Eviction

I live in The Bronx,New York, my question is I had a co-op studio for around 10 years and got evicted for not paying rent. I had to put up $5,000 to secure the co-op. I just got a letter from the city marshalls stating I have to pay the back rent plus interest of over $1,000 plus fees. Am I entitled to any of my five thousand that I put up for the studio? If I had sold it I would have gotten my money plus a small profit at closing. It has been a couple of years since I was evicted and now I get this letter do I have to pay the interest as well since it took all this time for them to get in touch with me? Its not like I have been ducking them,this is the first I have heard from anyone. Is there any way I can pay less? Thanks for your time and any help.

I'm really confused on this one. You rented(?) a studio unit, but put up $5g to secure it. Do you mean as a security deposit?

Then you mention that if you had sold(?) it, you would have gotten your money back. How can you sell something you only rent??? In co-ops, don't you normally share ownership? But you said you only rented it? Please post again with more info or clarification. I think you may be confusing me with incorrect terms.

A co-op is normally a shared ownership deal. The only thing I can gather is that you must not have paid your co-op fees (not rent) and were kicked out of the co-op for non-payment (and thus evicted from the unit). Same as being evicted from an HOA unit for failing to pay the HOA fees. They basically put a lien on the unit for the unpaid fees and take back possession to re-gain the money they lost. If this is the case, and the security wasn't a deposit but was a fee to buy into the co-op, you may have lost it when you lost ownership rights. If you truely rented the unit, you should have received an itemized statement to say what happened to your security deposit within a reasonable amount of time after you moved out.

Please re-post with more details.