Before you bring an eviction action to remove a tenant for non-payment of rent in Nassau County, there are certain things you must know about the Nassau County eviction process. First, you must be properly situated to bring the action. That means, generally, that you must be the owner of the property, and the person you are seeking to evict must be a tenant in possession of the property. And if the property is a one-family house, there must be no more than two units.
Next, you need to know what type of tenancy you are dealing with. Is it a tenancy pursuant to a written term lease agreement, or is the agreement oral in nature, such as a tenancy at will or by sufferance, or is it month-to-month, because a written lease agreement has expired? If there is a written agreement, you need to make sure that all notice requirements under the agreement have been satisfied before starting the action.
After waiting until the rent is at least 5 days past due, you must have sent a notice to the tenant by certified mail informing the tenant that you have failed to receive the rent within five days of its due date. After that you must arrange to have a 14-day notice served on the tenant before bringing a non-payment proceeding. The 14-day notice essentially demands that the tenant pay all of the back rent in full within 14 days, or move out. It lets the tenant know that if he does neither, you will evict him. Once that is done, you must prepare a notice of petition and non-payment petition. You must then call the landlord-tenant unit of the Nassau County Civil Clerk’s Office to reserve a date for your petition to be noticed and make sure that date is on the notice of petition.
Once you have confirmed the date, the original notice of petition and non-payment petition, and one complete copy of those papers, must then be brought to the Civil Clerk of the District Court of Nassau County, located on the second floor of the courthouse at 99 Main Street, in Hempstead, and must be filed with the Clerk. This is what some people refer to as the Nassau County evictions court, but it is just the District Court of Nassau County. The Nassau County District Court filing fee is $45.00, and is called an “index fee.” The Clerk will return your copy of the papers to you, time stamped, with a receipt for your payment of the index fee.
You must then arrange to have someone over the age of 18 years who lives in the State of New York, who is not a party to the action, serve the papers on the tenant at the house. The papers must be served no more than 17 days before the date the petition is to be heard, but no less than 10 days before that date. Then an affidavit of service must be prepared by the person who served the papers and must be filed with the Clerk of the Nassau County Court within the time required by law.
Finally, the Nassau County evictions process requires you to appear in the Landlord-Tenant Part of the Nassau County District Court your case is calendared in, on the date the action is to be heard, before the presiding Judge. If the tenant does not appear, you can request a default judgment for all the relief you are seeking in your petition, provided it was served properly and there are no defects in it. You cannot recover attorneys’ fees, however, even if you have a valid provision for it in a written agreement, if the tenant does not show up to court.
If both parties are present, then your Judge will require you to step out of the courtroom and discuss the matter among yourselves to see if it can be settled. If it can, and you come to a settlement agreement with the tenant, then you must put it in writing using the stipulation of settlement forms available in the courtroom for that purpose.
If the matter cannot be settled after conferencing with your Judge, the Judge will schedule a hearing (a trial) on the matter, usually within a few weeks, if both parties are ready. If either party requests an adjournment, it will likely be granted, but unless both parties consent to the adjournment, it will be for either two weeks, or until the Court’s next available date, whichever occurs last in time.
At the hearing, you must state your case to the evictions court judge. As the petitioner, you will get to go first. If you do not state all of the facts necessary to your case, your petition will be dismissed, and you will have to start again. Next it will be the tenant’s turn to present his or her defenses. If the tenant has legal defenses, your case may be dismissed. But if you state your case adequately, and the tenant has no legal defenses, then you can expect to win a monetary judgment for the back rent; a judgment of possession; and a warrant of eviction for the Sheriff to remove the tenant.
This is a very barebones outline of the Nassau County evictions process, and is not intended as anything other than a brief overview. Because of the complexities of landlord-tenant law and proceedings, you should always be represented by an attorney specializing in eviction services. The Long Island Eviction Law Firm, LLC, is ready to represent you. When you retain us, we take care of everything described above and more. All you need to do is appear with us in Court. Call us today for a free consultation to get started.
