It’s becoming more and more popular in recent years to rent properties, rather than buy them. This could be for different reasons, including the rising prices of houses in the market or even just not wanting to settle down to one property. Because of this, many of us have joined the business and have rented out our extra space, whether it’s a full house or just an extra bedroom. Although many people hear rumors about how bad landlords can treat their tenants, not as many people talk about tenants mistreating their landlords.
Harassment from a tenant can be experienced in many different ways, including: refusing to pay rent, threatening messages or emails, disturbing other tenants on purpose, damaging other tenant’s property, showing up at your home unannounced, assaulting or threatening to assault you, or breaking the contract agreement.
If this is happening to you, housing lawyers in NYC encourage you to stay calm and not have a reaction. If you do react with violence or anger, it could make the situation escalate, and it will be harder to fight in court. What lawyers do recommend that you do is ask the tenant to stop contacting you and save as much evidence of their behavior as possible.
If the harassment doesn’t stop, then you should take legal steps to evict them. This process isn’t always as simple as we wish it would be, which is exactly why you should save as much evidence as you can in order to win the hearing. There are formalities that you must follow, which your lawyer will help you with. This includes having to give your tenant a written notice at least 30 days before the eviction, filling out the Certificate of Service form and submitting it to the board as proof that you’ve informed the tenant of the hearing, and more.
If your tenant is harassing you, don’t go through this process alone. Instead, hire a housing lawyer in NYC to help you fight for your rights.