Prevent Yourself From Being Wrongly Evicted
What if you're having trouble paying your rent. Or say your lease has expired. Maybe you've been having an ongoing dispute with your landlord so you decided to withhold rent; so you're putting your rent in escrow until it gets resolved.
With any of these scenarios, is your landlord ever able to evict you? Can he just kick you out? And can your landlord allowed to evict you with no notice? We asked a real estate attorney who said not so fast.
Real estate attorney Adam Leitman Bailey, "No landlord can ever throw you out in the street or remove your belongings without getting a warrant and a judgement in a court of law. In New York, that court of law is Housing Court.
"It is actually a crime," said Leitman Bailey, "for a landlord to throw your possessions out in the street and to evict you without using the court system."
Leitman Bailey points out that going through the courts can take months and months and months.
So the first thing you should do is know your rights. Call your lawyer, or call Legal Aid and they'll appoint one for free.
Reach out to the Housing Department. If your rent is subsidized, check whether the subsidy program, like Section 8, will help you.
There are clear guidelines in the law.
If a tenant hasn't paid the rent the landlord must inform the tenant in writing that full rent is due by a specific deadline or the lease will be terminated.
Regarding other violations. The landlord must inform the tenant in writing of the supposed violation, giving the tenant enough time to correct the problem.
If the lease has expired and the landlord doesn't extend it, and the tenant refuses to leave, the landlord can evict after giving the tenant written notice.
If there is no lease ie. The tenant rents month to month, a landlord only needs to give written notice (usually 30 days in advance) to terminate the lease. If the tenant doesn't get out, the landlord can evict you.
If the court does order you out, the judge might postpone it a bit if given a good reason.
Hardships that may qualify include having young children or a sick or elderly family member. That could enter into the decision, in setting the eviction date.
Learn more by going online: Department of Housing Preservation and Development #212-863-5000 or www.NYC.gov/hpd
Legal Aid #212 577-3346 or www.legal-aid.org or RentLaw.com
Comments: 3
I have been a landlord most of my adult life and I could tell you stories. I am not renting right now, for fear of "bad" tenants. I have an empty apartment that is beautiful, and I refuse to rent it, after 2 very extreme experiences with tenants. I can't go into details, but let me tell you this, being a landlord is no walk in the woods. I have had to evict people, go to court, and walk on eggshells with some tenants. Anyway, when I was single *BUT NOT FOR LONG, I found it very hard to keep up with the tenant nonsense. I have also found out that it is not a good idea to rent to a rich, or famous person. Famous people can treat your apartments like hotels. Pretty disgusting.....and never again. I like the regular JOE, but you still can't be sure WHO OR WHAT you are renting too, and then again, they may claim to run out of money, and DON'T pay the rent with some silly story you just can't believe. Oh Well, so much for my venting today.....Thanks for listening.
PRETTY LONG RUN ON SENTENCE HERE, TO GET MY POINT ACROSS. We landlords are people too!
By the way, every time I went to court, I won my cases, and those cases I did by myself.
It is easier to evict a bad tenant in Westchester, than it is in the city. The laws are different*or whatever. Money talks, nobody walks, except a tricky dick of a tenant. The things I have seen made me want to vomit. Apartments can be left is such a mess, that the bugs that crawl out of the wall look like toys. I didn't even mention other vermin like rodents. You wonder how people live like this, because, they don't own the place.
Now, I'm not saying I always had horrible tenants, I only wish the good ones didn't move away, or buy their own homes. I would have kept one of the best rentals I ever had, if only I didn't have such bad experiences. I am kind of burned out of renting right now, so I have a brand new, spanking clean apartment, that I do not rent. And I don't care about the money I am losing.
I think I told you in another blog spot, that I have a slumlord next door to me who rents out to numerous persons of questionable character. Can't do anything about this at the moment. It takes up a lot of my energy. I just hope his tenants, who moved out, and came to complain to me will make their own complaints to the town I live it. They were disgusted with the way he kept the house, and so am I. I live in an adorable neighborhood, but this one house, just ruins it.
we used to live in some one basement with 2 kids, when i got my third kid we had to move so we bought a house.this is only 2 years now we decide to rent a floor.this is the biggest mistake we ever make in our lives.tenant stop paying rent, when we ask for rent the told us by law we cant throw them out so we can take them to court so we did.this month will make nine months they are living free ,and still here.now because of tenant i dont have a cable for my kids to see tv,my boiler break down, step is break,my daughter just started high school i cant afford a cell phone for her, house is under violation,my baby has to get a heart surgery,con ed and water bill is very high, and as mr.lee said we are people too.and tenant dont care.you are so right ihope and pray to god for this to over.so much for now, tomorrow is work thanks for listening.hi howard my family and i love to watch your show but now we cant because we dont have a tv,but god bless you keep up the good job.