The Tenant Eviction Process
If you are a landlord seeking to evict your tenant in the Towns of Hempstead, North Hempstead or Oyster Bay, or in the Cities of Glen Cove or Long Beach, or if you are a tenant being evicted, your eviction proceeding will take place in the Nassau County District Court, located at 99 Main Street in Hempstead, New York. Landlord-Tenant Court begins at 9:30 a.m., every Monday through Friday, in Room 280 on the second floor of the Courthouse. Landlords must commence either a hold-over or a non-payment proceeding after serving the tenant with any predicate notices required by law, or by the lease agreement. Once the action is commenced in Court, the landlord must then serve the tenant with a copy of the notice of petition and petition in accordance with New York’s Real Property Actions and Proceedings Law. Either at or before the first appearance date, the tenant should serve and file with the court a copy of his or her answer, raisingany relevant affirmative defenses.
On the first appearance date in Court, the Judge in the Landlord-Tenant Part will require the landlord and tenant to discuss the case to try to settle it. If the parties cannot agree to settle the case, the Judge willconference the issues with the attorneys for both parties and will try to facilitate a settlement. If the landlord and tenant still cannot agree to a reasonable settlement, the Court will schedule a trial. If neither party is represented by an attorney, the Judge will direct the parties to conference the case with a mediator before scheduling a trial. On the trial date, the landlord must testify in Court and prove that he or she is legally entitled to evict the tenant. The tenant must testify, if he or she is raising any defenses to theeviction.
If the landlord prevails, his or her attorney will draft and submit a judgment of possession, which will include any award for back rent, and a warrant of eviction consistent with the Judge’s decision. Once the Judge signs the judgment and warrant of eviction, the Court will mail them to the landlord’s attorney, who will make sure they are delivered to the landlord with instructions on how to have the judgment enforced and the warrant executed. The landlord then simply has to follow his or her attorney’s instructions and bring the judgment and warrant to the Nassau County Sheriff’s Office. The Sheriff will handle the eviction from that point.
About the Town of Hempstead
The Town of Hempstead has over 750,000 residents, which is more residents than any other town in New York State. English colonists from Connecticut purchased the land from Native Americans in 1644; and in 2014 the Town will be celebrating 370 years since its purchase. In 1784, during the Revolutionary War, the Loyalists in the south of the Town and the American sympathizers in the north caused a split into “North Hempstead” and “South Hempstead.” When the Borough of Queens was incorporated as part of the City of New York in 1898, and Queens County divided the following year to create Nassau County, some southwestern portions of the Town of Hempstead seceded from the Town and became part of the newly formed Borough of Queens.
Today, the government of the Town of Hempstead is Long Island’s 47th largest employer with almost 2,000 employees. But the Town is perhaps best known for the most popular beach on the East Coast, Jones Beach, which is located on the Great South Bay on the south shore of the Town of Hempstead, and welcomes over six million visitors each year.