Grounds for Eviction?
Our tenant ( she’s on the top floor of our 2-family three story brownstone with not much separation) has a lot of drama in her romantic life. Three times that we know of, it has involved the police or EMT coming into our home to settle matters with her and her boyfriend. The boyfriend is…
Our tenant ( she’s on the top floor of our 2-family three story brownstone with not much separation) has a lot of drama in her romantic life. Three times that we know of, it has involved the police or EMT coming into our home to settle matters with her and her boyfriend. The boyfriend is here every night and shares her one and only key. Their arguments are fairly frequent and often involve some physical violence.
She decided she would be moving out as soon as some school or other accepted her and willingly signed a surrender lease agreement so that we could show the apartment and find someone new, but it has been three months, she hasn’t brought up moving again, but we’re sick of living with the drama and would love it if she were to go, whether we get another tenant right away or not. She usually pays her rent within a few days of the 1st. So my question is do we have the right to tell her that she must go by a certain date?
I have a simple Lease Surrender Agreement that I got from RSA that says:
” __(Landlord)
and ___ (Tenant)
agree as follows:
1. Tenant hereby surrenders all right, tittle and interest in his/her tenancy of the premises known as and located at ___(Premises), effective___.
2. Landlord and Tenant agree that the Lease for the Premises entered into on ___ will terminate on __.
3.Tenant agrees to vacate the Premises on or before ___ and to remove all his/her personal property and possessions from the Premises on or before that date”
Not sure why the tenant didn’t move out by an agreed date, but if you’ve continued to accept rent then apparently you have established a month to month tenancy.
I think you should consult an attorney. Assuming this is an unregulated apartment, and that you do have a month-to-month tenancy…
“…In New York City, the landlord must serve the tenant with a written termination giving 30 days notice before the expiration of the term. The notice must state that the landlord elects to terminate the tenancy and that refusal to vacate will lead to eviction proceedings (Real Property Law §232-a).”
If you’ve been accepting rent on or about the 1st and you want the tenant out, serve notice before June 1 to get the tenant out by June 30.
If it’s a 2-family, I would double the rent at the appropriate time. If there’s no lease, or if the lease has expired, you are not bound by any rent stabilization laws. Owners of 2- and 3-family buildings have leverage; more so than owners of RS or RC buildings. Doubling the rent will bring both of you to the bargaining table.
Option #2: everything is negotiable. Offer the tenant a fixed sum of cash ($1,000, for example) to leave. Stipulate a date by which she is to have her stuff moved out in order for her to get the cash. Option #3 is to call Tony Soprano.
Maybe you should talk to her, find out what the deal is? You could pursue a holdover case, but it seems like a great deal of unnecessary trauma for all concerned. I hope a new 30 day notice doesn’t invalidate the lease surrender agreement (I don’t know — I am not a lawyer).
Oh! If you have a month to month agreement, of course you don’t need a legal reason to evict her. Just give her 30 days notice. Lucky you have a lease surrender agreement.
OP here. Thanks for the comments and advice. I guess I was asking something very basic which is since the tenant has no lease and is living here month to month, do I need a legal reason to evict her? Is “too much drama” a valid legal reason? I hope so.
I believe that I could say that we’ve decided to use the top floor for our own purposes, which we might, although it would be much more space than we need. We seldom wander from the garden floor.
The lease surrender document was effective as of March 1.
Again, thanks for the input.
My response assumes that she no longer has a lease with you (she signed a “surrender agreement”), which means that you have a month to month lease as long as you are accepting rent.
My first response is oh, come on. You are being pulled into the drama. Take control of this. You need to tell her that her lease is up and then you have two choices, recognize that she is an emotionally troubled person and that you will need to work with her, i.e. help her move, give her money for the move, but set a firm date. And do this without the boyfriend around. You may need to get a restraining order against him if this violence continues on your property and he isn’t on the lease. But don’t leave moving up to HER. Then if she isn’t out by the agreed date, you have to treat her as a holdover tenant, i.e. don’t accept rent and go to court to evict her.
You don’t want to do that though and you should tell her that and work with her before that point. Remember this is a troubled individual but her troubles don’t need to be YOUR troubles. This is your HOME.
I’m sorry for your troubles. I suppose you could evict her if there’s anything in the lease about quiet enjoyment, but that’s probably a lot of trouble you don’t want to get into.
Was there no end of tenancy date in the surrender agreement? How much longer is her lease?
Research the archives, I seem to remember someone recently responding to another poster about an emergency eviction process if your tenant was breaking the law, etc – can’t remember the term, just remember reading about it.
Sounds like the boyfriend is not on the lease and if this is the case, maybe YOU could file for a restraining order or something to keep him away from YOUR property which may encourage your tenant/punching bag to move more quickly since women in these situations seem to stay in them far longer than they should. Just a thought and may be worth a call to your local precinct to check out your options.