The owner of a Los Angeles mansion where an Airbnb guest has been squatting for more than a year has bluntly accused her of “extortion” — as it emerged that the so-called “tenant from hell” had been accused only months earlier of refusing to leave another home.
“This is like a nightmare, to be honest,” Sascha Jovanovic told KTLA of the battle to get back his Brentwood estate from Elizabeth Hirschhorn, 55, who is demanding a $100,000 relocation fee to leave.
“This is extortion. This is like manipulation. Nobody should go through this,” Jovanovic said of the Harvard-educated squatter.
“She is a smart person who knows how to manipulate the system, and it is dangerous that people like this are allowed to do this,” Jovanovic said.
“She is obviously trying to extort a community member — and she has done this before.”
Prior to moving into Jovanovic’s guest house — which Hirschhorn had rented on Airbnb in September 2021 for six months at $105 a night — the Massachusetts native was subletting a room in Oakland, Calif., that she also refused to leave, according to court documents.
Hirschhorn agreed to sublet the room in a $2.6 million cottage around September 2019 from tenant Alex Lewin, but eventually became embroiled in a dispute with him over cleaning, according to documents obtained by the Daily Mail,
A lawsuit filed by Lewin along with property owners Brian and Gordon Bishop claims Brian “is informed and believes defendant made unreasonable requests of Mr. Lewin to replace all of her personal items that were allegedly damaged by an unknown substance that was released into the air.
“Additionally, defendant made requests for Mr. Lewin to clean the premises in a very specific manner due to her hypersensitivity to allergens.”
It also alleges Lewin moved out of the home on March 5, 2020, due to Hirschhorn’s “hostile” behavior, and that she continued to live there even after he left — despite having no tenancy agreement and not paying any rent.
But Hirschhorn countersued the landlords, claiming their actions had been harmful to her health and accusing them of negligence.
She claimed Gordon Bishop released an unidentified “harmful substance into the home on November 22, 2019,” the suit said, without elaborating on what it was.
And despite the Bishop brothers’ claim that Lewin had the property professionally cleaned, Hirschhorn said he refused to do so, according to the Daily Mail.
She then allegedly went on to argue that the landlords “pressured” her to leave the property during the COVID shutdown, which she claimed amounted to “negligence.”
Hirschhorn argued in the lawsuit that she returned to the room “following defendants’ partial cleaning of the property on Feb. 13, 2020.
“However, the cleaning was insufficient,” according to the lawsuit, and she “continued to be exposed to the harmful substance, and pressured by cross-defendants to vacate, in the midst of a COVID-19 pandemic shelter-in-place order.”
The case was eventually settled on July 20, 2021 — just over one month before she moved into Jovanovic’s guest house.
It bears striking similarities to the case Jovanovic is bringing against Hirschhorn himself.
He claims he rented out his guest house to Jovanovic for six months, but when she complained that her electronic blinds had stopped working about five months into the lease, Jovanovic said he noticed water damage and signs of mold around her sink — which he claims were not there before Hirschhorn moved in.
Jovanovic claims he offered to pay her to stay at two hotels for five days while his contractor handled the repairs or pay at least $1,500 toward any other hotel of her choosing, according to the Los Angeles Times.
But Hirschhorn declined, writing back: “I don’t feel safe being forced to vacate with a housing disability and the high risks of COVID-19 complications.”
She cited LA County’s COVID-19 Tenant Protections Resolution and a 2011 doctor’s note about extreme chemical sensitivities.
Apparently still trying to assuage Hirschhorn, Jovanovic then offered for her to stay in his home, but she declined that as well, citing an extreme disability due to cat dander.
Tensions continued through the rest of her stay, and when it became clear that Hirschhorn was not leaving or allowing any access inside the unit, Jovanovic reluctantly agreed she could stay through April 12 to give her time to find another place, according to an email in his complaint.
He is suing Hirschhorn in two different cases: a damages complaint to recoup $58,000 in paid rent, and an appeal of the judge’s decision to dismiss the eviction case.
But Hirschhorn filed a countersuit in August, accusing Jovanovic of 15 violations — including negligence, nuisance, intentional infliction of emotional distress, unlawful business practices, and a violation of the LA County COVID procedures.
Her attorneys also argue she should not pay rent — and should instead be paid back the $20,793 —because the city never approved the guest house for occupancy, and its shower was constructed without a permit.
A judge has so far sided with Hirschhorn in the case, ruling that under the city’s rent stabilization ordinance, Jovanovic has no legal reason to evict her under Los Angeles’ recently adopted Just Cause Ordinance — and would be required to pay her a relocation fee to evict her.
