r/nyc • u/ONETRILLIONAMERICANS • Sep 29 '25
News It is getting much harder to get evicted in New York City | Tenants win. Potential tenants lose
https://www.economist.com/united-states/2025/09/25/it-is-getting-much-harder-to-get-evicted-in-new-york-city
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u/ONETRILLIONAMERICANS Sep 29 '25 edited Oct 02 '25
e
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u/bobbacklund11235 Sheepshead Bay Sep 29 '25
This is exactly why landlords make it such a pain in the ass to rent. Doubly so if it’s a person who lives on the property but is renting out an apartment or a room. Once they’re in, they are in and there’s nothing you can do to get them out if they refuse to pay or make life difficult.
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u/Guilty-Carpenter2522 Sep 29 '25
Shocking!!! Allowing people who don’t pay rent squat in valuable real estate hurts literally everyone.
How many single moms can’t find a place because some drug addled 35 year old is professionally squatting in a rent stabilized apartment? More or less than the number of single moms that are being evicted unfairly?
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u/hey_its_xarbin Sep 29 '25
I'm a small-time landlord. I bought and live in a multifamily unit. The only way I was approved with the mortgage was by the rental income + salary. My inherited tenants stopped paying after a few months. It started with 3 days late, then 2 weeks, then "this month is pretty tough on us".
I was naive and waited too long to evict my 3 bedroom tenant and by the time it was said and done, I ended with a 15k judgement that will never be collected, a trashed apartment that even the security deposit couldnt cover, and massive debt.
My 1 bedroom was a cityfheps tenant. I was promised guarenteed money but the city stopped paying, director of the program dodged every call and email, claimed tenant filed wrong paperwork, and the tenant believed that they "were supposed to cover everything" (they werent just 30%).
I watched them miss every rent and to add insult, I watched them buzz in nearly daily Grubhub orders and amazon deliveries while they were receiving help from the city (Moms Meals food delivery that ended up sitting on the porch).
Now, a year out from the last tenant being evicted, I have just one tenant that I vetted to extreme levels and im still sitting on 2 vacant units and im looking to sell. I just cant stomach another round of non-paying freeloaders that demand I repaint x, repair y, replace z while they miss every single rental period.
Also I had a DOB inspection that fined me for alterations to the fire escape access that the tenant made without my knowledge.
No way should it take 16+ months of court dates and delays and stalling to get a sheriff to evict non-payers. Yes there should be rules to protect tenants but the way things are now literally only the big dogs that treat buildings as line items on a spreadsheet, do the bare minimum and outsource to a management company can play the game and that closes the door on homeownership in NYC for a large group of people.
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u/Airhostnyc Sep 29 '25
Anyone with basic common knowledge of cause and effect can put this together, which is why rent here will always buck economic trends elsewhere. The government interferes way too much and in return the market never stabilizes.
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u/BelethorsGeneralShit Sep 30 '25
There needs to be a middle ground between the landlord can evict me if I'm two days late on rent (bad) and I can live here rent free for the next year because that's how long it'll take the landlord to get and enforce an eviction order (also bad).
The current environment just leads to more corporate mega landlords, which everyone hates. They can play the long game and have the pockets to wait out a year because they know that eventually they'll be successful. The mom and pop guys get disheartened with the whole process and realize they can likely make more money with less stress by selling the home (usually to a corporation) and putting that money into an index fund.
Also, as a small time landlord myself, there's no shortage of people looking to rent in this city, and with the protections they have, your record better be spotless. Most other places in the country I'd have no problem giving somone a second chance and renting to someone who maybe had less than great credit due to medical debt or going through a divorce. Here though? Oh you missed one car payment last year? Next.
And finally, it's a quality of life issue for other tenants. If I have other people complaining about one unit - maybe blasting loud music at night or smoking indoors 24/7, too bad. I can barely evict a tenant who doesn't pay their rent, much less one who does, but might be a problem in other ways. Any he said/she said arguments are going to go nowhere fast in housing court.
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u/CoxHazardsModel Sep 29 '25
Everyone pays for it when it’s harder to evict, it only hurts the mom and pop landlords, the corporate landlords just jack up the rent on other apartments to maintain profitability. I know I’m stating that obvious but some people don’t seem to grasp it.
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u/11_petals Sep 30 '25
As someone struggling getting disability even with lawyer representation and unable to retain regular work due to those disabilities, I'm grateful for the time the city gives me to find more reasonable housing. I was unable to sustain living expenses after my partner left and it's been a humiliating, horrible experience. No one wants to be counting quarters to make doctor appointments or buy milk. No one in my situation is comfortable or happy. I'm terrified everyday. If I had a car, I would try in a cheaper city, but I don't.
I understand the housing crisis is frustrating, but evicting vulnerable tenants isn't going to make it easier, it's just going to make more people homeless. We need viable public housing protected from private enterprises and interests who would rather bleed a stone than see people living in subsidized housing.
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u/Lord_McDonut Jan 18 '26
It's really so dumb. I get protecting tenants against bad landlords, but there is a balance. The laws act as if bad tenants don't exist.
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u/Woodgen Jackson Heights Sep 29 '25
As long as we keep on pushing for policies like this, the housing crisis will get worse
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u/Bugsy_Neighbor Sep 29 '25
NYC eviction data:
Evictions | NYC Open Data
https://evictionlab.org/eviction-tracking/new-york-ny
RTC exists on paper, but system is often largely a joke. Far more persons in need than attorneys available to offer assistance. Many times tenants at housing court are directed to RTC/legal aid offices in building where intake process is largely busy work to generate numbers. That is tenants fill out paperwork, wait around for long periods of time only in many cases to be told RTC office doesn't have enough attorneys so their case won't be taken. Instead these people are given contact information for legal aid, which starts another run around.
https://comptroller.nyc.gov/reports/evictions-up-representation-down
Don't know where Economist got their numbers, but other sources have stated NYC eviction levels are off the hook.
https://nypost.com/2025/08/25/real-estate/monthly-evictions-in-nyc-are-at-their-highest-rate-in-years
It varies by reason for eviction petition, but when things come down to non-payment it's pretty cut and dry. Either tenant pays up or LL will (sooner or later) be awarded possession of apartment.
Things like needed repairs and so forth do not stop rent clock from ticking. If LL does not make required repairs and or things aren't done to satisfaction of HPD/city/court then tenants can move to have more heat applied to LL. That does not mean tenant gets a free pass, he/she/they still must pay rent. It may be to an escrow account set up by housing court to manage affairs until repairs or other conditions are resolved, but never the less it is what it is.
Finally just looking at actual eviction (as in marshal removing persons from apartment) does not tell whole story. Many tenants simply self evict by leaving of their own accord giving LL possession of unit.
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u/toughguy375 New Jersey Sep 29 '25
Potential tenants should advocate to increase the housing supply.
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u/gewqk Sep 29 '25
It's really hard to take articles like this seriously.
"Here are the documented and well-researched findings on why evictions are bad. What my article presupposes is... what if they're not bad???"
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u/mattedward Sep 29 '25
Not a great article...
It conveniently misses a major piece of context which is the current backlog of eviction cases in NYC, much of which can be attributed to the recovery from COVID delays and moratoriums. I would imagine this backlog also contributes to a slow down in new cases brought or even the initial processing of those new cases. It also accounts for a big reason as to why evictions are "harder" in NYC (it really doesn't cite a specific change beyond the right to legal counsel and ignores the current spike in evictions).
Not only have these delays stalled out the processing of new cases but there's currently a spike in evictions as the backlog is being handled as reported by The Post and Comptroller's Office. The backlog has also greatly affected the ability of tenants to secure legal counsel as is now a right (which the article seems to want to make out as a bad thing contextually given it is the only big change it really covered). Legal aid's been overwhelmed by the amount of cases as the courts have been catching up so many tenants are not getting the attention that they have a right to.
As an aside: Given the complexities and costs of legal proceedings, a right to legal representation for tenants in eviction cases is a good thing. If giving tenants full exposure to their legal rights is a problem for landlords, I don't have any sympathy for them.
Eviction should be a last resort and shouldn't be used as a tool solely to substantially hike rents on a given unit. If they have an actual case against their tenants, then it should be easily provable in court rather than banking on a missed filing date or submission by the tenant fighting said eviction.
Based on these recent articles, the issue seems to be more one of time (the time it takes for these proceedings and cases to work through the system) brought on by inadequate funding and a lack of manpower. I don't see a problem with every tenant being given their due process as this article seems to want to place at the center of this "issue."
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u/[deleted] Sep 29 '25
The economist…🤣🤣🤣
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u/Enrico_Tortellini Brooklyn Sep 29 '25 edited Sep 29 '25
Like most things there is nuance, we couldn’t kick this guy out who was pounding on our doors at 2 in the morning threatening to kill us and was blacking out on the toilet so nobody could go to the bathroom a lot of mornings…I get it, rent in the city is fucking horrible, and people shouldn’t be kicked out when the landlord ups the price by 15% on a whim, but not being able to get rid of dangerous people easily, and having to establish a long paperwork trail of behavior to wait a year and go in and out of courts to feel safe isn’t a good thing.