New York Eviction Attorney: Protect Your Property Rights

Efficient Eviction Solutions for New York Landlords

As a landlord, you may need help with creating a lease or dealing with a tenant who is not paying rent or damaging the unit. Perhaps you now need the unit for a family member, must sell the property, or perform repairs.

At Letterio & Haug, LLP we provide effective advocacy for landlords. Backed by two decades of experience, our landlord tenant lawyers in NY have helped clients resolve their eviction problems. We can assist you, too. Our real estate team can navigate you through the legal process as we defend your rights and help you make sound choices about your future.

Contact us online to schedule a consultation with our eviction lawyers. Located in Beacon, and we serve all of New York.

2019 Tenant Protection Act: Implications for NY Landlords

The Housing Stability and Tenant Protection Act of 2019 made life much harder for landlords throughout New York. For starters, it made it more difficult to deregulate rent controlled apartments. Prior to the Housing Stability and Tenant Protection Act taking effect, landlords could deregulate rent controlled apartments if the rent reached $2,775 a month or the tenant’s income reached $200,000 a year. The Housing Stability and Tenant Protection Act eliminated those options for removing apartments from rent stabilization.

Another way that the Housing Stability and Tenant Protection Act hurt landlords is eliminating the vacancy bonus. Before the Housing Stability and Tenant Protection Act became law, the vacancy bonus allowed landlords to raise the rent 20 percent on new leases for rent controlled apartments. In some cases, landlords can still do this, but only if their local rent guidelines board institutes their own vacancy bonus regulation.

The Housing Stability and Tenant Protection Act also limits what landlords can charge for making improvements to the apartment building or individual apartments, which didn’t used to be the case before the 2019 law was instituted.

Most notably, the Housing Stability and Tenant Protection Act made it harder for landlords to evict tenants. Under the law: 

• Landlords aren’t allowed to charge additional fees for nonpayment of rent. They can charge late fees but only after rent has been late for five days. In addition, the late fees cannot exceed $50 or 5 percent of the tenant’s rent (whichever is less).
• If a tenant can’t find a new place to live, courts can postpone an eviction for up to a year. In addition, if during that year the tenant pays the back rent, the court can overturn the eviction (this is only if the tenant was evicted for nonpayment of rent).
• The notice periods for eviction warrants as well as other court processes have been extended, which gives tenants more time to avoid eviction.

When Can a Landlord Evict a Tenant?

According to New York law, a landlord is able to evict a tenant on specific grounds, such as in the event of a holdover or non-payment of rent. A holdover case occurs when the landlord believes the tenant violated the terms of the lease in any way other than non-payment of rent.

Holdover cases frequently involve lease violations such as:

• Harming or destroying property
• Having an unauthorized pet or appliance
• Overstaying the expiration date of the lease
• Subletting to other people without permission
• Engaging in activities that are bothersome to other tenants

The other common reason for eviction of a tenant, non-payment of rent, is self-explanatory. This happens when a tenant fails to make their monthly rent payments on time. When these types of disputes cannot be settled, the tenant may be served with a formal notice of eviction by the landlord.

Need Eviction Assistance in NY? Contact Our Experienced Landlord Tenant Lawyers Today. Get in touch for expert legal support.