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We have a problem tenant (in Queens Village/Bellerose Queens) who owes us close to $12,000 in rent. She is a month to month tenant - did not sign the lease since 2009. We have a court case against her and finally after months and months of hassle and back and fourth with the courts we got a warrant issued against her which should be served to her any day now. She is an awful person who shouts and curses out my family when asking for rent. We are just terrified of her and what's worse is that the police does nothing to help. Cant wait to get her out. Just have a few questions to be prepared for the worst:
1. Can she get a stay order from the court and under what circumstances? Does the excuse have to be really good or it can just be simply that she needs more time. By the way she has a teenage son.
2. What if she has other people living with her like a boyfriend. We hear his voice upstairs but not sure if he lives there. Will we have any trouble because there is another occupant in the house?
3. When we first filed the paperwork she owed is $6,800. The stipulation stated she must pay the balance due, or show up to court with half the money and continue to pay the monthly rent every 1st friday of the month. She didn't do anything the court asked her to do, only gave us a $1,500 payment the following month and not a penny again. Currently her outstanding balance is $12,000. Will have accepted the payment prevent the eviction? My mom wrote something like "accepted with no pregudice" on the check. Not sure what that exactly does.
4. How can we collect the 12,000 from her if she is evicted. How will we find out where she moved if suing her in needed. All we have is her SS #.
5. The NYC landlord-tenant rules are MESSED up! how can they allow a non-paying, rude and scary tenant to stay in someones house while the court proceeding are in process which takes MONTHS! is there some sort of an association in NYC that ppl can get together and help make the laws stricter?? Its just unfair.
Thanks in advance for the replies. Desperately need any advice.
The issue is most tenants who owe that much in back rent have no money or assets to collect a judgement on.
More ofton than not they will just file bankruptsey and now you went through all the hoops for nothing. so far every time we have evicted a tenant there was nothing even worth going after.
the biggest threat is they tell the judge they are filing bankruptsey and plead to them for a few more weeks to get back on their feet and it will be on your dime.
Last edited by mathjak107; 02-01-2012 at 04:49 PM..
That's about right unfortunately. You will almost surely never see a dime of that money, but you should be able to at least put it on their credit. However, you can take solace in knowing they will now have a bankruptcy on their credit and will find it difficult at best to find an apartment anywhere in NYC, and forget about one through the city's affordable housing inititative or in an otherwise decent location or home.
When dealing with tenants, no matter how careful you screen tenants, there is always a risk that they will not pay you and you have to suck it up and deal with it. It is the cost of owning rental property in NYC. The best you can do is work very hard at screening tenants in the beginning through several months of bank statements, pay stubs, credit check, criminal check, housing court eviction/judgement check, etc. And let's not forget, even if they pass muster, if you FEEL like they will not be a good fit, or have any inkling they can be hostile/negative or otherwise present themselves poorly in anyway, REJECT THEM.
It is better to keep the apt vacant 4 months than go through legal headaches and hostility for a year plus be out the rent anyway. Wait for the right tenant and in the end you will be glad you did.
in a city where almost 70% are renters, laws tend to protect the majority.
A large portion of RE in NYC is in the hands of not that many people. Those landlords who control large porftfolios, have property managers and lawyers that deal with this type of situations. Small time L/Ls like you will have a more emotional and stressful time when dealing with problematic tenants.
You made the decision of profiting from your house, and as with any business venture, you are taking a risk by doing so.
Maybe next time you might wanna consider a RE agent that can do the screening for you, or you can do it yourself if you feel like you have the time and patience to go thourgh it.
Last edited by likeminas; 02-02-2012 at 09:17 AM..
in a city where almost 70% are renters, laws tend to protect the majority.
A large portion of RE in NYC is in the hands of not that many people. Those landlords who control large porftfolios, have property managers and lawyers that deal with this type of situations. Small time L/Ls like you will have a more emotional and stressful time when dealing with problematic tenants.
You made the decision of profiting from your house, and as with any business venture, you are taking a risk by doing so.
Maybe next time you might wanna consider a RE agent that can do the screening for you, or you can do it yourself if you feel like you have the time and patience to go thourgh it.
Do it yourself and stay as far away as you can from brokers. Brokers don't care what type of people move into your house or neighborhood. All they care about is renting an apartment and getting that commission. Take it from a fellow landlord...stay away.
Yes we got this current tenant from a RE agent and look where it got us! We screened this tenant carefully, checked her bank statements, paychecks, etc. We had no idea she would turn out to harrass us the way she did. You can never be too careful.
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