February Insights

By Eileen O’Toole, Esq., Contributing Editor

Following up on Administrative Orders issued by the state’s Unified Court System in January 2022 (see LVT #s 31815, 31816), the NYC Civil Court has issued two “Directives and Procedures” to address eviction warrant and default judgment procedures following the end of New York’s eviction moratorium on Jan. 15, 2022.

DRP-221 (LVT #31863) provides guidance on management of eviction cases commenced after the COVID-19 pandemic temporarily shut down courts on March 16, 2020, and later slowed proceedings due to the eviction moratorium. DRP-221 requires landlords seeking to go forward with evictions for which warrants were issued between March 17, 2020, and Sept. 2, 2021, to file motions in court with notice to respondents before enforcement of these warrants will be permitted. Warrants issued on or after Sept. 2, 2021, are presumed valid and can be executed. For warrants issued prior to March 17, 2020, the previously issued DRP-217 still applies (see LVT #31567). DRP-222 (LVT #31864), also issued in January, directs that no default judgment or warrant will be issued unless a landlord makes a motion for this relief.

In a dispute involving a rent-stabilized renewal lease, an appeals court in Ink 967-969 Willoughby LLC v. Cordero (LVT #31833) upheld a ruling that a tenant correctly refused to sign a renewal lease because the landlord never gave the tenant the option of choosing either a one- or two-year vacancy lease when the tenant moved into the apartment. At that time, the tenant was offered only a one-year initial lease.

The DHCR made a few procedural points in recent PAR decisions. While findings of rent overcharge generally include agency directives to refund not only rent overpayments but also any excess security deposit collected, the agency pointed out in Matter of JDM Washington Street (LVT #31843) that it had no authority to award the full return of a security deposit if the tenant had moved out by the time the Rent Administrator issued an overcharge determination.

In an appeal of a rent overcharge determination, the landlord argued that the tenant hadn’t produced proof of rent payments. DHCR rent overcharge complaint forms include instructions for tenants to submit with their complaint copies of cancelled checks or other proof of rent payments going back for up to six years. But in Matter of 197 Madison Holdings LLC (LVT #31845), where the agency’s Tenant Protection Unit (TPU) had initiated the overcharge proceeding after a rent audit, the DHCR found that “tenant production of records of rent payments is not an issue.”