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Housing, Foreclosure & Homelessness

Are you facing eviction in Housing Court or are you facing foreclosure in Supreme Court? Are you facing eviction in NYCHA housing, or trying to sue for repairs? Do you need help on other housing issues? Are you homeless? You may be eligible for free legal assistance.

How To Get Help

The fastest way to see if you qualify for free legal assistance in a housing matter is to call The Legal Aid Society neighborhood office in your borough:

Manhattan: 212-426-3000
Brooklyn: 718-722-3100
Bronx: 718-991-4600
Queens: 718-286-2450
Staten Island: 347-422-5333

If you are homeless, call the Homeless Rights Project helpline at 800-649-9125 Monday – Friday 9 a.m. – 5 p.m.

If you are a member of a tenant group/association or want information on starting a tenant group/association, or if you are an HDFC coop board member or shareholder, call the Housing Justice Unit-Group Advocacy helpline at 212-577-7988 Monday – Friday 10 a.m. -4 p.m or email HousingGrpAdv@legal-aid.org.

If you are a homeowner facing foreclosure, call the Foreclosure Prevention Project at 718-883-8156 for Queens and 646-340-1908 for the Bronx, or visit the following clinics:

Bronx Foreclosure Clinic
Bronx Supreme Court
851 Grand Concourse, Room 607 A
Bronx, NY 10451
Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays, from 1 p.m. – 4 p.m.

Queens Foreclosure Clinic
Queens Civil Court
89-17 Sutphin Blvd, room 454
Jamaica, NY 11435
Fridays from 9:30 a.m. – 3:15 p.m.

Important Things To Know

Issues with succession rights in rent-stabilized apartments.

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Are you facing foreclosure?

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Has your landlord shut off services or refused to make repairs?

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Know Your Rights

What You Need to Know About Your Mortgage Servicer

The lender of your mortgage loan may contract with another company to service your mortgage. This company is called a mortgage servicer. It does not own your loan but is the company to which you send your monthly payments and which you contact if you have any questions about your account. During the term of your loan the mortgage servicer may change several times.

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What You Need to Know About Facing Foreclosure

What you need to know about the process of forclosure and what rights you have as a property owner.

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What You Need to Know About Foreclosure “Rescue” Scams

Foreclosure rescue and loan modification scams are on the rise. They target and exploit home owners with false promises to reduce or even eliminate mortgage payments, repaid their credit or trick homeowners into signing over their deed. Frequently, scammers charge exorbitant fees in violation of existing laws.

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Have You Received a Marshal’s Notice?

If you have received an eviction notice from a marshal, you are at risk of having your locks changed and your belongings removed.

 

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What You Need to Know About Repair and Service Rights

In New York City, the law gives all residential tenants the right to a safe, decent, and sanitary living space. This right, commonly referred to as the warranty of habitability, is implied in every written or oral lease and applies to the room or apartment rented as well as the public areas of the building.

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What You Need to Know About Succession Rights in Rent-Stabilized Apartments

Succession rights permit certain occupants of a rent-regulated apartment to lawfully become tenants of the apartment when the tenant of record (the person named on the lease) dies, permanently leaves or surrenders rights to the apartment.

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What You Need to Know About Tenant Harassment in NYC

“Harassment” is any act or failure to act by a landlord or a landlord’s agents that causes or is intended to cause any person legally entitled to live in a room or apartment to give up their room or apartment, or any rights related to their tenancy. In New York State, tenant harassment can be a felony or misdemeanor. In New York City, tenant harassment is also a housing code violation, and tenants can sue their landlord in Housing Court if they are being harassed.

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What You Need to Know About Foreclosure As a Tenant

In New York State, a lender must start a legal action in Supreme Court and get a court order to foreclose against an owner who has not paid the mortgage. The owner is legally allowed to collect rents and make leases until the foreclosure ends in an auction, when the building is either sold to a new owner or retained by the lender.

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Terms You Might Hear

The justice system can be overwhelming. Get familiar with some legal terms and acronyms you might hear like appeal, adjournment, petition, jurisdiction, deposition, and affidavit.

See All Terms
  • Allegation – The assertion, declaration, or statement of a party to an action, made in a pleading, setting out what the party expects to prove.
  • Attorney – A person admitted to practice law and authorized to perform criminal and civil legal functions on behalf of clients.
  • Clerk – An official or employee of the court who maintains the files of each case, and issues routine documents.
  • Defendant – In a civil matter, this refers to the individual being sued. This party is called the "respondent" in a summary proceeding. In a criminal case, the court officers and district attorneys will use this term to refer to someone accused of a crime.
  • Eviction Proceeding – Any proceeding which could result in the eviction of a respondent, such as a holdover or nonpayment proceeding.
  • Evidence – A form of proof or probative matter legally presented at the trial of an issue by the acts of the parties and through witnesses, records, documents, concrete objects, etc., for the purpose of inducing belief in the minds of the court or the jury.
  • Felony – An offense of graver character than a misdemeanor and usu. punished by imprisonment for more than one year.
  • Foreclosure – The process by which mortgaged property enters into the possession of the mortgagee without right of redemption by the mortgagor, usually for reason of delinquency in mortgage payments.
  • Hearing – A legal proceeding where an issue of law or fact is tried and evidence is presented to help determine the issue.
  • ICE – Immigration and Customs Enforcement
  • Judgement – The final decision of the judge.
  • Landlord – A lessor of real property; the owner or possessor of an estate in land or a rental property, who, in an exchange for rent, leases it to another individual known as the tenant.
  • Lawyer – Someone whose job is to give advice to people about the law and speak for them in court.
  • Liability – An obligation to do, to eventually do, or to refrain from doing something; money owed; or according to law one's responsibility for his/her conduct; or one's responsibility for causing an injury.
  • Lien – A claim on specific property for payment of a debt.
  • Marshal – An officer of the United States, whose duty it is to execute the process of the courts of the United States. His duties are very similar to those of a sheriff.
  • Misdemeanor – Lesser crime punishable by a fine and/or county jail time for up to one year. Misdemeanors are distinguished from felonies which can be punished by a state prison term.
  • Mortgage – A legal document by which the owner (i.e., the buyer) transfers to the lender an interest in real estate to secure the repayment of a debt, evidenced by a mortgage note.
  • Motion – A request to the court, usually in writing, for relief before the trial on the parties' claims, or for different or additional relief after the trial decision.
  • Order – An oral or written command or a direction from a judge.
  • Party – Person having a direct interest in a legal matter, transaction or proceeding.
  • Petition – In special or summary proceedings, a paper like a document filed in court and delivered to the respondents, stating what the petitioner requests from the court and the respondents.
  • Plaintiff – The person suing. This party is called the "petitioner" in summary proceedings.
  • Proceeding – A type of lawsuit. For example: In Housing Court, a nonpayment proceeding seeks past-due rent; a holdover proceeding seeks possession of the premises.
  • Rent Controlled – For an apartment to be under rent control, the tenant (or their lawful successor such as a family member, spouse, or adult lifetime partner) must have been living in that apartment continuously since before July 1, 1971. When a rent controlled apartment becomes vacant, it either becomes rent stabilized, or, if it is in a building with fewer than six units, it is generally removed from regulation.
  • Rent Stabilization – In NYC, rent stabilized apartments are generally those apartments in buildings of six or more units built between February 1, 1947 and January 1, 1974. Tenants in buildings of six or more units built before February 1, 1947 and who moved in after June 30, 1971 are also covered by rent stabilization.
  • Succession Rights – Succession rights allow a remaining occupant to become the tenant of record an apartment when the prior tenant of record permanently leaves by moving out or dying. The successor has all the same rights as the previous tenant.
  • Summons – A plaintiff's written notice delivered to the parties being sued, that they must respond to within a specific time.
  • Surrender – To cancel or invalidate.
  • TPS – Temporary Protective Status. Offers temporary legal status to certain immigrants in the United States who cannot return to their home country due to ongoing armed conflict, natural disaster, or other extraordinary reasons.
  • Tenant – A person who occupies a property owned by another, based upon an agreement between the person and the landlord/owner.
  • Tenant of Record – The person whose name is on and who signed the lease or the deed of the property; they have primary responsibility for making monthy rent or mortgage payments.
  • Testimony – An oral declaration made by a witness or party under oath.
  • Waive – To voluntarily give up a right. Examples include not enforcing the terms of a contract, or knowingly giving up a legal right such as a speedy trial.
  • Warrant – An official document approved by an authority (normally a judge) which gives the police permission to do certain things.
  • Witness – A person who testifies to what they have seen, heard, or otherwise observed.

Last Updated: 18 September 2019

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