How one couple managed to live rent free in an amazing New York attic apartment for SIX YEARS

If you're sat there within the midst of the January blues, annoying approximately cash and dreading the beans on toast you will should consume for dinner this night, you may need to read approximately New York-based totally couple Zachary Bennett and Karen Nourse.

Because they have well and definitely caught it to the person, refusing to pay rent on their swanky New York attic apartment on account that 2010 - and right here's the thing: they might really be getting away with it legally in step with The New York Post.

I'm quite positive you could consider how pricey it's far to stay in New York: we've all visible Monica's rental in Friends. So when virtual-content material producers Zachary and Karen, who have two young youngsters, had been struggling to maintain up with their $four,754.02 (thats a whopping £3,914) in keeping with month lease in Manhattan's Chelsea region, they determined to suppose outside the box.

And assume outdoor the field they did: they determined to simply prevent paying rent. Sounds unlawful? Yeah, in maximum circumstances it might be, but this couple - who are presently going through a courtroom case to determine whether or not or now not they have to pay the $410,000 in unpaid lease and electric bills - may properly have discovered a prison loophole this means that they had been valid of their decision to stop paying.

It's all all the way down to a regulation called the 'Loft Law' in New York, which is there to defend (curiously enough) New York primarily based citizens who are dwelling illegally in business and manufacturing unit buildings within the metropolis. Zachary and Karen stay inside the most effective residential condominium within the West 26th Street building which in any other case houses galleries and companies, that means they might be eligible for the rules to cowl them.

When the Loft Law turned into extended in 2010 to accommodate extra people, the couple have been clued up sufficient to recognize they may at least argue that it covers them. And it is labored pretty well if you ask me; due to the fact they have been living their for 6 years, now not paying a factor, and nobody has stated some thing about it.

Until now, that is. The six glory years appear like over after the building owners have eventually tried to fight again, taking Zachary and Karen to courtroom in a bid to reclaim the $410,000 in what they name neglected payments.

But the couple's lawyer Margaret Sandercock is assured they might not be made to pay up. "The owner isn't entitled to gather hire and my clients are not required to pay rent," she says.

Well, appropriate luck to them; if any folks should have got away with residing in an attic apartment in our domestic town without paying rent for 6 complete years, the probabilities are we might likely try it, too. *Furiously googles housing law loopholes in the UK*

Follow Cat on Twitter.

Like this? Come and take a look at us out on Snapchat Discover.