Woman Who Faced Eviction Over 3 Emotional Support Parrots Wins $165,000

A woman who faced eviction from her Manhattan apartment because of her three emotional support parrots will receive $165,000 in damages plus $585,000 for her apartment, according to a settlement decree announced by federal prosecutors.

The consent decree announced Monday resolves a dispute between Meril Lesser and the board of Rutherford, a 175-unit cooperative apartment building where Lesser lived with her parakeets Layla, Ginger and Curtis.

Lesser bought an apartment in Rutherford in Manhattan’s Gramercy Park neighborhood in 1999 and moved in with her birds.

Neighbor Charlotte Kullen began complaining in 2015. “Oh my God, I still wake up with nightmares of her screaming in my head,” Kullen told the Daily News.

The New York Department of Environmental Protection sent inspectors 15 times but found no evidence of excessive noise.

“No birds, no screams – no noise,” wrote an inspector on February 7, 2016.

Lesser submitted letters from her psychiatrist explaining that she needed the birds for her mental well-being, but the Rutherford board began eviction proceedings in May 2016.

Lesser moved out and sublet her apartment. She filed a federal fair housing complaint with the Department of Housing and Urban Development in 2018, and HUD found probable cause to believe Rutherford violated Lesser’s fair housing rights.

Rather than settle the case, Rutherford chose to go to federal court, triggering the statutory requirement for the Justice Department to file a lawsuit, said U.S. Attorney Damian Williams in Manhattan.

Williams said the consent decree approved by a federal judge on Aug. 16 represents the largest recovery the federal government has ever obtained for a disabled person whose housing provider denied them the right to have a pet. assistance.

“This result should cause all housing providers to take a hard look at whether their policies and procedures comply with federal law,” Williams said.

Peter Livingston, an attorney for the Rutherford Co-op Board, said his client was pleased to settle the case.

In addition to paying Lesser $165,000 and buying her shares in the co-op for $565,000, Rutherford must adopt a reasonable accommodation policy for service animals and allow the federal government to monitor compliance.

They must also dismiss the eviction proceeding against Lesser in housing court.

Lesser did not respond to a text sent to a phone number listed for her.

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