If a landlord peruses the New York real estate headlines today, she might come away thinking that it is absolutely impossible to obtain an eviction of a tenant in the aftermath of the outbreak of COVID-19 and the continuing moratorium on evictions throughout the state of New York. With record growth in job production, new hiring at record highs, lifting of gubernatorial emergency powers across the country, and no prospect of any economic stimulus in sight, landlords are still being forced to keep tenants in place by the promise of state funds through the emergency rental assistance program (“ERAP”), whether or not their tenants have paid or can pay rent, and whether or not that emergency relief program is actually funded by the legislature.  

That’s why when a particular landlord approached Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. for help evicting a tenant who gave the landlord a rubber check and called it “rent,” expectations were tempered. Nevertheless, a holdover petition was filed and the attorneys at Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. worked tirelessly to draft and file a motion on the basis that the tenant was never a tenant at all, highlighting several months of correspondence between the tenant and the landlord inclusive of undeniable gaslighting, promises which were never kept, and representations which were demonstrably false. At the hearing, despite several contrary options available to the Court, the Court ordered judgment and a warrant of eviction against the would-be tenant, an unprecedented victory for the landlord.  

While the landlord still faces several steps to effect the eviction, with its initial major victory secured, its attorneys at Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. will be there every stage of the way. Sometimes a case is only as good as its facts. Sometimes a case is won on the law. When the facts and law align, the zealous advocates at Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. continue to prove that even the impossible is possible.  

Adam Leitman Bailey P.C. attorneys Andrew Winters and Dov Treiman crafted the papers and Niki Khindri made the appearance.