How Can I Evict My Tenant?

What landlords in New York need to know before trying to evict a tenant.

If you live in New York, you may* be able to evict a tenant under the following conditions:

Non-payment of rent
Damage of rental property
Failure to follow other tenant obligations listed in your lease
Sale or foreclosure of the property
Withdrawal from the rental market

*During the COVID-19 pandemic, New York launched an eviction and foreclosure moratorium. This moratorium is currently slated to end August 31, 2021, but may be extended depending on circumstances.

Non-payment of rent

If you simply want the money that is due to you**, you can start a “non-payment action.” You first have to send your tenant a 14 Day Written Demand – a letter, sent via UPSP Certified Mail. In this letter you spell out to the tenant that unless the back rent is paid in full, they have 14 days to move out or else eviction proceedings will begin. Until this letter is sent (and received by the renter), you won’t be able to start the eviction process.

**If your tenant is behind in their rent due to the COVID-19 pandemic, they may be eligible for The New York State Emergency Rental Assistance Program (ERAP). https://otda.ny.gov/programs/Emergency-Rental-Assistance/

If, however, you want the tenant out for any other reason, you will need to start a “Holdover Action.”

Holdover Actions

What you do next depends on why you want to evict a tenant.

If the tenant is damaging the property or is doing anything against the agreements in the lease, you must send a “Notice to Cure” – a letter detailing what you want them to stop doing and a deadline to fix things. If the deadline passes without the problem being “cured”, you then need to serve the tenant a “Termination Notice” noting a deadline for them to leave the property.

If you need the tenant to leave because you are selling the property, it’s being foreclosed, or you want to move in a relative instead, each of these have their own mandates with different notices, different timelines, and different ways they are handled in court. You can see some of your options here. https://www.ny-bankruptcy.com/services/landlord-tenant-defense/

What to do first

Call a lawyer who works specifically New York Landlord-Tenant Litigation.

New York is a tenant-friendly state. Landlords must follow multiple regulations, and if at any point they skip or ignore the rules, their eviction cases can be thrown out of court. Plus, the rules are slightly different between New York City and the rest of the state. And there are a lot of them. Do not try to do this yourself.

Ronald D. Weiss, P.C. has been handling these types of cases for years. He can guide you through the process, handle all the paperwork, and if things end up in court, he will be there on your side. Call him at 631-271-3737 for a free consultation on what is the best way to get the resolution you want.

For more information on New York State and New York City laws, check out Fact Sheet #32 – Eviction, from the NYS Department of Homes and Community Renewal. https://hcr.ny.gov/system/files/documents/2021/05/fact-sheet-32-05-2021.pdf