KUALA LUMPUR, Jan 3 — An apartment owner has been forced to turn to the courts to evict his tenant after the property was turned into a brothel.

Mitch Spaiser’s nightmare started after he rented the townhouse, located at Murray Hill, Manhattan to interior designer Patricia Taub.

The partying started after Taub sublet the 278.7 sq metres US$16,000 (RM66,744) a month triplex in November 2020 to Ashley Jurman.

Neighbours of the townhouse then complained about loud music, ganja smoke and crowding, New York Post reported. 

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Revelers would line up to enter the townhouse where they drank and smoked on a balcony.

Shan Haider, who rents the penthouse apartment in the townhouse said loud partying sometimes starts as early as 4am.

“I complained so many times,” he said.

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He said some of the downstairs revelers had broken into his apartment in April last year while he was out of town and that video captured the man with his pants down walking in with a woman following.

Spaiser, who bought the townhouse in 2012 as an investment, said he was inundated with complaints about the partying.

“I was getting calls from people in the neighbourhood threatening my life,” he said.

Spaiser, who had since filed a suit, tried to evict Jurman who in turn demanded money to leave.

The suit, filed in August, had named Taub, Jurman and “John Does” as defendants.

One of the John Does was later identified in legal papers as Kenyatti Adams, who moved in with Jurman in April 2021.

“Adams is using the premises to host illegal poker games, to host sex trafficking and prostitution activities, and to hold illegal afterhours parties.”

“He mainly enters on the weekend and leaves during the weekdays,” the suit alleges.

Responding to the suit, Adams acknowledges that he plays poker, but denies doing anything illegal and said Jurman moved out of the house when he accused her of planning “improper” activities there.

He continues to live in the townhouse and claimed Covid-19 hardship, saying he was unable to pay the rent because of the pandemic.