Pre-Covid, Pre-Judgement Cases May Now Move Forward in Housing Court

In our continuing effort to keep you up to date on developments related to the court system, we wanted to advise you that the Court administration has now confirmed that for pre Covid cases:

1 – Motions for judgments against pro se litigants may now be made (such as a “settled per stip” cases - NOT a case where it was on the calendar but never actually settled - the court will calendar those in the future).

2 – Motions against pro se litigants who failed to answer that seeks the entry of judgment may now be made.

3 – Motions for inquest on holdovers where Respondents failed to appear on the last court appearance may now be made.

This is a significant development as it allows us to move one step closer to obtaining some relief as against unrepresented tenants or tenants that failed to answer. Please be mindful however that eviction moratoriums such as the Safe Harbor Act, Executive Orders, and the Federal moratorium issued by CDC remain in effect so we do not believe there will be actual evictions any time soon and certainly not prior to January at the earliest. However, we can, at a minimum, begin to take steps to have things in place once the courts are really “open”  and/or more restrictions are lifted.

If you have any cases that you believe can and should move  forward as your  tenant(s)  have not paid or vacated, please let us know and we can work on drafting the appropriate motion.  Our office will continue to keep you updated as more information unfolds. As always we remain available for questions.

We hope you are well and staying safe!
-Eric Kahan and the Team