Guidance Issued for Upcoming Eviction Cases

New York Civil Court Administrative Judge Anthony Cannataro issued three notices on Friday regarding Gov. Cuomo’s latest executive order.

The order prohibits nonpayment evictions against “someone that is eligible for unemployment insurance or benefits” or a residential or commercial tenant “otherwise facing financial hardship due to the COVID-19 pandemic.”

The new directives outline how landlords might determine this information, but attorneys say the guidance is still confusing — and could possibly be a deterrent.

KMWB’s Nativ Winiarsky told Law360, “I don’t know how one is to go about … Should the landlord be sending out a questionnaire? If so, how encompassing can the questions be? Is the landlord allowed to ask for documents from the tenant to determine the veracity of any response?”

Tenant attorneys still fear that eviction cases will flood the courts after June 20th, citing that the new directives “give landlords an unlimited pass to demand confidential financial disclosures”.

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