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How to Evict a Tenant in New York

Understand the reasons you can legally evict a tenant in New York—and the process you have to follow to get them out.


In New York, you can evict someone for breaking the terms of the lease or not paying rent. You cannot evict anyone as a form of retaliation or for a reason that could be considered discriminatory. In order to evict, you will need to provide just cause. This is the reason for the eviction that makes it legally valid. An eviction in New York can only occur without just cause if the rental agreement has come to an end, and the tenant will not leave.

1. Figure out how much notice you must give

In New York, you must serve written notice to begin the eviction process. The kind of notice you give will depend on the reason for eviction.

If you are evicting the tenant for not paying rent, you must give three days' written notice. The notice must let the tenant know that they have three days to pay rent or leave before the eviction process will continue. This is also called a rent demand. We’ve created a template for this kind of notice that you can customize and use.

If you are evicting someone for violating the rental agreement, you must serve two different kinds of notice. First, you must serve a 10-day notice to cure, giving the tenant 10 days to fix the problem. (Here's a template you can use.) If 10 days pass and the issue is not corrected, you must serve a 30-day notice of termination. This notice must let the tenant know that they have 30 days to move out before the eviction process will continue. (Here's a template you can use.)

If you are evicting a holdover tenant, you can simply serve a 30-day notice to quit. When 30 days have passed, you can move on to the next step without serving any further notice.

2. Follow the laws for serving notice

If you do not correctly serve notice, your case can be dismissed. Here's what you need to know about serving notice:

  • You can't do it yourself. You can hire a process server, a person specifically trained to serve legal papers, or you can have anyone who is not involved in the case and is over the age of 18 serve the notice.
  • Notice must be delivered through one of three methods: personal delivery, substituted delivery, or conspicuous delivery. The rules for each are long and complicated, but the takeaway is that you should start with personal delivery: get your server to physically hand the notice to your tenant.
  • The person serving notice must complete and file with the court an affidavit of service, providing information about the delivery after it has been completed. This must be filed with the court no more than three days after delivery is complete.

3. File a notice of petition

After the initial notice period has come to a close, you must file papers with the court. The documents you need to complete are called a notice of petition and a petition:

Once you have completed the petition and notice of petition, print them, fill them out, and sign them in front of a public notary. Then bring them, along with copies of your initial notice and affidavit of service, to the city court in your jurisdiction to file. Be sure to bring stamps to mail the paperwork to your roommate, as the court will not provide them. You will give the originals to the clerk, keeping copies for yourself, and will have to pay a filing fee. You will be asked to choose a court date, which will depend on when you can deliver the petition and notice of petition to the tenant. The court date has to be between five and 12 days after the paperwork is correctly served.

The petition and notice of petition must then be served to the tenant. The rules for service are the same for this paperwork as the rules for service that you used to deliver the initial notice, detailed above. Like the initial notice, after service, you must make sure that an affidavit of service is completed. You will need to return the notice of petition and the affidavit of service to the clerk's office within three days of serving the papers.

4. Go to court

If you do not appear in court for any reason, your case will be dismissed and you will have to begin the process again. If the tenant does not appear, you will win the case by default. If the tenant appears in court to fight the eviction, there will be a trial before a judge only, with no jury present. The burden of proof is on you. You must not only prove that you had just cause to evict, but also that you served notice correctly in the process.

If the judge rules in your favor, the tenant may be ordered to pay you unpaid rent or attorney's and filing fees. You must give the court clerk a warrant of eviction to be signed. After, you must hire and pay a marshal, sheriff, or constable to deliver a notice of eviction to the tenant. The notice of eviction tells the tenant that they have 72 hours to leave before they will be forcibly removed from the unit.

The information provided on this website does not, and is not intended to, constitute legal advice.