Will I be blacklisted?

[fiasco97]

I was late on a month's payment and included it with the next month's payment. A few days after sending the check, I received a letter from my landlord's lawyer saying that I owed the rent. Since I knew the check was in the mail, I decided to keep checking to see if the check was cashed.

A few days went by and it wasn't cashed, so I mailed a new one in and that check has since been cashed. However I received a petition of Non Payment, claiming that $$$ hasn't been cashed yet.

a) What is my best approach

and

b) If I got the management to withdraw the case, will my name still be blacklisted?

Any help appreciated, thanks.

[Anna]

1. You were blacklisted the moment LL purchased the index number, when LL filed the affidavit of service of the Rent Demand [what you call a "letter"]. Within one day, the T-screening companies received the info.

HOW THE BLACKLIST WORKS
• Tenant Screening companies contract
with the Office of Court Administration
(OCA) to buy the data.
• The contract requires that they buy all
the old data and a daily stream of data.
(This means screening agency knows
you are in court before you do)
As the case progresses and the status of
the case changes, these changes are
transmitted as well
– i.e. case discontinued – clerk will enter this
information into the computer system and
this will be transmitted to the screening
company.
– Company required to make changes in
their database.
•The failure to make such changes was the basis
of the White lawsuit filed recently and which
has fairness hearing today.

from: 2006 CWTF conference: http://www.cwtfhc.org/blacklist.pdf
To be removed from blacklist, somone has to contact every T-screening co that purchased HC records.

2. You MUST go to HC & file an answer; otherwise, LL will take a default judgment. Learn more here: http://www.tenant.net/Court/Howcourt/index.html
http://www.cwtfhc.org/non-pay.html
http://nycourts.gov/courts/nyc/housing/index.shtml

3. Check dates on rent Demand & Petition/NOP: did LL or LL-lawyers create P/NOP before or after they cashed your check? Remember: LL cashed check, lawyers sent P/NOP.

[TenantNet]

1. Research the Forum and the TenantNet court sections.

2. Contact the LL's attorney and if he/she is a rational person and let them know that the rent was paid.

3. Get a copy of the check or statement from the bank.

4. Answer the petion -- even if the LL's lawyer says he intends to drop it. Do not take his word for it. Make sure they discontinue the case and try to get the words "with prejudice" in the stipulation of discontinuance.

5. If it's discontinued, you shouldn't be reported, but if you find out later that a discontinued case was reported, then you might have an avenue to get it expunged.

Do not let the fear of blacklisting (which really isn't a blocklist, but a reporting of LL/T cases) prevent you from exercising your rights, even if that was not what you were doing here.

[fiasco97]

Thanks to Anna and TN. I'm hoping for the best and that this will be withdrawn or discontinued.

So how bad are my chances of getting an apt to rent now? I live in a luxury building and hope to move to another comfortable building. I have a high income, healthy credit rating and would be willing to do extra security deposit, pay several months ahead of time, etc...

Unfortunately I dont have the luxury of a guarantor because my parents are out of state and though they have money saved up, they're retired.

Am I screwed for the next 7 years?

[NYHawk]

a case can't be "withdrawn", motions can.
a case can be either dismissed (by the court) or discontinued (by the LL or by agreement), don't agree to allow the case to be dismissed, insist that it be discontinued, that should avoid the blacklisting or give your grounds to get de-listed, good luck

[fiasco97]

so my landlord has agreed to discontinue to petition.

it seems like though that people are saying two different things about discontinuing petitions and whether or not you end up on the blacklist. can somebody clear that up for me?

also, if your case is discontinued, do you still need to show up on the court date?

[TenantNet]

My understanding was that a discontinuance would not be reported, but Anna raises a good question, which we'll have to look into. There is an ongoing class-action matter on blacklisting, which -- as far as I know -- is still under settlement negotiations. That might impact what gets reported and what does not, and might also bind only the once company that was being sued.

As for the court date, I highly recommend that you do show up in court. LL's are notorious for telling tenants they will discontinue a matter, then failing to do so. You want to be there to make sure that happens. And you want some piece of paper stating that. If done by stipulation, you would get a copy of the stip (and insist it contains the words "with prejudice" so the LL can't bring it back for the same issue or time period).

[Anna]

It is indisputable that the internet tenant screening companies, aka the blacklist, receive ALL new data in the HC database every single business day.
LL files the Rent Demand and its Affidavit of Service and purchases an index #. The blacklist receives that info next business day. Even if LL NEVER serves and files the Petition, T is already blacklisted.

T should be expunged from blacklist IF LL NEVER serves & files Petition, but wasn't.
T should be expunged IF case is dismissed or discontinued, but wasn't.

HENCE, the White lawsuit.

As part of the settlement with the one internet tenant screening service, FAR agreed to expunge all cases that were found w/o merit. The other unsued several companies will propbably do the same.

It does NOT appear that FAR agreed to automatically expunge records of index # purchased that never had petitions, nor discontinued cases, nor dismissed cases. FAR appears to have agreed only to respond to Ts complaints about being unfairly listed in their databases.

See earlier threads:

Aubergine
Posted: Thu Apr 13, 2006 8:13 pm
Plaintiffs' counsel in White has said that expungement of the reporting agency's records would have been impossible to win at trial. So it is important to note that the settlement agreement provides for expungement in some cases, at least:

Quote:
"if the consumer provides FAS with a letter from the Petitioner-Landlord or a court order, decision or finding in which it is stated that the case was devoid of merit, brought in error or the like, FAS will expunge that case from its database and not report such case in the future."
(Settlement Agreement, page 12.)

http://tenant.net/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=1941

http://tenant.net/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=702

http://tenant.net/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=1894

[TenantNet]

Latest I hear was that they judge did not accept the settlement. And while they may receive the info, whether they send it out to their customers is a different matter.

As of 6/20/06

"The judge did not approve or deny approval of the proposed settlement of the tenant blacklisting class action. Instead, he gave us 30 days to go back to the bargaining table and see if we can revise certain provisions that provide stronger programmatic changes in the defendant's business practices. The plaintiffs will re-negotiate the in accordance with the judge's instructions. If a better settlement agreement is reached it will be presented to the judge for approval. If not, we will continue to litigate the case at trial."

[fiasco97]

Sorry for asking this question if there's an answer out there but: Since my case is going to be discontinued, is there a list of agencies that most landlords tend to use so that I can go to each one and check to see what my records list my case as, just to make sure all the info is accurate over the next several months?

[Anna]

Sorry for asking this question if there's an answer out there but: Since my case is going to be discontinued, is there a list of agencies that most landlords tend to use so that I can go to each one and check to see what my records list my case as, just to make sure all the info is accurate over the next several months?

The names of some of the internet tenant-screening companies are in threads or linked to in threads provided in my earlier reply [those links that you did not click on].

Anyone willing to pay the fee can get a report on anyone else.
Googling 'tenant screening' or 'bad tenant' will also get results.

Also posted in 2003-06 were articles and/or links to articles in the NY Times & other reputable periodicals re T-blacklisting.

More links for you to ignore:
http://www.law.com/jsp/article.jsp?id=1082131900178
http://tenant.net/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=4400