Residents of a Philadelphia luxury building owned by international rapper Jay-Z claim that they are being harassed by Jay-Z’s legal team, so they will ultimately vacate the premises.
According to Fox News, Jay-Z (real name Shawn Carter), is a co-owner of the company SCC North American Realty, LLC, which owns and operates a 24-unit condominium complex, which was purchased January of 2009.
Several tenants contacted Fox News to complain about the treatment they have been receiving, claiming that they are being forced out of their apartments, with frivolous lawsuits, and other harassment tactics.
“The whole thing has been so unsettling,” a former tenant named Liza Tedeschi told Fox News. “I’ve been in tears over this…They filed a lawsuit against me knowing that I had paid the rent. The lawyer admitted it to me, yet they still filed the lawsuit against me…It’s total and utter harassment.”
Tedeschi told Fox News that Jay-Z’s real estate company even gave out the personal cell phone numbers of tenants to realtors to show apartments that are not even up for sale.
According to residents, Jay-Z’s ultimate goal is to evict all of the tenants from the property and it seems to be working – 15 tenants have left the building since May.
The tenants in the building became so angry that they called Pennsylvania Sen. Larry Farnese, who sent Jay-Z’s lawyer a letter, on August 12th.
Sen. Farnese expressed concern over the treatment of the residents in the letter.
“He expressed his concern about what was happening in the building and asked that the management thoroughly investigate each complaint and handle each tenant on a case-by-case basis, and determine if eviction was appropriate, or if it was not,” Senator Farnese’s Communications Director, Kathie Abookire, revealed.
According to Abookrie, “The latest that we heard is that Liza was issued a stay while the matter was investigated further. Our concern is for the tenant, that they’re being treated properly, fairly and in accordance with the law. The owner of the building is immaterial. The fact that someone may be famous is not our concern.”
So far, Shawn “Jay-Z” Carter, who is married to superstar Beyonce Knowles (Carter), has not made a statement about the allegations.
