Bargain apartment: The landlord is trying to evict Sarah Berman who it accuses of marrying Stanley Lowell to inherit his controlled-rent property

Sarah Berman, 63, is being accused of marrying Stanley Lowell, 87, a month before he passed to ensure she would get his $400/month rent-controlled West Village apartment in New York. The buildings owner, Fourth FGP LLC, feel that Lowell was conned into marrying the woman shortly before his death, because she was interested in attaining the rent-controlled property all along.

According to other neighbors in the building, Berman is a bad tenant and Lowell was clearly out of it during his last few months. Although, considering that some of these flats could go for around $5,000, I can’t imagine the neighbors being too thrilled with her great deal either. Whether it’s jealousy or legitimate concern will be up to a court.

She wants people to think she’s crazy,’ one told the New York Post, adding that she charges out of the building pointing a big stick in front of her to keep people away.

‘She used to get into violent arguments with some of the guys in the building,’ another told the newspaper.

One neighbour claimed that three years ago when they complained of vermin and a foul odour coming from the flat, Berman refused to let in an exterminator.

Residents said the couple, who had been living together since the early 1990s, never acknowledged each other in public and had loud arguments.