Non-Payment of Rent
Greetings Brownstoners, I am in the uncomfortable situation of having to deal with tenants who refuse to pay rent. There is nothing wrong with the apt. and their reasons are personal (rather not get into it here). So am considering non-payment proceedings. But I have heard that courts favor the tenant. It seems like a…
Greetings Brownstoners,
I am in the uncomfortable situation of having to deal with tenants who refuse to pay rent. There is nothing wrong with the apt. and their reasons are personal (rather not get into it here). So am considering non-payment proceedings.
But I have heard that courts favor the tenant. It seems like a clear case to me, but I’d like to hear what others have experienced.
Also, if anyone has an excellent attorney to recommend I’d greatly welcome the referral.
I agree with all the posters who said not to bother with trying to get the money they owe you. The court system is totally skewed and it will be a major pain and expense that will almost certainly get you nothing in return. You are lucky that they moved out. Ridiculous as that may sound, many other landlords have tenants who don’t pay and refuse to leave (I dealt with this myself). As an aside, I heard there is a website called badtenants.com and if you want to get revenge you can post something negative about them there.
Are you kidding? You made it sound like they are still living there and not paying rent. Let it go and move on.
Janus, it would have been helpful if you explained that they moved out already in your initial question. As someone who’s familair with Landlord/Tenant court, and has been in this situation myriad times this year alone, it is not worth taking them to Court. Yes, hire a lawyer to write them a letter because sometimes threatening tenants with lawyer letters and talks of eviction proceedings scare them into paying. However, most of the time, it does nothing, and you wind up spending a decent amount of money to fight a losing battle that only takes up your time and energy.
Just to let you know though, if you do re-rent the apartment within their lease period, for a lesser amount of money, they are responsible for the difference in rent until their lease is up( if you chose to take them to Court).
nr — that’s why I asked about the # of months remaining on the lease, the amount of security held on deposit, and efforts to locate new tenants. Hard to tell if this is a $1000 problem or a $10000 problem. Makes a big diff if one is thinking about court.
jre…if he finds a tenant soon most likely his loses will be zero. He might even make money off of the deposit! So what exactly will an attorney go after?
If he doesn’t find a tenant soon….then you have two problems in litigating. First, they may very well fight it, and have a good chance of winning in this environment. Then the case will go on much longer in housing court, and he may well lose in this environment. While it’s going on he has to prove he’s been actively trying to fill the space.
If you do somehow miraculously come through and win, over several months, you then have the job of actually collecting the money. Good luck on that!
I guess a question is…where is the apartment and why is it so difficult to find a new tenant? As usual, there’s only one side of the story being told here 🙂 Yeah, maybe the tenants are scum. Or maybe the LL is being a bit greedy here looking for easy money. Who can tell?
JRE: Your advice has been most helpful. Thanks very much for your excellent suggestions.
One more suggestion.
If the former tenant will give you a note stating that they vacated the apartment and authorize you to locate another tenant, (It is in their interest to give you this letter) you can skip the landlord tenant lawyer, just look for a new tenant, sign a lease with the new tenant, calculate your losses and hire an attorney to commence an action for damages suffered.
Some attorneys may do that for a small fee plus a contingency.
Good luck…
What you have is a tenant who is trying to manipulate you into letting them off the hook.
My suggestions is for you to gather enough evidence that they vacated and settle up with an attorney to do the eviction for a flat fee.
You should also do the following.
1. Track down where they moved to.
2. Check if the tenant terminated their accounts with the electric, telephone, cable, internet and gas companies.
3. Check if their mail is being forwarded and to what address.
4. Enter the apartment and take pictures of its current condition.
Once you have all or much of the above. Hire Eliezer Kraus 718-677-9523 for a flat fee to do the legal work. Remember, any monies paid to the attorney will most likely not be re-couped.
When you appear in Court, do not settle. In this Court, settlement means forfeiting most or all of what is due you. Usually landlords do that when the tenant is still in possession. But your tenant is out of possession and the judge in your case will not force you into giving up any monies in exchange for the tenant vacating.
Good chance that the tenant, especially if they have a day job, will not spend the day in court and you will get possession on default.
The Court process in your case should take approximately 8-12 weeks.
After you gain legal possession, continue to look for a tenant.
Once you found a tenant, commence an action in Court to recover the money you are entitled to under the terms of your lease.
Good luck…
Janus- courts may favor tenants in that they don’t want to evict people, but you should not have a problem getting back rent and other money damages if you have a signed lease that was not paid. you may have trouble enforcing it, but i bet once you get a judgment your former tenant will pay up if they do have the assets.