illegal apartment

March 8, 2017 By James D. Murtha, Esq. 11 Comments

Can a Landlord Collect Rent on an Illegal Apartment in Nassau County or Suffolk County?

The simple answer is YES.

Courts, for a long time, were split on this issue. As most seasoned landlord-tenant attorneys know, the Nassau County District Court has traditionally held that so long as the property is being used in conformity with its certificate of occupancy, a landlord may recover rent. Eviction actions based on non-payment of rent in Nassau County were generally not dismissed even where the rental was in violation of the certificate of occupancy, but the Court would simply not award a monetary judgment in such cases, granting only possession.

March 9, 2012 By James D. Murtha, Esq. Leave a Comment

Can an Eviction Lawyer Evict a Tenant for Non-Payment of Rent Even Though the Apartment is Illegal?

Tenants who are being evicted from their apartment by the homeowner’s landlord tenant lawyer for failing to pay rent frequently believe that if they tell the judge the apartment they are renting is “illegal,” i.e., the landlord does not have a rental permit, then the eviction proceeding will be dismissed. This issue, which even for a Long Island evictions lawyer was a grey area for some time, was treated differently and inconsistently from court-to-court, with some courts dismissing the petition due to the illegality of the apartment and with other courts holding that the absence of a rental permit has no legal significance in an eviction proceeding.