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I know I am at fault for renting out my basement to someone. He told me he would be moving out end of sept and has not paid sept rent since i had his deposit. He is still not moved out and he havent paid Oct. rent and i think he has no intentions to. He is broke. How can I evict him? Is it illegal for me to change locks?
It is illegal for you to change the locks. You can be arrested and your tenant can sue you.
You can't just put him out if he decides not to leave. You're going to have to evict him through the courts if he decides he's not leaving. Keep in mind, you're going to be opening yourself to fines, etc since you're going to have to admit in court that you're doing something illegal.
You can also attempt to speak with your tenant and see if you can "buy" him out..... offer to help him find a new place and tell him you'll pay 2 months rent. Right now, he's probably thinking he'll stay there rent free (since it's illegal) until he can save the money for a new place. Maybe you can "help him along". (I would hate to have to do this if I were in your shoes, but it might be your only choice)
On the other hand, if you go to court, you can say you had no idea it was illegal to rent out a basement and you're now in the process of straightening it out.
I hate dead beats! Go to court and evict him the right way. Pay the fees if necessary. Make sure that you report this to the credit agency. He will not be able to get another legal apartment again.
Do not change the locks. Start the eviction process as soon as possible. You cannot evict for non payment of rent. However, you can evict asking him to vacate the premises. Keep in mind that the eviction process will take months so get ready for the ride. Also, if the illegal apartment is reported to the city you may have to pay a fine and tear the apartment down. Good luck.
I know I am at fault for renting out my basement to someone. He told me he would be moving out end of sept and has not paid sept rent since i had his deposit. He is still not moved out and he havent paid Oct. rent and i think he has no intentions to. He is broke. How can I evict him? Is it illegal for me to change locks?
Would a six-foot-tall woman knocking on his door scare him? My rates are reasonable. I'm 51 but I can still lift the five-gallon water bottle and put it in the cooler at work without spilling.
I hate dead beats! Go to court and evict him the right way. Pay the fees if necessary. Make sure that you report this to the credit agency. He will not be able to get another legal apartment again.
I'm pretty sure an illegal landlord can't go to credit agencies and complain about how their tenant refused to pay for their illegal services. Second, the action of going to credit agencies to provide them with a tenant's rent payment habits is a GROSS violation of what the credit agencies are there for. Its only in the last couple of years that a few Manhattan landlords started thinking this was a good idea, same for using brokers/real estate agents to rent apartments.
As for how to get the landlord out, your going to have to go to court, your going to get fined. The fines are anywhere from 250-2,500 dollars, and your tenant will be evicted. Your tenant can then sue you for owning the illegal apartment and having him forced out due to your negligence. You are allowed to sue him after you've come clean about the illegal nature of your apartment with the buildings department for any unpaid rent. You will be forced to do some kind of renovation of the space, either restoring it to what it was before the illegal conversion, or making it a legal residence
I'm pretty sure an illegal landlord can't go to credit agencies and complain about how their tenant refused to pay for their illegal services. Second, the action of going to credit agencies to provide them with a tenant's rent payment habits is a GROSS violation of what the credit agencies are there for. Its only in the last couple of years that a few Manhattan landlords started thinking this was a good idea, same for using brokers/real estate agents to rent apartments.
As for how to get the landlord out, your going to have to go to court, your going to get fined. The fines are anywhere from 250-2,500 dollars, and your tenant will be evicted. Your tenant can then sue you for owning the illegal apartment and having him forced out due to your negligence. You are allowed to sue him after you've come clean about the illegal nature of your apartment with the buildings department for any unpaid rent. You will be forced to do some kind of renovation of the space, either restoring it to what it was before the illegal conversion, or making it a legal residence
Your right about most of this, except that there isn't one single case of a tenant winning a law suit such as this (at least in NY). Most tenants know they are occupying an illegal apartment. It is especially evident when they only pay the first months rent and never pay anything after that.
A while back, I was renting an illegal apartment. I was a month to month tenant. The slumlord wouldn't fix anything yet, he was at my door on "rent day" salivating with his hand out for his rent check.
I got sick of him, sick of the way he wouldn't fix anything, etc and decided to move. I told him I was moving and he had the audacity to try and sue me for a month's rent for not giving him notice (other than that, I was paid up to date on all rent). Well, the joke was on him. Not only did the judge toss his case out of court, but the inspectors came, took pics of everything, gave him summonses, etc. He went to court and thought he could fight it. Joke on him again. He ended up with a $3500 fine and he had to convert the house back into a one family, he is prohibited from getting any permits for apartments on the house, and he has to let the inspectors in any time w/o prior notice or appointments.
I guess the moral of the story here is, you have to be careful in what you do and don't try to make a "quick buck" by renting out an illegal apartment in your home.
I'm pretty sure an illegal landlord can't go to credit agencies and complain about how their tenant refused to pay for their illegal services. Second, the action of going to credit agencies to provide them with a tenant's rent payment habits is a GROSS violation of what the credit agencies are there for. Its only in the last couple of years that a few Manhattan landlords started thinking this was a good idea, same for using brokers/real estate agents to rent apartments.
As for how to get the landlord out, your going to have to go to court, your going to get fined. The fines are anywhere from 250-2,500 dollars, and your tenant will be evicted. Your tenant can then sue you for owning the illegal apartment and having him forced out due to your negligence. You are allowed to sue him after you've come clean about the illegal nature of your apartment with the buildings department for any unpaid rent. You will be forced to do some kind of renovation of the space, either restoring it to what it was before the illegal conversion, or making it a legal residence
I would report him to the credit agency. I understand it is not right to rent out an illegal apartment but why does the bad tenant benefit? It does not make sense.
I would report him to the credit agency. I understand it is not right to rent out an illegal apartment but why does the bad tenant benefit? It does not make sense.
Yeah, well its not as easy as going to the complaints board of one of the three agencies. You have to be certified and pay yearly fees, something that an illegal landlord cannot do. Additionally, he'd have to have information about the tenant that he almost certainly would not have, such as his social security number, something that no illegal landlord should ever be trusted with. Even if you were a legal landlord it wouldn't be worth your time unless you were a big holding company, and you were renting really expensive apartments, hence why for the most part the only place where this sort of nonsense happens is in Manhattan where large companies often times risk bankruptcy should a building not reach a certain degree of profitability. Lastly the last problem with your argument is that you assume that ALL landlords actually check credit ratings prior to renting an apartment. Again this is mostly an NYC, mostly Manhattan phenomena, and while he may not be able to get the penthouse in SoHo, he'd be able to rent an apartment almost anywhere else in the city legally provided he had the money for his security deposit and rent.
Last edited by ddhboy; 10-16-2009 at 08:05 PM..
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Go to court and evict him the right way. Pay the fees if necessary. Make sure that you report this to the credit agency. He will not be able to get another legal apartment again.
