Tenant Moves In Mother Not Part Of Deal NYC

I rented a apartment to a lady with 3 kids. She told me that she works alot and her mother would sometimes come over the house to watch the kids.

Now the mother moved in and to boot she smokes non stop. I do not allow smoking and the house smells like smoke. I raised the rent and asked her to stop the mother from smoking.

she is paying the rent but the mother is still smoking and it is bothering me alot.


I do not have a lease with this tenant. The tenant is also a correction officer that works for NY State or city im not sure. Someone told me that if I wanted her out to get a lawyer for a eviction and contact her union since she works for the state.

What can I do. I have a bad heart problem and I cannot afford to breath this smoke non stop.

I know getting her out is not easy because it is New York City and she has kids.

Any help is appreciated.

You should contact an eviction attorney. (Not a real estate attorney! One who only does evictions and does them for a flat rate fee.) You should be able to just give them a 30 day notice to terminate the month to month agreement without reason, but you are in NYC. That area has some special laws on terminating tenancies, especially in rent controlled areas. It also allows tenants to move in immediate family without consequences. See an attorney who knows the laws of your area.

I understand -

Without a lease I was told that can help me and hurt me.

I can at any time tell them to leave even though I will be in court for 6 months to a year trying to get them out.

Is there anything I am missing or should look into

Evicting is a big pain in the neck in NYC--I can tell you.

That is why it pays to be strict as to whom you rent!!

This lady is a correction officer and Her job may be effected if you take her to court. I am not 100% shes almost like a cop and cops have to pay their rent.

Corrections officers are not like cops. Nothing compells them to be any more responsible that any other tenant. Their supervisor will not get involved. (Coming from 13 years of experience in corrections.) The supervisor will only state that this is a personal problem with the tenant and does not affect her work. The one good point is that, as a corrections officer, she is a state employee. That makes it very easy to garnish her wages if you obtain a monetary judgement against her. That will automatically be deducted from her paycheck, just as child support would be, through the payroll department. It will affect her credit report and score.

Contact an eviction attorney for help. You will need to serve written notices to the tenant to perform or quit (stop smoking or move). Then you have to allow a period of time for the behavior to stop before pursuing an eviction.

[halema25]

First of all you need to post signs and notices in plain view that there is no smokeing allowed(shouldnt be too muhc to have a sign made that cannot be destroyed!!). Then send acertified letter to the tenants that you do not allow smokeing and you are telling them to stop this or vacate the property at once make sure you have an evcition attourney ready for the next step which would be a legal eviction. If they try to site you did not tell them this to begin with bring up th efact that it was verbal then the signs after the verbal did not work and then a certified letter make sure you ahve two copies of said leter with the certification tag attached to the letter proving that it was sent and signed for!! Make sure you have pictures of th esigns and bring awitness to your telling them yet again that you do not allow smokeing and take pics of the signs posted on the property.
Helema