Caroline Calloway Paid West Village Rent By Gardening, Lawyers Claim

WEST VILLAGE, NY — Instagram influencer Caroline Calloway believes she does not need to pay her former West Village landlord $40,000 in unpaid rent (which he filed suit to claim) because she did fertilizing and installed a chandelier, court records show.

Calloway's legal team Wednesday filed a response to the landlord of her former West 13th Street home denying the influencer owed rent, illegally sublet her apartment or damaged the apartment, New York State Supreme Court records show.

Instead, Calloway — the subject of a ghost writer's controversial tell-all for The Cut — claims she is owed $40,000 for purchasing and installing a chandelier, an antique bird bath and the base for a pond in the building's communal garden.

There's also this:

"There are fancier apartment buildings in New York City than 205 West 13th Street, but to Ms. Calloway, for over ten years, it was the most perfect home she had ever known," the response reads.

"There is no doorman, no bedrooms even—every unit in 205 is a studio—but she loved that little building like no home she has had before or since. In fact, Ms. Calloway had a very troubled childhood, which is why she spent so much money and time making improvements to the property – because 205 was not only her favorite home, but also her first."

Attorneys for the LLC that owns the building did not immediately respond to Patch's request for comment.

Calloway argues she contributed $25,000 worth of work in her apartment, including installing a $3,000 Venetian chandelier.

Attorneys claim Calloway intended to leave these items in the apartment for the next tenant.

Calloway invested at least $10,000 in the communal building garden, which she helped turn from a "barren, garbage-strewn, packed-dirt lot" into a "beautiful backyard," according to the document.

It took Calloway about six months to clear out all the rot, then bought gloves, hoes, topsoil, fertilizer, and rakes and got to work, according to the response.

Calloway added five winding paths through the garden, which involved laying pavement stones that she bought out of pocket, and also bought the base for a pond, an antique birdbath, two birdhouses, and a bird feeder, reads the document.

Additionally, she bought a grill, two tables, eight patio chairs, and a freestanding hammock, according to the document.

"The Landlord was well aware of Ms. Calloway’s costs and efforts expended but never reimbursed Ms. Calloway despite its promises to do so," reads the document from Calloway's legal team.

"Calloway performed these services with the full expectation of receiving the compensation promised to her, which is reasonable, fair, and customary, as compared with what was paid to similarly situated individuals performing substantially the same work in which Calloway was engaged."

Patch reached out to Calloway's attorney Randy Kleinman for comment and he confirmed they were "denying" the landlord's claims.

Those claims include that between September 2020 and March 2022, Calloway illegally sublet her apartment to a famous author and a poet who used to work as an escort, then left the apartment looking like this, according to the original suit.

Calloway's attorneys argue Calloway should not have had to pay rent due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

"Due to unforeseeable events related to the COVID-19 pandemic, all of which were outside of Calloway's control, Calloway was deprived of the intended use (living there)," the lawsuit reads. "And such use became impossible, illegal, and/or impracticable."

The response adds that Calloway was "experiencing financial hardship as a direct result of COVID-19," and wasn't able to work for two years because of the pandemic.

Calloway's legal team ends the gardening section by saying that she is owed no less than $40,000 — the same amount of money that she was accused of not paying in rent in the first lawsuit.

In total, Calloway's legal team filed seven counterclaims, all stating that she was owed at least $40,000 for the damages she endured.