Tenant waived jury trial and we had a bench trial in front of the judge. He had a legal aid attorney that got him out of paying half of the year of rent he owed as follows. I didn’t lay a foundation representing myself to introduce the lease as evidence so it was too late by the time I realized my mistake. Judge ruled the rent was $100 less per month since she didn’t have the lease. Also he introduced a photo close up of a crack of day day light at the bottom of the front door which I believe wasn’t locked with the deadbolt. She awarded him $100 off monthly rent for that. Then his legal aid attorney showed a picture of the ceiling in a living room with patches that were sanded properly but were painted. He insisted that was evidence of a leak from upstairs which she awarded him $150 off per month. His rent was very low to begin with so he ended up not owing a lot. The danger is he has been there 10 years and his attorney could try to sue for those things for the last 10 years which could add up to a lot of money if he were to succeed.this case only covered the last yea, so he couldn’t make any claim for the period before then. Perhaps he could in another case in small claims court or civil court. If I should sue him in small claims for damage in the apartment, it is likely he would counter sue for money back for those reason and any past issues that could have been considered a reason for money off the rent.

One reason why I don't DIY evictions. My attorney costs $500. One screw up may cost thousands.

As Richard says, you can invest anywhere. Why choose a place that hates you?

Come on down here to Texas. The judge would have asked you what you wanted, you told him the $ amount and possession. The judge would have asked the tenant if they believe that amount is correct and if the tenant would have started in on leaky doors or a speck on the ceiling they would have been shut down very quickly and you would have been awarded a judgement and possession taking all of 10 minutes in the courtroom.

I don't understand how NY thinks that making LL's pay for this stuff helps in the long run. The only thing it does is cause LL's to raise rent to cover losses making rent unaffordable for those who play by the rules.

My lesson learned is to stay out of the big cities.

NY is a very tenant friendly state now so you have to be on your toes. You can win but you can't let things slide.

One thing is that once (and I mean the SECOND) that the tenant is late you need to start issuing the 14 day notice and don't play any games with it. The longer you wait, the longer it will be. Depending on the judge (obviously) and the jurisdiction you could be at a loss or you need to calm the judge down (I had one in a village court where the judge is a hair dresser). I had to basically tell her what she needed to do (and I'm not an attorney, but I'm not about to have the tenant go and get one after the fact and reopen the case or something because the judge did something "wrong" or "illegal" without knowing it.

The city judge is harsh but pretty fair (so to speak). I've learned that if you look like you are "trying to work" with the tenant (like give them some time right before court to say "oh, I can pay you by a certain time" and that time works for you... do it. BUT - get it in the judges mind that if it's not paid, we want the WARRANT for eviction and we'll tell you what the judgement amount is at that time (when they don't pay).

I've now effectively evicted two tenants with that... they both ended up paying a piddly amount and then "nothing". The date came they said they were going to have it all paid in full and WHAMO - here's your eviction (or "here's your sign" haha).