About the Eviction Process in Centereach
There are over 8,200 households in the hamlet of Centereach, New York, and over 27,000 residents. Many homeowners in Centereach will decide to supplement their income by becoming landlords and renting out part of their homes to tenants. When this happens, the Centereach landlord will eventually be faced with having to evict a tenant due to non-payment of rent or for other issues.
The first step a Centereach landlord must take is to serve the tenant with any predicate legal notices required by law or by the written lease agreement, if there is one. Service of papers in landlord-tenant matters is generally governedby Article 7 of the Real Property Actions and Proceedings Law; and landlords must strictly comply with the requirements of the statute, or service of the papers on the tenant will be considered legally invalid. Once the notices are served and the appropriate amount of time has elapsed (depending on the type of notice served), the landlord must draft and file the correct type of petition to initiate the desired type of proceeding (either a hold-over proceeding or a non-payment proceeding). The landlord must then file the petition with notice thereof and purchase an index number at the Sixth District Court of Suffolk County, located at 150 West Main Street in Patchogue New York. The landlord must then hire a process server to serve a copy of the notice of petition and petition on the tenant at the Centereach apartment.
Landlord-tenant cases are heard every Wednesday at 9:30 a.m., at the Sixth District Court in Patchogue. On your first appearance date, after your case is called, the judge will ask all landlords and tenants to step out into the lobby and try to settle their case. If a settlement is reached, both parties will fill out a stipulation of settlement form and file it with the court. The stipulation of settlement will memorialize what the landlord and the tenant agreed to, and is a legal, binding agreement of which there is generally no way out. If a settlement cannot be reached, the matter will be scheduled for a trial.
At the trial, the Centereach landlord will have to prove that he or she is legally entitled to evict the tenant from theapartment. The tenant will then have the opportunity to raise and prove any affirmative defenses he or she may have to the eviction. If the tenant wins, the case will be dismissed and the tenant will be allowed to remain in theCentereach apartment. If the landlord wins, he or she will be granted a landlord-tenant judgment awarding the landlord possession of the premises and any back rent owed, and the court will also issue a warrant of eviction for the tenant’s removal. The landlord must then take the judgment and warrant of eviction to the Suffolk County Sheriff’s Office to have the Sheriff remove the tenant. If a monetary award is included in the judgment, then before going to the Sheriff, the landlord must obtain a transcript of judgment from the court and must bring the judgment and transcript to the office of the Suffolk County Clerk for filing, and have the Clerk issue an execution judgment. The landlord may then bring the execution judgment and warrant of eviction to the Sheriff.
About Centereach, New York
Centereach was named in 1916, and is meant to reflect the town’s geographic location in the middle of Long Island (the “center” has been “reached”). Prior to that, in the 19th Century, it was called West Middle Island, but then became known as New Village until its name change in 1916. Over the years, Centereach has gone from being a small, rural hamlet to a modern suburban community. Over the past ten years, a booming increase in construction has resulted in an infusion of higher-income residents.