Maurice Mann, a landlord in New York City, relates the story of one especially difficult "professional tenant" who never paid his rent and repeatedly hauled Mann into housing court for manufactured building code violations. After damaging the apartment in some way, the tenant would call the housing inspectors, who would order Mann into housing court, a special judicial body that routinely rules in favor of tenants. The housing judge would order Mann to make the repair, while exempting the tenant from rent until all the violations were fixed. When Mann sent a repair crew to the apartment, the tenant wouldn't let them in. When the repair crew did manage to gain entry and make the repairs, usually to a broken smoke alarm, doorknob or window latch, the tenant would break them again. Mann thus spent a lot of time in housing court. He finally solved his short-term problem by making videotapes of his workmen doing repairs. "After we're done, we hold up a copy of today's newspaper to show when it was finished. Then we bring the tapes and play them in court."

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