How to legally evict non-paying tenant?

smilingmom

Sun, Jan 12 2014, 4:13 pm

If you have a lot of time you could do it yourself.
Some considerations, you say you rented a room. Are you a licensed boarding house?, if not you may find yourself with more problems than just the lost rental. You can say the person was a roommate or apartment mate, since that is the same as a regular eviction.
If it was a legal apartment and you want to evict them, the process in NYC is relatively simple to do yourself, but extremely time consuming. The average eviction takes about a year in all the boroughs, except Brooklyn, there it takes longer. Usually when you take to court for non-payment, the tenant will offer some money after about six months and that will lengthen the proceeding. This can repeat itself several times, until the person finally gets evicted.

http://cwtfhc.org/for-landlords/

granolamom

Sun, Jan 12 2014, 4:27 pm

I have bad news for you. like others have said, it could take FOREVER to evict a tenant (even a non paying tenant) in NYC. It might be in your best interest to pay them off to leave. I know its a sick thing to consider, especially in light of the fact that they havent been paying you what they owe you, but sometimes that is the fastest way to get your space back.

amother

Sun, Jan 12 2014, 4:41 pm

granolamom wrote:

Not true: one of the few things that can get you evicted in NYC is non-payment of rent.

OP, google everything you can about housing court, and tenants, and follow from there. it's a pretty easy procedure!

smilingmom

Sun, Jan 12 2014, 7:19 pm

amother wrote:

The procedure is straightforward, but as everyone mentioned it takes forever., even for non-payment.
I am not sure if you are talking based on experience in NYC or some other place or google experience.
If a tenant does not want to leave, you would be hard pressed to find a Brooklyn judge that would evict them. They try to get the landlord to take a paltry sum as a down payment for the back rent and then ask them to keep the tenant with a 'promise' of future timely rent.

harriet

Sun, Jan 12 2014, 8:05 pm

smilingmom wrote:

smilingmom (and granolamom and splitpea) are right. nyc is very pro tenant and it can take many months and loss of thousands and thousands (easily 10k+) of dollars before the landlord can FINALLY evict a non paying tenant.

tryinghard

Sun, Jan 12 2014, 8:14 pm

If it seems like you're not going to get the money back anyway, is there a way for you to just kick them out? If it's a rented room, as opposed to an apartment, can you go in while they are not there, remove their stuff and change the lock? How would that work legally?

Orchid

Sun, Jan 12 2014, 9:05 pm

If the "room" is not a legal rental, you cannot go to court, which means you are basically out of options (just my understanding), except maybe doing something like pp mentioned, ie, when they leave, change locks, put their stuff on the lawn.

Is it a legal rental?

Hakol Letovah

Sun, Jan 12 2014, 9:24 pm

Hope its not a frum person. I would feel bad kicking out someone who is unable to pay.
Would it be worthy of your Chessed, if you can afford it?
If we can try to extend generousity and Chessed, you will see a lot of Chessed showered upon you in return. it works.

PM me if you like.

amother

Sun, Jan 12 2014, 9:31 pm

Hakol Letovah wrote:

Yes, it is a frum person, and we don't need the room. So maybe we will give it another month. I wish Chessed wasn't so difficult.

gp2.0

Mon, Jan 13 2014, 5:12 am

Only a sheriff, marshal or constable can carry out a court-ordered warrant to evict a tenant. Landlords may not take the law into their own hands and evict a tenant by use of force or unlawful means. For example, a landlord cannot use threats of violence, remove a tenant’s possessions, lock the tenant out of the apartment, or willfully discontinue essential services such as water or heat. When a tenant is evicted, the landlord may not retain the tenant’s personal belongings or furniture. The landlord must give the tenant a reasonable amount of time to remove all belongings. RPAPL §749; Real Property Law § 235.

A tenant who is evicted from an apartment in a forcible or unlawful manner is entitled to recover triple damages in a legal action against the landlord. Landlords in New York City who use illegal methods to force a tenant to move are also subject to both criminal and civil penalties. Further, the tenant may be entitled to be restored to occupancy. RPAPL § 853; NYC Admin. Code § 26-523, § 26-521.

http://www.housingnyc.com/html.....ml#12

amother

Mon, Jan 13 2014, 6:17 am

smilingmom wrote:

Not true. I am a landlord in NYC. one late payment, the eviction notice gets sent out. month two, notice, month three, file with court. If tenant cannot pay back rent, judge orders to evict. THREE months.

Non-payment of rent is the only way to get rid of non-paying tenants in legally rented NYC apartments.

(And the only way, no matter how wretched or law-breaking or harassing or loud they may be.)

vintagebknyc

Mon, Jan 13 2014, 8:02 am

amother above is correct. we have tenant from hell above us. I swear she must have a connection somewhere in the city because she gets off time and again with things like law breaking, screaming at other tenants, making false 911 calls and having the fire truck come, even felony fraud, etc. and our landlord cannot get rid of her no matter what he tried

granolamom

Mon, Jan 13 2014, 6:00 pm

harriet wrote:

which is why, and I speak from experience, it is sometimes cost effective (if morally repugnant) to pay the tenant to leave.

granolamom

Mon, Jan 13 2014, 6:14 pm

Hakol Letovah wrote:

this hit a raw nerve, I had a very bad experience and was taken advantage of in the name of 'chessed'. its a long irrelevant story, but just wanted to add that if OP is such a nice person and willing to do this for non payers, that's very nice, but be aware of squatters rights. I'm not sure what they are in NYC only that they do exist. be nice if you want, but protect yourself.

granolamom

Mon, Jan 13 2014, 6:23 pm

amother wrote:

you have managed to evict non paying tenants in NYC in just three months?
my dh's experience was very different (he managed a number of residential buildings in manhattan, brooklyn and queens). tenants reschedule court dates. tenants send in letters stating various hardships. or they pay a small fraction of what they owe and promise to pay on the new schedule which still leaves the landlord at a loss. and then they stop paying again. so eviction process begins again. legal fees start to add up and after they finally do get served with eviction (sometimes a year later) you're still out the money they owe plus all those legal fees.

by the way, I think you can also evict tenants in NYC if they are running crack dens in their apartments, or otherwise breaking the law with the space. like subletting rent stabilized apartments that are leased to their long-gone grandmothers.