For Landlords in NY: How to Legally Evict Default Tenants
Some tenants can be difficult to handle.
They may not pay rent on time (some may not pay at all), or they may regularly violate the lease terms.
“Hey, you were NOT supposed to bring pets with you in the house. We agreed to this when signing the lease agreement. Yet…<Hangs the phone>… Hello? Hello? Can you hear me?”
Bad, bad tenants!
Obviously, everyone has their limits to patience; you’ll have yours.
You can’t just keep putting up with the fussy behavior of your tenants all the time.
There comes a point when you say: Okay, that’s enough!
You don’t want them on your property anymore.
But you can’t just throw them out;the law does not permit you to do so.
So how do you tackle this problem?
Five words: You. Must. Approach. It. Legally.
Every state in the U.S has its own tenant eviction laws; New York is no exception.
It requires landlords to first terminate the tenancy, and after they’ve done that, they can then evict their tenants.
Violation of the law can put you at risk of a lawsuit where your tenant may accuse you of illegally evicting them from the property. You don’t want that to happen, right?
How should you terminate the tenancy?
To terminate the tenancy, you’ll have to serve your tenant a written notice. The type of notice you need to serve will be determined by the reason for the eviction.
If your tenant hasn’t paid the rent
In this case, you’ll serve your tenant a three-day notice. The tenant must pay the due rent within three days of receiving the notice, otherwise you’ve the legal right to evict them.
Make sure when you serve a three-day notice, you inform your tenant about it over the phone, in person, through email or whatever is convenient for you.
And keep any evidence for your record.
If, at the end of the three-day period, your tenant hasn’t still paid the rent, you can file an eviction lawsuit at a local court. The court will then order your tenant to move out of the property.
If your tenant is in violation of a lease term
All lease agreements contain certain terms. For example, your lease agreement may contain terms mentioning that subleasing is not permitted, pets are not allowed, no commercial activities are allowed etc. etc.
Tenants must honor the terms of the lease agreement.
If your tenant is in violation of one (or more) lease terms, you need to proceed by issuing a notice to cure.
The notice to cure is served to inform the tenant that they’re in violation of lease terms and they should correct the violation within ten days of receiving the notice.
If your tenant does not take any action, you can then issue them a notice of termination.
The notice of termination is typically served on a thirty-day period, after which, the tenant must vacate the property. If they don’t, you file for the eviction in the court.
Do you have a default tenant who you want to evict from your property?
Milenkovic Law Group can help you!
We are one of the leading law firms in New York comprising of qualified attorneys, specializing in the area of Real estate and providing our services in Long Island, Brooklyn, Manhattan, Bronx and Queens. Contact us today to discuss your landlord-tenant dispute.