Being evicted for non-payment..Any affordable attorneys?

[hodlin]

I live in Stuytown and had a major setback that made me fall behind on rent. This morning I was just served a non-payment petition. The amount they're demanding in judgement is only $1400 (though I owe much more). I can easily pay this, and in fact have been trying to pay $7000 that I owed for a month but Stuytown blocked payments through their portal and their legal department hasn't responded to our attempts to reach them for exactly a month.

However I'm not sure how to go about paying this. I can't pay Stuytown directly, so will I need to appear in court? If so, will I definitely need an attorney? The case seems pretty straightforward since I can pay the $1400 and can pay off the rest with a payment arrangement within 3 months.

My final question is where can I get an affordable attorney to get advice and/or even represent me if I need to go to court? I make too much to qualify for legal aid, but because of this setback I can't afford much while I'm paying back-rent to stuytown.

Thanks for any input.

[TenantNet]

You posted in the RS section, so we'll assume that's the case. This sounds like a typical non-payment case. Problem is getting a lawyer as the courts are overwhelmed from the COVID backlog.

When you say they blocked payment, details matter. Get screen shots. One of your defenses in your answer should be "tendered and refused" meaning you sent payment and they refused.

Read the Petition and Notice of Petition carefully. There might be details a casual user might skip. They might be claiming it's a Holdover case (not a non-payment). If so, then there's a window period where they will not accept payments. The Petition will say if it's a Holdover or Non-Payment (the rules and procedures differ).

If service was defective, then you can ask for the case be dismissed (ask for a Traverse where they have to prove service was proper). https://www.nycourts.gov/courts/nyc/hou ... tion.shtml

Read this carefully: https://www.nycourts.gov/COURTS/nyc/hou ... ment.shtml

Did they send you a 14-day demand for rent? https://www.nycourts.gov/COURTS/nyc/hou ... case.shtml

Before the case can be started, the landlord or someone working for the landlord, must demand the overdue rent from the tenant and warn the tenant that if the rent is not paid, the tenant can be evicted. The demand must be in writing and must be delivered to the tenant at least 14 days before the court case is started.

And consider this (from a reply to another recent post)

Sounds like you paid what the portal requested. On that we recommend tenants NOT use online payment portals and instead pay by check or money order (sent by cert. mail or by certificate of mailing). There are problems with LL portals. And no matter how you pay, make sure there is a memo line and you specify which month the rent applies, i.e., "Rent for October 2023 and for no other month." LLs play games with how they apply rent, so this is critical. Some electronic payment systems (i.e., ACH) might not have a memo field and this is a serious problem.

We recommend pay by check or M.O., send by mail (certificate of mailing is OK and cheaper than Certified Mail) and use the memo line to earmark the month for which payment should be applied.

Document everything, put it in writing, keep contemporaneous notes, keep envelopes (with postmarks). You can record phone calls (it's legal in NYC), but being admissible in court is up to the court. Still, that's good for your own records.

You say you're RS and paying $7,000 for one month? That doesn't sound right. Get a DHCR rent history (have them mail it to you, not the online version). https://hcr.ny.gov/most-common-rent-reg ... es-tenants.

Whether or not you can pay ST, if a case has been commenced, then yes, you MUST appear in court. You will also need to put in an Answer, but speak to an attorney at the court before doing so. For now, make a list of your defenses (tendered and refused, wrong legal rent, need repairs, etc) and counter-claims, if any.

Have you consulted with the ST Tenants Association. From what I remember they are pretty active.

Getting an attorney is almost impossible, but try. Tell the court you want a lawyer. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. But these days on the first appearance, they send tenants to speak with attorneys for "advice." That's a crapshoot but worth trying.

If you do make too much for Legal Aid, look at https://www.nyc.gov/site/mayorspeu/reso ... unsel.page

But as I said, they are overloaded.

[hodlin]

Thank you for replying. I might have been unclear in the way I worded some things.
Stuytown is rent stabilized, the rent is $4000 (it was $3900 for a two bedroom but the recent RS increase put us over $4200). What I meant to say was that for a month, I was trying to contact them to ask about the status of my rent demand. Meaning they sent me a rent demand, I paid what I thought I owed right before the due date, and tried to follow up to see if all was well, which is when they completely went silent. I wanted to pay a chunk of what I owe (4 months rent) but they blocked payments on the app.

At this point I contacted an attorney today but they were in trial and will get back to me tomorrow.

I could go to the clerk's office and make the payment they demand. But I'm scared that by doing this I might miss some fine print, and I also need to know who to talk to about unblocking payments.

After that we received no further communications until they served me with the notice.

[TenantNet]

My understanding is that not all units in ST are RS - or might eventually lose their status.

I'm sure you're familiar with Roberts v. Tishman (but yes, that was years ago).
http://tenant.net/phpbb3/viewtopic.php?f=16&t=7861
To be honest I haven't kept up with subsequent litigation.

But if RS, how did the rents get above above $4,000? (no, don't give me a detailed explanation). Just wondering out loud.

OK, they sent you a rent demand. Was it 14 days? Was the rent correct?

Still sounds like a Tendered and Refused defense. Just make sure any attorney you connect with is a real tenant attorney, not some person that does immigration most of the time and not some person who mostly represents landlords.

I do know of one case where the tenant paid what the LL demanded, but yes, it could be wrong. Still, you would then have the defense that rent was paid. I don't know if the court clerk will accept rent being paid into court without a judicial order.