The frustrated owner of a Brooklyn home that was torched by squatters said he’s repeatedly tried to do the right thing to fix up the house — but the intruders “keep coming back,” he told The Post.
Zafar Iqbal, a 53-year-old MTA worker who bought the Dyker Heights home for $1.1 million in 2017, said he’s now shelling out $6,000 a month in mortgage and going broke — thanks to the unwelcome intruders.
He’s even afraid to go near his own house for fear of the people who have taken up residence there.
“Every two or three weeks I go there but I don’t approach,” Iqbal said. “I don’t know if these guys have weapons or whatever. My safety is precious too.”
The latest victim of the city’s squatter nightmare, Iqbal said he’s been waiting three months for his insurance claim to go through so he can finally spruce up the property that has become an eyesore.
“I got a couple of contractors, they started working on the house,” he said. “Next thing I know I got a call from the fire department that the house is burnt out. Somebody got in there and torched my house.
“That’s when I found out it was a squatter living there. The squatters have more rights than the homeowners. I’m the owner of the house. How much more can I do? I need help.”
Squatters have become a menace throughout the Big Apple in recent years, thanks to a post-pandemic jump in homelessness, the migrant crisis and a massive backlog of cases in the city’s housing courts, experts said.
The 8-bedroom house at 1237 67th Street has been just one of the targets, and a source of neighborhood complaints.
Squatters wreaked havoc on the block, stealing from neighbors, damaging other homes and smashing security cameras — until one intruder burned the house down, causing an estimated $900,000 in damage.
Alleged squatter Cheng Chen, 46, was charged with arson and criminal mischief in the Nov. 29 blaze and was hit with a six-month jail term after pleading guilty.
He told cops he was smoking cigarettes and lit candles, then went to heat up water to stay warm and decided to take a shower, only to return to see the flames, according to a criminal complaint filed in the case.
Iqbal said he was living in his house for nearly three years but moved out and cleared out his tenants to renovate it — but has yet to get the chance to follow through.
He said he thought he was in the clear after he had Chen arrested, but that hasn’t been the case.
“The thing is they keep coming back,” he said of the squatters. “What are they going to do, cook food over there? There is no heat, no hot water There is nothing working over there. I got some safety guys [who] came and boarded up the house, but they still got in.”
Now Iqbal is in a holding pattern while he waits for Wells Fargo to come through with the insurance claim.
Meanwhile, the bills keep mounting.
“I don’t make that type of money and I’m paying all that money out of my pocket,” he said. “This is costing me. It’s not right.
“It’s stressful for everybody,” he added.
“My wife is upset. Her health is not that good and this is just compounding it more. This is not good for my neighbors. I treat my neighbors as a family. Your neighbors are an extension of your family, basically.
“I do apologize for what’s going on, but there is nothing more I can do.”
