold.
Friedman pushed back, accusing Katz of using inflammatory language, and argued that New York's pandemic eviction moratorium applied. He declined to make Hanspal available for an interview.
Some reports also said Hanspal had once been offered about $20,000 to leave, and that the company had spent large sums on legal fees and property taxes. Those figures came from the company's side and were not independently confirmed in the court reporting we could check, so they are best read as claims rather than established facts.
Why the pandemic moratorium mattered
The timing of the case was unlucky for the owners. In December 2019, Nassau District Court Judge Scott Fairgrieve wrote that a case running for roughly 20 years had to be brought to a close. Roughly three months later, New York introduced an emergency moratorium that shielded tenants and homeowners from eviction and foreclosure during COVID-19.
Hanspal's lawyers argued that he was covered. Diamond Ridge argued that the protections were designed for tenants and homeowners hit by the pandemic, not for someone whose last mortgage payment was made in 1998.
In September 2021 Judge Hohauser sided with the owners. He found that Hanspal did not qualify for the pandemic protections because he had no lawful right to be there, describing people in his position as occupants "at sufferance" if not outright squatters. Carrying out the order was then left to the company that owns the house.
Squatter, holdover or occupant? The words matter
Headlines called Hanspal America's "longest squatter", but the label is loose. A classic squatter moves into a property they never owned. Hanspal was the original buyer who stayed after losing the house in foreclosure, which lawyers often call a holdover. The September ruling used the old legal phrase "tenant at sufferance", meaning someone who remains in a property after their right to be there has ended.
The distinction is not just academic. Different rules, notices and courts apply depending on whether someone is a former owner, a tenant or a trespasser, and that is one reason cases like this can bounce between foreclosure, bankruptcy and housing courts for years.
What the case teaches about the system
- Protections can be stretched. The automatic stay and pandemic moratoriums are meant to protect people in real hardship. Used repeatedly, they can delay a lawful owner for years.
- Repeat filing is limited, but not eliminated. A 2005 reform of US bankruptcy law cut back the automatic stay for people who file again within a year, yet transfers to other people and new filings can still slow things down.
- Each delay costs someone. While a house sits occupied without payment, the owner keeps paying taxes, insurance and legal bills, and the property often deteriorates. Photos published in 2021 showed the interior in poor condition.
- Allegations are not verdicts. Much of the colourful detail came from the company and its lawyers. The firmest facts are the court rulings themselves.
If you are facing foreclosure or a housing dispute yourself, rules differ by state and change over time. A local housing lawyer or legal aid office is the right place to start, not a viral news story.
For anyone following the story, the takeaway is simple: Hanspal's two decades in the house did not come from a loophole that made the home his. They came from a chain of postponements that, link by link, the courts eventually closed.
Sources: The Real Deal, May 2021: Long Island man evades eviction for 20 years; New York Post via Fox News, July 2021: Long Island man dodges eviction again; Inman, July 2021; Report of 20 September 2021 on the Hohauser ruling; Wikipedia: Automatic stay.
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