3 DAY NOTICE TO PAY OR QUIT IS NOW A 14 DAY PAY OR QUIT- the 3 day notice is no more. Landlords are now REQUIRED to serve a WRITTEN demand notice for rent and the time period must be 14 DAYS. The statute was amended to also eliminate oral notice so you MUST properly serve a written notice or the tenant has an automatic affirmative defense.

NO MORE ATTORNEY FEES OR LATE FEES with evictions- landlords can no longer request or get attorney fees or late fees for any non payment proceeding.

WARRANT OF EVICTION IS NOW 14 DAYS- NOT 72 HOURS- now a landlord cannot execute his/her warrant (lockout) until 14 calendar days after the warrant is served.

COURT IS NOW 10-17 DAYS OUT- it used to be that tenants had to be served 5-12 days before court. Now they must be served 10-17 days before court which means court dates will be pushed out by at least a week (so we typically waited 2 ½ weeks for a court date, now it will be closer to 3 or 3 ½ weeks).

NON RENEWAL/ 30 DAY NOTICES ARE LONGER- the time frame for a 30 day notice depends on how long the lease term is AND how long the tenant has lived there. The breakdown is as follows: if tenant has a lease of less than 1 year AND has occupied the apartment for less than 1 year it’s the traditional 30 day; if tenant has a lease of 1 year but less than 2 years OR has occupied the apartment for more than 1 year it’s a 60 day notice; if tenant has a lease OR has lived in a unit for more than 2 years it is a 90 day notice.

WARRANTS NOW EFFECTIVE ONLY AGAINST NAMED RESPONDENTS- You MUST know your tenant’s girl/boyfriend’s name? A warrant only goes against the person listed; any others are allowed to stay.

If tenant pays amount owed BEFORE lockout (which is now 14 days) to court, the court MUST vacate the warrant and the tenant can stay.

IT IS NOW ILLEGAL TO DENY APPLICANTS BASED ON TENANT SCREENING REPORTS- If you do a background check and find that the tenant has been evicted 6 times in the past year, you cannot deny their application based on their past evictions.

ILLEGALLY LOCKING A TENANT OUT IS NOW A MISDEMEANOR- before landlords faced hefty fines for actual out of pocket damages incurred. Now the landlord faces fines and a class A misdemeanor.

Erin M. Elsner, Esq.

Nacca Law Office

30 West Broad Street, Ste. 406

Rochester, New York 14614

www.naccalaw.com
[email protected]

p-(585) 453-7730

f-(585) 453-0895