Good news for Month to Month Tenants

modsquad

This is old news (I didn't know about it but saw it happen in Part 52, Manhattan last month) but it's worth a lot peace of mind to month to month tenants. If you play your cards right you can remain in your apartment for up to 6 months after your LL tries to evict you.
The most important sentence is

Ideally, the tenant would want to enter into a written out-of-court agreement before the holdover proceeding begins, thus keeping her name out of court records.

On advice of counsel, LL would be happy to give you an extra few months knowing you could tie him up in court for up to 6 or 7 months. (same rent)

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/09/24/realestate/24qa.html?_r=1

hitokiri

in general (time for court, or the tenant not showing up to court), they can delay the process for up to 9 months.

The law favors the tenant 10 fold over the landlord.

modsquad

hitokiri wrote: in general (time for court, or the tenant not showing up to court), they can delay the process for up to 9 months.

The law favors the tenant 10 fold over the landlord.

The only risk in being an asshole tenant is being pegged as such in several asshole databases that LLs use in a background check. That's why it's important to use your tenant leverage to make sure you don't ever end up blacklisted. Even if you go all the way to court and ultimately end up with a stipulation, that stip. can also state that your name will not be reported to the databases that you are an asshole, you.

There is a list of those databases in a lawsuit brought several years back to force them to reveal the nature of the conflict because many times LLs bring frivolous proceedings just to make tenants wet their pants. You can, I believe now, force these clowns to reveal if your name is in the list.

stacey

I am so glad I have perfect tenants.

flux

modsquad is correct! every background check done by a broker will show any past housing court issues.

A landlord will not rent you an apartment even if the record shows that you went to housing court and won! This happened to a friend of mine. He was finaly able to rent an apartment from a nice landlord who did not do a background check on him. But it took him a very long time.

So just make sure you don't end up in housing court...otherwise it will show up all over your background check