No. If you turn off essential services you are subjecting yourself to potential civil penalties to the city of New York if the tenant goes to court and alleges that you have turned off essential services. The judge will make you turn back the essential services and will order to pay civil penalties for each day an essential service was shut off, plus award the tenant treble damages for any period of time the tenant had to live elsewhere.

If you have a lease that has not expired and the tenant has defaulted on making the rent payments, the best course of action is to start a nonpayment case in housing court.  Our office will prepare all of the necessary notices to commence the case.

The notice you gave yourself to the tenant was most likely not served in accordance with the law and, as such, cannot be used to go to court. Our office uses a licensed process server to serve the necessary paperwork on your tenants before a case can be properly commenced. 

In a nonpayment case, the court will not give us a court date until the tenant files an answer to the case. If the tenant fails to file an answer, our office prepares the necessary papers to file for a default judgment and warrant. In a holdover case, the court will issue the first court date, typically 4-6 weeks from the date an index number is issued. At the court appearance, our office generally enters into a stipulation of settlement to settle the matter by entering either a deadline to pay the arrears and/or a deadline to vacate the subject premises.  In the event the parties are not able to reach a settlement the case gets adjourned for a trial.

In a nonpayment case, your attorney will have to show that you are the owner of the house, that you have a written lease with the tenant, and that the tenant has not paid you rent in accordance with the agreement. A certified copy of the deed and an original copy of your lease will be presented to the judge, as well as a copy of a ledger reflecting the monies owed to the landlord.  You will testify  if any payments were made to you and if any are still due. After the tenant testifies to its defenses, the court will issue a ruling, and if you prevail, the court will set a deadline to pay the arrears and/or a deadline to vacate the subject unit if it is a holdover case.

Depending on how your case was settled in court, there may be a money judgment entered in favor of the landlord against the tenant. If the tenant fails to pay the money judgment, you may be able to freeze the tenant’s bank account, garnish wages, etc.  Often times, landlords do not have the tenant’s information to do so and may need to hire investigators to find this information.  

Assuming your agreement in court entitled you to a final judgment of possession with the issuance of the warrant forthwith, and assuming the clerk issued the warrant to the marshal of your attorney’s choosing, a marshal's notice will be served on your tenant, and after 14 days, the marshal will schedule an eviction. 

Yes, the tenant can take out an order to show cause and ask the judge for more time to pay and/or vacate the premises. This request, if signed by the judge, will prompt a new court date, and our offices will show up to the court appearance and argue against anymore extensions. 

If your tenant's conduct is detrimental to the health and safety of other tenants in the building, you don’t have to wait for the lease to expire. You can start an action to evict based on nuisance conduct. You have to keep a detailed ledger of the behavior and events complained of so our offices can start the proper case.