Bay Area Family Reclaims Home From Renter Who ‘Forced’ Them Out 1 Year Ago

October 15, 2020

A family in the San Francisco Bay Area who were forced out by their tenant following a local pandemic shutdown order have finally reclaimed their home.

The stuff of nightmares: The Yang family endured a year-long battle with a renter who financially ruined them and forced them out of their single-family house on Norfolk Street in San Mateo.

In an interview with NBC’s Investigative Unit, 23-year-old UC Berkeley student Alex Yang shared that his mother met the renter, a woman named Baiting Jiang online.
Needing help to pay her mortgage, the single mother of two agreed to let Jiang rent a room in their home.
At the time, Yang was finishing his last year at the university so it was only his mom and his 12-year-old sister who lived under the same roof as Jiang.
It soon became apparent that renting the room to Jiang was not a good idea.
The issues were initially strange visitors coming over but things escalated into verbal arguments with both sides eventually accusing each other of harassment.
Jiang allegedly flooded a bathroom intentionally, resulting in thousands of dollars in water damage.
When the family’s lawyer served Jiang a 30-day notice to vacate the house, she reportedly ignored the notice and responded with threats.
The family tried to get the police involved multiple times, but the authorities allegedly dismissed their complaints as “a civil issue” which meant they could not interfere.

When the pandemic hit: Due to COVID-19, their eviction case set for a March 2020 trial was halted and California courts delayed eviction cases to protect vulnerable tenants from being evicted.

This fighting between the family and Jiang continued, eventually prompting a judge to grant restraining orders against both Jiang and the homeowner.
In the past three months, local authorities responded to the home 31 times.
Concerned with their mental health and safety, the family was left with no other choice but to vacate their own house.
They ended up leaving their house and paying for a small room elsewhere, with Yang forced to sleep in his car across the street.
Jiang, who hasn’t paid rent money for months, chose to stay.

The nightmare ends: Baiting Jiang only agreed to finally leave the house days before both parties were scheduled to appear in court for an eviction hearing, according to the follow-up report by NBC Bay Area.

Yang said the family was relieved upon receiving the news from their lawyer that they could finally reclaim their home.
However, they expressed their concerns that Jiang would victimize another family.
The family intends to pursue legal action against Jiang to demand compensation in legal costs and property damages.

Feature Image via NBC Bay Area

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