The Legal Process For Evicting Your Tenant
Eviction proceedings for property located in the Town of Brookhaven take place in the Sixth District Court of Suffolk County, located at 150 West Main Street in Patchogue. Landlord-tenant proceedings are heard every Wednesday at 9:30 a.m., in the main courtroom. A landlord must properlyserve the tenant with any predicate notices required by law, or by the lease agreement, before starting the action. The landlord must then draft and file the appropriate notice of petition and petition to begin the proceeding (either a hold-over proceeding or a non-payment proceeding). 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. Both the tenant and the landlord must appear for the court date, and each party will be allowed up to one adjournment. If both parties do not agree to adjourn, then the maximum amount of time the matter can be adjourned is one week, and the matter can be marked “final” against the party requesting the adjournment. On the final date, a trial will be held before the Judge, and the landlord will have to prove that he or she is legally entitled to evict thetenant. The tenant will have the opportunity to raise any defenses to the eviction, known as “affirmative defenses.”
At the conclusion of the trial, if the landlord prevails, he or she mustsubmit a proposed judgment of possession (and for back rent, if awarded any) and a warrant of eviction for the Judge to sign. The landlord will then have to take this judgment and warrant to the Suffolk County Sheriff’s Department. The Sheriff will then physically remove the tenants from the landlord’s property, charging the landlord a fee for the removal of the tenants.
Accessory Apartment Permits
The Town of Brookhaven allows homeowners to have accessory apartments in their home. The Brookhaven Town Code defines the requirements in Chapter 85, Article XVIII: Accessory Apartments. If thetenant being evicted claims the defense that the apartment lacks a valid rental permit, and therefore he or she should not have to pay, rest assuredthe tenant is mistaken. A recent change in law now enables landlords to collect rent even in the absence of a rental permit. The Town, however, willstill issue a summons to a landlord who is renting an apartment to tenantswithout a proper rental permit. In these instances, the Town generallygives the landlord 45 days to remove all tenants from the property; if the landlord complies, the summons will be dismissed.
About the Town of Brookhaven
The Town of Brookhaven is located in central Suffolk County, and it is the largest town in the State of New York (since it includes parts of Fire Island and parts of the Great South Bay). It contains one of the highest elevated areas on Long Island, Bald Hill, which is 331 feet tall, and is the home to the Vietnam Memorial Veterans Park and Monument. The Town of Brookhaven has a population of approximately 487,000, and it is the only town in Suffolk County that encompasses land extending both to the south shore and north shore of Long Island. As of the 2000 census, there are 155,406 housing units in the Town of Brookhaven, which encompasses nine incorporated villages (Belle Terre, Bellport, Lake Grove, Mastic Beach, Old Field, Patchogue, Poquott, Port Jefferson, and Shoreham), and 50 hamlets (including Centereach, Coram, Farmingville, Holbrook, Lake Ronkonkoma, Mastic, Medford, and Rocky Point).
Main Attractions in the Town of Brookhaven:
- Bald Hill
- Pennysaver Ampitheater
- Fire Island Ferry
- Visit Brookhaven Official Site