Tenant termination in NYC

[Senai] I know, I am late in reporting on the court system. Yesterday I was so down that I didn't want to talk about it. First some background, I own a two-family home in the Bronx. I rent the downstairs two-bedroom apartment out. Over the years it has proved to be very successful. Until a year ago when I rented to a family of four. Now I usually limit the number of people in this apartment to three but this man came and begged for the apartment. It was near his children school, familiar with the neighborhood, etc. I did the usual credit and employment check and they seemed OK.
what sealed it for me was when I received a notarized letter from his former landlord saying how he was such a good tenant, paid his bills on time. He wanted them to leave because he had family coming from P.R. and they needed a place to stay. This sounded reasonable to me and the potential tenant was very persistent about the apartment. I let him have it - with a one year lease (mistake). He paid the first and second month's rent with no problem. On the third month he was a week late - reason? school started (what?!) Another two months he paid on time and then was late again - why? he was off so he didn't get paid that week (what?!) This pattern continued with one sorry excuse after another, wife couldn't work, had to buy clothes for children. When the lease finally ended I told him that I would not be renewing it and he would have to leave. At that time he was already two weeks late with the rent and I would not accept partial rent. His response to me was, "I tried to work with you." (what?!). He continued by saying "I am not leaving and if you want me out you will have to take me to court."

Here is where I got my lesson about being a landlord in NYC. First, the tenant has all the rights. I was told that I could not do anything to him since that was legally his apartment! If I wanted him out I would have to go to court. If I did anything to him, it would hurt my case. So I had to call off those folks who offered to hang him out to dry. The paperwork was relatively simple once I was able to find out what I needed and where I had to go to get it. Advice was freely given by those who had 'been there done that' but no one mentioned the time involved. Even though I had already sent a letter to him to terminate the premises in 30 days, I had to get someone who was not involved to serve him with one of the forms and notarize it - another 30 days. Then I had to complete two forms and have them served followed up with a postcard notifying the tenant of his pending court date three weeks later. Here is where my inexperience slowed the process. I used the Bronx Sherriff's office to ensure that he was properly served - I was told any error could require me to start all over again. The proof of service document along with post cards to the tenants had to be given to the courts. I did not do that, I thought I could mail the post card myself. When I learned that this was not the procedure, plus I did not have an original proof of service from the Sherriff who served him, my court date was postponed - three weeks. I now have a court date for October 4th. In meantime I have not received any rent from this tenant since June 1, (he said it is in escrow!?) Anyway my attorney said that I could not take any money from him because it would change the case. I did however request that the tenant not only get out but pay all of the arrears with interest. Not sure how much interest I should ask for though.

I am writing all of this one to get it out of my system and two to let you know how the process works to evict a NYC tenant. By the way there is a resource center in the court house where you can speak to an attorney for free. I would highly recommend that if you are doing an eviction yourself. The attorney I used was a generalist about NYC evictions. The resource attorney was precise about the process and helped me avoid some of the pitfalls.

I will let you know after October 4 what I hope will be the end of the story.

Be blessed.