Update from Housing Court 6/23

To Our Valued Clients:

To update last week’s blog about the opening of the housing courts for new filings effective June 22, 2020, we have seen another new development with the June 18, 2020 letter and Administrative Order 127/20 of Supervising Judge Lawrence Marks.

In this letter, Judge Marks reflects the court’s concern for the high volume of new cases due to New York being on pause with unrepresented litigants which may necessitate in-person court appearances as well as the restrictions placed on the filing and prosecution of eviction and foreclosure cases under federal law such as the CARES Act and the various Executive Orders of Governor Cuomo.  As such, he established the following protocols for the handling of eviction proceedings:

·        Commencement documents in eviction proceedings may only be filed with the court by NYSCEF or mail only. Currently in housing court there is no ability to file by NYSCEF until later this year, this means the only way to file these new proceedings is by mail. 

o   The various county Housing Court Bar Associations are speaking with the clerks of the housing courts to get further details on the logistics of this new filing procedure.

·        Until further notice, two additional documents must be included with commercial and residential eviction petitions “for nonpayment of rent or on other grounds.”  This would make it clear that Judge Marks wants the following documents attached to both non-payment proceedings and holdovers which is interesting in light of the continued stay under Executive Order 202.28 clearly only applies to residential and commercial non-payment proceedings in which the tenant is experiencing a COVID-19 related harm.

o   The first document is a form petitioner’s attorney affirmation (or petitioner’s affidavit for the self-represented) in which the attorney or the petitioner state they have reviewed the various federal and state restrictions and qualifications on eviction proceedings and believe in good faith that the commencement of the instant action complies with them.  (See Exhibits 1-a and 1-b of Judge Marks’ Letter).  

§  For example, under the CARES Act which covers tax credit, federally subsidized buildings, and buildings governed by federal mortgages, landlords are stayed from commencing and prosecuting non-payment eviction proceedings through July 25, 2020 and by submitting the petition and this affirmation/affidavit for filing, the attorney or the petitioner is certifying that he has good faith reason to believe that the CARES act does not stay the proceeding being commenced.

o   The second document is a form notice to the Respondent-Tenant in English and Spanish informing them that they may be entitled to an extension of time based on COVID-19 and directing them to a phone number and/or website for further information.  (See Exhibits 2-a [for within NYC] and 2-b [for outside of NYC] of Judge Marks’ Letter).

·        Whether or not an answer is filed, all new proceedings will be stayed pending the expiration of the Governor’s Executive Order moratorium through August 20, 2020 and in light of Administrative Order 68/20, until further directive of Judge Marks; with the following exception – eviction matters commenced before March 16, 2020 in which all parties are represented by counsel may apply to the court for virtual settlement conferences. 

·        Finally, Judge Marks indicates that this is an interim order and there will be further directives on the processing of these new cases at or before the expiration of the current executive order on August 20, 2020.

 The Housing Court Bar groups have stated that it is expected that Civil Court Supervising Judge Anthony Cannataro will modify court his directive DRP 209 based on this promulgation by Judge Marks.

So as previously stated while there has been progress in reopening, there is now no in-person filing of new proceedings or answers thereto, no timeline on in person proceedings, there still are discrepancies with court issued directives and DOI on Notice of Evictions, no default judgments, and certainly no evictions as of yet due to AO 68/20.  Clearly, things are still in flux and we will update you as soon as we hear from the courts

Stay well and stay tuned…