Help!! How does my mother get rid of her tenants???

Question

My mother owns a house (in Queens,NYC) and she rents out the second floor apartment to people. She's owned this house for 12 years now. The people that live there now how lived there for about a year or 2.
She told me that on the 5th of this month, she saw one of them in the hallway and asked when she should expect the rent (they have to pay on the 1rst). He tells her rudely "Oh, yea, I forgot to tell you. We're moving out. We're living out the deposit."
My mother was angry at first and then realized they NEVER gave her a deposit. When confronting them again, they said "too bad."
She lives alone with my little brother and the tenants are five 20-something year old guys. I try to help her out when I go visit her but they dont listen to me either.
I helped her find new tenants that are due to move in the 1rst of october. But these guys still haven't paid september rent and said they don't know when they'll be out.
But there's a catch. My mother is also at fault so doing...

doing something illegal. She agreed to letting them pay rent in cash. And she decided not to claim it so she doesn't have to pay taxes for it. Her fault.
Also, I think these guys might be illegally in this country. The have social security cards but no greencards or anything, and I think their visa's expired.
So now how do we get rid of them???
They don't pay for gas, electricity, or water either.
But they don't know that she never calimed tenants in her taxes.

We have to get rid of them by the first since that's when the new tenants are moving in. And TRUST me my mother is making the new tenants pay the deposit and by check only.
But these guys refuse to leave and refuse to pay rent. They expect to live there for free for the next month or two and think nothing of it.

I actually advised her to put all of their furniture outside and change the locks. But 1.we don't know if that's legal in NYC, and 2.I'm a 23 year old woman and my mother is a 46 year old women and this is a large group of 25 year old guys. They obviously have no morals and aren't good people so we're afraid of what they can do to the house or to us.

Answer 1

Check out www.mrlandlord.com for good advice

Whether she reported the rental income is a separate question, not relevant, here. Also, it doesn't matter too much if they are illegal aliens, which they probably aren't. She needs to talk to a lawyer to find out what New York law will allow her to do. Assuming the apartment was legal to rent out in the first place, I think she can sue to evict the tenants. The main point of this would be to encourage them to get out before October 1. If they don't, her new tenants will bail on her, justifiably. On the suit itself, winning in court doesn't guarantee you get the money...far from it.

She needs to learn how to screen her tenants. You can do this via the website above. You make them fill out an application and pay an application fee that at the very least covers the cost of running credit reports on them. Every adult pays a separate fee.

Get the first month's rent and the security deposit in two separate cashier's checks before you give them keys or let them move in.

Lots more advice on that site, too much to cover here.

By the way, you probably can't change the locks, put their stuff on the street, turn off their utilities, even if it works in the other guy's state, which he could be wrong about. Doing that is called "constructive eviction" and could get you in a lot of trouble if it's illegal in NYS and or NYC, which I bet it is.

Answer 2

I'd suggest that your mother pay taxes on all of her income. There is a legal process for evicting tenants. She should follow this legal process, although this may take time.

After they are served papers and given proper notice, she can call the police to move them out. Otherwise, I suspect that there will come a time when all of the tenants are out of the apartment. In my state, the landlord can put all of the furniture out on the street and change the locks.

If these are illegal immigrants, I suspect just the threat of calling the police may force the tenants out. Make sure that your mother stays on the legal side of the law so they do not have leverage against her. I'd make sure to have as much information about thee tenants as possible so that you can possibly track their whereabouts, in case there is damage.

Next time, try renting to a reputable tenants who can affort to put down a damage deposit and first month's rent.

Answer 3

Your mom needs to follow the laws in New york State, it will be a long process but she will get them out.
I think she needs to file 3 DAY notice to pay or give up the apt, if they don't do it, then she needs to file a 30 day notice and still if they don't comply, then she needs to go to court and file eviction papers..
Your mom should not rent out the apt until the tenants are out .. she can then sue them for back rent.
Getting them out of her apt, has nothing to do with he not paying taxes or claiming her tenants .. but next time she should do it with her new tenants.
Immigration will not get them out of the apt, it's not that easy to get someone deported, it takes a long time and it's not even worth it on your part.. just have your mom do it legally and she'll get them out. but she has to do it now, so maybe she should have someone 18yrs old or older serve them the 3 day notice and go from there.
I am in a similar situation, i am the tenant and the landlord is doing everything illegal and I'm going to take him to court, so have your mom do it right or else those tenants will sue her in court and win.

Answer 4

The fastest process is to serve them with a 10 day notice of eviction. It is a special eviction form that a landlord can use in cases like this. She'll have to file it if the residents don't move out. Chances are they will go because if they are illegal they have no standing in court. Bad news is if they contest it in court your mother is in some trouble.

Answer 5

i think shes screwed. if you serve an eviction notice, that will give them 30 to 90 days to get out. no one knows that they paid in cash unless you tell them. that wont be looked into. if you think they are illegal, then call the authorities, or threaten to. if they are illegal, they will be out. fake ssn and ids are done all the time, and usually they get away with it, unless the cops do a little digging. usually the threat is enough.

Answer 6

Honey, you need professional help. Maybe your mom is at fault, but that's no reason to let them get away with this. And if they are here illegally, they'll be in more trouble than your mom. If it gets anyworse, wait until they're all out of the house, put all their stuff outside, and change the locks. It'd be better than them cheating you out of even more money. Good luck! =]