“Professional tenants” is a term used in housing circles for those who have figured out how to game a system in Massachusetts, a state with a national reputation for being pro-tenant.
An NBC10 investigation found a husband and wife have defrauded small property owners for thousands of dollars, lived in homes rent free, and have been seemingly getting away with it for the past two decades. In housing circles, they are known as “professional tenants” because they make a living by scamming landlords.
Some of those landlords are sharing their stories.
WATCH ANYTIME FOR FREE
 |
Stream NBC10 Boston news for free, 24/7, wherever you are. |
Mark Haskell
Get updates on what's happening in Boston to your inbox. Sign up for our News Headlines newsletter.
In 2009, Mark Haskell and his family needed to move to a bigger home. Because the housing bubble had burst and the property on Shawnee Road in Worcester had lost value, he decided to rent the home instead of selling it.
Haskell’s first tenant was a doctor who lived at the property with no problems.
The next time he listed it, the Callahans showed up. They came armed with a packet of pay stubs and credit reports.
“They said all the right things,” Haskell said. “They were very relatable.”
In retrospect, Haskell said the only red flag was an urgency to get into the property as soon as possible, but he overlooked it at the time.
Upon returning from a business trip, Haskell received a call from the bank. The Callahans’ rental check had been written from a closed account.
“There was a sinking feeling that something wasn’t right,” Haskell said. “I thought I had been scammed.”
Haskell said the couple made excuses about the money and tried to string him along as much as possible. After several months of paying both mortgages while supporting kids and juggling other bills, Haskell hired an attorney to begin the eviction process.
The entire ordeal took about six months. On the eve of the eviction, there was still a last-minute plea from Russell Callahan about accessing funds from his work retirement account so he could stay in the property.
“We never meant for it to come to this point, believe me,” Haskell read from an email he received. “We very much enjoy living here. Please contact me at your earliest convenience to discuss. I want to work with you.”
After the eviction, Haskell said he received a call from a real estate agent who was listing a rental property. The Callahans had applied and the agent was checking with previous landlords.
Haskell was able to help that property owner avoid the legal headache that he experienced. His judgment in housing court is for about $6,000, but he estimates his losses at closer to $10,000 with moving expenses and attorney fees.
Roughly 15 years later, Haskell shakes his head that the pattern continues.
“I can’t believe they’re still up to this and the system allows it,” he said. “If you look at it as a whole, it’s a major scam.”
Tyler Lynch
In 2016, Tyler Lynch was a recent college graduate preparing for his first deployment with the Navy.
Lynch decided to list his Jacksonville home for rent on Zillow. Before long, the Callahans contacted him to see the property.
Lynch said they seemed like an “all-American couple” who asked questions about his collegiate football career and perhaps drinking a beer together at some point.
“They were the kind of people that you would expect a fun neighbor to be,” Lynch recalled.
Shortly after Lynch deployed overseas, the Callahans moved into his home. Before long, they were late on the monthly rent.
After Lynch sent a reminder about making a payment, he said Linda Callahan responded that her husband was in a horrible work accident and was on life support.
“I felt so bad about the situation, I sent flowers to the house,” Lynch said.
More time passed and Lynch had still not received any rental payments. While dealing with limited cell service in a foreign country, Lynch finally managed to reach Russell Callahan on the phone.
During that conversation, Russell Callahan told him that he had not been in an accident. Instead, he blamed his wife for spending the rent money on other items and said the couple was getting a divorce.
Again, Lynch felt sympathy about the situation. But when more weeks passed with nothing but radio silence from the Callahans, reality hit.
“I have this house and I’m in a different country. I’m thinking, “What am I going to do?”” Lynch said. “I realized I made a horrible mistake.”
Lynch had to hire an attorney to assist with the eviction process during his deployment. He said the experience cost him about $10,000.
Lynch, now a lieutenant commander with the Navy living in the Dallas area, was stunned when we contacted him eight years later about his landlord nightmare.
“The neighborly, welcoming people I first met, they’re just criminals,” he said. “They are cheating the system every way they can.”
Hayk Hovhannisyan
Hayk Hovhannisyan and his wife both lost their jobs at the beginning of 2018. Around the same time, the tenants at their Shrewsbury rental property also notified them that they were moving out.
That’s why Hovhannisyan told us it was crucial to find new tenants and have the rental income to help support his two children.
During the open house, Linda Callahan seemed like the perfect prospective tenant.
“Suddenly, there’s this middle-aged, white, happy and trustworthy woman with all the paperwork in hand,” Hovhannisyan recalled.
The Callahans were supposed to move in at the beginning of August, but asked if they could start their tenancy several days early.
On the day they handed over the keys, Hovhannisyan said there were moving trucks at the property already loaded up with the Callahans’ possessions. In retrospect, he now realizes those trucks had come straight from the Callahans’ eviction at their previous rental property.
Just like with other landlords, the first rental check bounced. Excuses followed about the IRS and the bank account being frozen.
Hovhannisyan eventually went to investigate at the bank branch. That’s when he learned the account from which the check was written had been closed for a long time.
“These are professional con artists,” Hovyannisyan said. “I realized this is not some isolated thing. There are actually people who live like this.”
These are professional con artists. I realized this is not some isolated thing. There are actually people who live like this.
Hayk Hovhannisyan
Like several other landlords we spoke with, Hovyannisyan believes he was targeted because he is an immigrant who is unfamiliar with the legal system and eviction process.
He hired an attorney and discovered how long it can take to execute an eviction, even when the tenants are not paying a dime.
On moving day, which landlords are required to pay under Massachusetts law, two trucks were not sufficient to load up all the Callahans’ items. Hovyannisyan had to call in a third truck to finish the job.
When he entered the property for the first time after the eviction, he noticed the walls had been painted a different color.
Hovyannisyan estimates the lost rent, moving expenses and attorney fees cost him about $13,000.
“Hopefully, they’ll end up in some nice jail,” he said. “Free housing. That’s what they’re looking for, yes? Free housing.”
Rory Mallaghan
The home on Jonathan Circle was the first property that Rory Mallaghan owned. When he and his wife moved to a new home in anticipation of having their first child, Mallaghan listed the property for rent on Zillow, hoping to find a tenant who would care for the home where he’d created so many memories.
The Callahans showed up to get a tour of the property and Mallaghan remembers how they gave the impression they would really enjoy living in the space.
“Linda was so bubbly,” Mallaghan recalled. “Every nook of the house, she thought she could put certain things in certain places and everything would be fantastic.”
The couple said they were looking at several properties and already had a packet of paperwork available, including pay stubs, references and credit reports.
The Callahans said they were helping with family in Shrewsbury and staying at a nearby hotel just to get some space. Mallaghan gave them a ride back to the hotel after the showing.
Like other landlord encounters, a familiar series of events followed.
Upon returning from a work trip, Mallaghan discovered the Callahans’ rent checks had bounced. The couple first blamed a problem with the IRS, then described an issue withdrawing funds from a 401k account.
“They always had an excuse of why the money wasn’t there and they were working on it,” Mallaghan said. “They just preyed on my forgiveness and compassion and were able to live there rent-free.”
When he finally ran out of patience, Mallaghan hired an attorney to start the eviction process. After eight months of receiving no rent, Mallaghan wrote an email to the Callahans, pleading with them not to delay any longer and leave the property.
“We’ve come to terms we will never see that money. It was an expensive lesson,” he wrote. “We had plans to buy baby necessities. It’s a tough pill to swallow.”
Mallaghan was there when a constable showed up to execute the eviction and a moving company packed up possession. When he entered the home for the first time, everything was stripped from the walls, including the toilet paper holders.
He said the ordeal cost him about $20,000.
“They know what they’re doing,” Mallaghan said. “They are just taking people for a ride.”
Sitanshu Sinha and Shilpi Gupta
The home on Egret Circle in Shrewsbury was the first property Sitanshu Sinha and Shilpi Gupta purchased when they immigrated to the United States. The couple later decided to move to a larger home in town and rented the old property to several different tenants without incident. Then they listed it again in August 2023.
Russell and Linda Callahan showed up to look at the home and said they were trying to get a loan to buy some land, so they had already assembled a credit report, background check and pay stubs for their bank.
The documents they provided to Sinha and Gupta falsely listed the couple’s last name as “O’Callagham” to avoid detection.
Before moving in, Linda Callahan said she thought the basement would be a perfect space to work on her art and craft projects, and asked if she could pay to have it carpeted. Sinha and Gupta thought it was a strange request from tenants and declined the offer.
“That still sticks with me because of the way things turned out,” Gupta said.
A couple of days after moving into the property, the checks bounced. The pattern of excuses followed, but Sinha said it did not seem like there was any urgency to get the payment situation resolved.
The couple eventually realized they needed to get a lawyer because they started dipping into emergency savings to pay the mortgages on both properties.
“It was very stressful on us financially,” Gupta said.
At the eviction proceedings in housing court, Russell Callahan declined to answer questions from the judge. He would not even state his name under oath without legal representation, according to audio we obtained.
“I don’t credit your testimony, sir,” the judge told Callahan. “I actually don’t credit anything you said. I find you to be evasive and not particularly forthcoming.”
When Sinha called a moving company to get an estimate, the employee asked for the names of the tenants being evicted. A couple minutes later, the employee said he could provide an exact quote because the moving company had already boxed up the Callahans’ possessions on multiple occasions.
On the eve of the move, Linda Callahan made a final plea to stay in the house until after Christmas.
“I know you are very angry with us, and truthfully, we don’t blame you,” read a text message. “We falsified the documents because we wanted to rent from you. And with our history, we knew you wouldn’t consider us.”
After the Callahans moved out, Sinha and Gupta found nail holes and other damage everywhere throughout the house. There were light fixtures, curtain rods and speakers missing.
The couple estimates the financial nightmare cost them about $30,000 in savings. They had planned to invest that money in their two kids’ college savings plans.
The home on Egret Circle is the last known address for the Callahans. No new eviction cases have surfaced since movers packed them up last December.
“I’m still at a loss for words,” Sinha said. “How can something live like this for so long and get away with it?”
Nadia Amrani
Nadia Amrani moved out of her home on Locust Avenue in Worcester and rented a home in Shrewsbury so her three daughters could attend a better high school. The single mom planned to move back to Worcester after her daughters graduated, but needed to find a tenant to help pay the mortgage in the interim.
When the Callahans came to look at the property, they had a packet of paperwork ready to go. They told Amrani they were thinking about buying a home and applying for a mortgage, so they’d already assembled the financial records for the bank.
“I thought they were just being proactive,” Amrani said. “Making things easier for me.”
The documents like credit reports and pay stubs all seemed legit, so Amrani offered the Callahans a rental agreement. She remembers Linda Callahan seeming relieved and in control once she handed her the keys.
Amrani read us the text message she received from Linda Callahan once the lease was signed. Years later, the words take on an ominous tone.
“Thank you so much for your decision on selecting my family,” the message said. “I understand the financial agreement to be met. We will respect your home as if it were our own. Enjoy your day. I know you just made ours great.”
Linda Callahan delayed providing a security deposit until closer to the move-in date, saying her mom was in the hospital having heart surgery. By the time the check bounced, the Callahans were already living in the home.
Amrani said the couple initially blamed problems with the IRS on the lack of funds. When weeks passed with no payment, Amrani went to the bank and discovered the account had been closed.
“I started panicking,” Amrani said. “I couldn’t afford to pay the mortgage and the rent where I was living.”
Amrani hired an attorney and won an eviction at the end of 2019. She is thankful she got rid of the Callahans just before the COVID pandemic. That’s when the government implemented an eviction moratorium, and Amrani believes she would’ve lost her home.
Once the rental payment problems surfaced, Amrani remembers looking up the Callahans in the housing court’s online system. She was stunned when she saw their extensive eviction history, a track record that was nowhere to be found in the documents they had provided in that first encounter.
Those people have been evicted over and over and over again. The system knows them. And nothing has been done.
Nadia Amrani
“They need to pay for what they did,” she said. “Those people have been evicted over and over and over again. The system knows them. And nothing has been done.”
