Holdover Tenant and Non Payment of Rent
Hi,
New landlord here and I am in New York City. I have a tenant who has stopped paying rent all together since June 2020. Since his lease ends in July 31, 2020, I issued him with a non-renewal lease letter. He just called me and said he isn't going to move out because of corona virus.
Should I wait until august 1 to evict him for staying past his lease or start the eviction process now for non payment of his rent by giving him the 3 day rent demand.
Any suggestions would be helpful.
Thanks,
Jimmy
Reach out to an RE attorney. There may be executive orders in place from your Governor providing a moratorium on certain actions against a tenant. On a federal level, the CARES Act is still in place for a bit longer so if your loan falls under this, and a lot do, there are restrictions there. You can't post a notice to vacate until 26 July stating the tenant must move out on or before midnight 31 August.
There's an eviction moratorium declared by Governor Cuomo thru August 20 if you're in NY. Might be extended. Then there's a backlog in the courts. I would have an attorney navigate this one. I have a tenant behind on the rent since last year, attorney got a court stipulation and he's behind on the stipulation 5 months. My attorney can't move on it at the moment.
My attorney has stated to give them a 3 day rent demand followed by a 14 day rent demand and filed for eviction from the court although it wont be processed until after August. They say the backlog may take over 6 months. I might not have enough funds to do weather the storm for that long. I was wondering if there was a better way to handle this situation.
Due to the Pandemic, the delays are extraordinary. I done evictions in the past, tenants are allowed one or two postponements for illness, 30 days each, and after eviction is granted, there's a waiting period for Marshalls, backlogs then 30 to 60 days, and how much longer with the Pandemic is anyone's guess. And the judge can also give a grace period.
So the point is, the guy could squat for a year. Ordinarily people suggest cash for keys, but now I don't know if it'll work with the dangers of looking for a new place, both for landlord and tenant.
I have an eviction currently underway, in the stipulation period, and I'm told eviction can proceed if he violated it, which he did. However, due to the Pandemic, and the moratorium, he can still go to court and ask for more time after the moratorium period ends. I already spent $2,000 in legal fees, with $750 of it to be recovered in the stipulation, and I'm told wouldn't have been granted if he objected. Then when it reaches the Marshall stage, there's another backlog.
Because I'm retired, the rentals are mortgage free, I decided to sit back and see what happens. With the Pandemic, the attorney just threw up his hands. I sent tenant a text saying they got 4 adults working, maybe a fifth with the son graduating high school, 5 stimulus payments, and I know 4 of them work in retail, and with malls closed, collected unemployment with $600/week on top. News stories report some people make more unemployed, and in their case, they are, all fabulously. All of this the government said for food and rent so people wouldn't be evicted. Where's the money? Took them a week to get back to me saying they have $10K set aside for paying back rent. As the attorney told me not to take part payments, took $9,000 for three stipulation payments. That was June 15 and they're paid up thru Feb 2020.
In your case, I don't know if your tenant is married, how many people in the family working or not. So you can frame the argument how much they're collecting. My wife is not in favor of having contractors work on the rental during vacancies, doing showings during the Pandemic, so this suit us fine. As the rental is mortgage free, the $9,000 covers property taxes for the year. They cover utilities, and the $3,000 we collected in January covers maintenance and repairs, insurance for the year. So we're set. I think I'll purposely not dun him in July, but more by Aug 15, and see if he'll pay more. Meanwhile, congress is working on more stimulus money. So we'll see.
Looks like most of the eviction tools from the past is not totally workable right now. I don't know is others have better ideas, but if you don't have reserves for a few months, you have a problem.
Thank you for the detailed response. wow up to a year eviction. How do landlords even survive with this time line.
This is my first time dealing with evictions. I am based out in college point. Do you know where I could find a good lawyer?
Tenant is ma
Originally posted by @Jimmy Kong:Thank you for the detailed response. wow up to a year eviction. How do landlords even survive with this time line.
This is my first time dealing with evictions. I am based out in college point. Do you know where I could find a good lawyer?
In this past year, I needed an estate lawyer as well as an eviction lawyer, I found them through: Avvo
I'm currently doing an eviction in Nassau County and found my eviction lawyer that way. The sites summarizes the lawyer's practice, reviews etc. I also found my estate attorney that way also, was going to use someone in my neighborhood, but didn't due to reviews.
I assume your eviction will be in NYC, and if so get a lawyer in your county for better service. I used an attorney for eviction in Queens County some 20 years ago, but he's retired now and my wife was a classmate of his wife, so I think my case got better attention. He was also a legal aid lawyer at an earlier time representing tenants, specializing in coming up with excuses to drag out evictions. Even in normal times, says he can drag cases out to a year. So I think I got an expert.
Good luck to you, and keep me updated as I am curious if the problems are as bad as they say.
How are things going for you? Just got the BP notice you're following me .
Just as an update, I got another $3,000 from my tenant this month after the $9,000 payment in June. We're currently working to get him a new high flush toilet which he'll contribute $400 and probably runs us $250 as part of the project. He'll further said he should have another payment for us by the end of August which should be $3,000.
From what I see, he's doing OK with the stimulus payments, and the extra payment of $600 on top of the unemployment. If the bill go through Congress, he should be OK as they have 4, possibly 5 adults working, or was working. I think my sitting back and see what happens turn out to be the right call and he appreciated our help with the toilet.
The Federal stimulus helping tenants pay rent seems to be working for for my tenant which in the end helps me. Is your tenant paying anything? Find any attorneys?
Based on the way some states are running, I highly recommend you focus on getting the tenant to pay and stop worrying about trying to get them out. NYC keeps ramping up their ridiculous programs and your hands are really tied. Focus on getting rent.
