By Miles Dilworth, Senior Reporter For Dailymail.Com
19:05 20 Mar 2024, updated 19:10 20 Mar 2024
- Sang Kim has sparked uproar in the wealthy neighborhood of Bellevue after allegedly refusing to leave a $2m home he hasn’t paid rent on for almost a year
- DailyMail.com has now obtained court documents that claim Kim moved straight from a previous $1.3m squat where he and his family freeloaded for two years
- The case comes as thousands of US property owners struggle with a broken legal system that allows squatters to live a life of luxury without paying a penny
A ‘serial squatter’ refusing to leave a $2million Seattle home pulled the same trick on his previous landlords, failing to pay rent for two years and costing them up to $200,000, it is alleged.
Sang Kim has sparked fury in the upmarket neighborhood of Bellevue after squatting for almost a year in a five-bedroom property owned by Jaskaran Singh, who has claimed in legal filings that his tenant owes him around $80,000.
It led to an ugly confrontation between the pair and a protest of around 200 residents, demanding the ‘con man’ cough up or get out.
But now DailyMail.com can reveal Kim and his family are alleged to have moved straight into Singh’s property from a previous squat nearby, where they used similar delaying tactics to avoid paying rent of around $4,000 a month on a three-bedroom, $1.3million home.
Kim and his wife Yougin were also earning a combined income of $408,000 a year working for medical consultancy SiriusIQ when they moved into Singh’s property, according to a proof-of-income letter seen by DailyMail.com.
They lost their jobs shortly after.
But Singh claims the Kims continue ‘living a lavish life’ in his home, ‘doing barbecues, buying new cars, living in the best neighborhood and sending his kids to the best schools’.
‘Whereas the poor landlords, they are doing multiple jobs to support the mortgage of his house,’ he added. ‘He [Kim] has no shame and he does not care about society.’
Kim has previously accused Singh of ‘fabricating stories’ about him and claims he is simply a Korean national trying to make it in the US.
The extraordinary row comes as thousands of American property owners struggle with a broken legal system that is allowing squatters to live rent free in upmarket homes without consequence.
Kim, a father-of-two, rented Singh’s home in the summer of 2022, but has since only paid for one month’s rent out of his own pocket, relying on legal aid until May 2023, when payments stopped entirely, Singh claims.
But the squatter’s freeloading dates back almost four years, according to a declaration signed by local estate agent Jani Spencer in support of Singh’s eviction proceedings against Kim.
In her statement, Spencer claims a couple she had sold a $1.3million Bellevue property to contacted her in September 2020 complaining that they had rented it to Kim but he was no longer paying up.
Kim was served with a 90-day eviction notice, which he ignored, but it then took until March 2022 to get a court date and the summer of that year for him to finally be evicted, Spencer stated.
She said that during that time she spoke to Kim ‘several times’ and he ‘always had a story about getting money, waiting for some partner or employer to pay him’.
Ultimately, the landlords lost two years of rental income, worth around $100,000, $5,000 in unpaid utilities, $20,000 in repairs and around $100,000 in the value of the property once they were finally able to sell it, Spencer claims.
The couple are still recovering from the financial and emotional damage caused by the Kims and are unwilling to speak about it, the estate agent said.
Spencer’s statement adds that the Kims ‘are doing the exact same thing to [Singh]…not paying rent and utilities, promising rent money within the week, promising to move, none of which is true as evidenced by the fact that they refuse to vacate the property…
‘I can’t understand how such behavior is allowed to continue.’
Spencer told DailyMail.com that Mr Kim would delay rent instalments by claiming he was waiting on payments for sales of PPE equipment.
She said the family left the house in a ‘wreck’, but her clients did not recover a penny of the money owed to them because they did not pursue the case any further.
Kim told DailyMail.com that Spencer’s claims were ‘bulls***’, but hung up before answering further questions.
Singh said the case did not appear on Kim’s record during background checks, allowing him to repeat his behavior.
Singh filed eviction proceedings when his tenant first started missing payments, but the Housing Justice Project (HJP), a non-profit, stepped in on the Kims’ behalf, applying for a stay on the eviction and paying some of the back rent.
The HJP even paid a three-month advance on the rent to give the family time to move out.
But when the three months were up in May 2023, Singh says the family still did not leave and they started missing rent payments again.
Despite this, he claims the Kims have bought two Mazda 3s, which retail at upwards of $20,000, that are parked in the front of his home.
Singh provided DailyMail.com with an income verification letter signed by Joseph Gonzalez, General Manager of medical consultancy CLX Health, part of SiriusIQ, dated July 6, 2022, which said Sang and Yougin Kim are partners in the business and receive an average monthly income including bonuses and commission equaling $22,000 a month and $12,000 a month respectively.
The letter added that the couple ‘are currently exiting the corporate housing that was provided by the Company’.
Mr Gonzalez confirmed to DailyMail.com that the couple’s employment was terminated in August 2022 as their projects with the firm had been ‘Covid-19 related’.
Singh and his lawyer organized a protest outside the home on Saturday with around 200 people attending, holding placards and chanting ‘No pay, no stay’.
Seattle-based journalist Jonathan Choe filmed the protest.
King County Republican Party Vice Chair Kory Hahn, led a ‘Get out, con man!’ chant in Korean and said: ‘If you’re not going to pay, you shouldn’t stay there.’
Police had to intervene when some protesters went and banged on the door of the home.
A court hearing is scheduled for April 5.