Prime Tenant on Lease wants to Evict Non-Paying Roommate

[roommatesuck]

Hello,

Is it possible to pursue a Non-Payment Eviction against a roommate who is not paying rent and is not on the lease? My process server told me it is and helped me fill out forms to do so, but other sources on the internet state roommates can only bring holdover evictions against each other. I recall the volunteer lawyers down at NYC housing court suggesting a roommate in my position could do both...?

I am the prime tenant on the lease, with 2 roommates (under/sub-tenants or licensees depending on how you define this) who pay me rent each month.

One roommate has been paying me partial rent for many, many months, sometimes paying extra certain months to compensate for what she owes me (we worked out a re-payment plan verbally for the back rent she owed me to make up for the months when she only payed partial rent... almost always in cash, although I gave her reciepts which I mostly photo-copied, along with text messages of my asking her for rent, and her responding, and a detailed account/invoice of what she owed me/payed me, etc) emailed to her each month.

Last month she payed me no rent whatsoever and this month she is late...

I finally decided to pursue a non-payment eviction against her, and all the paper-work is being delivered, in the pipeline, etc.

I know the process and paper work pretty well, and have spoke with volunteer lawyers many times in the past when I had to give prior, misbehaving roommates 30 day notices. I have never actually had to evict a roommate though.

How long can this take?

Will it be hard to prove what the rent was and how much she actually did or did not pay me, seeing as how most of this was in cash?

Does the ad I placed on the internet and she responded to count as proof of what the rent was?

How does the court deal with partial rent payers?

What are some pitfalls I have to watch out for with evicting a roommate and non-payment cases?

[ronin]

Evicting people isn't really what this site is about. But what you are experiencing is an issue in roommate situations. Search this forum for prior advice regarding toxic roommates.

Be aware that nothing said between you really matters in real estate matters. So if you want a repayment plan with her then you should put it in writing or its really irrelevant. Your attempt to use the roommate ad to show the rent would probably fail if the roommate uses the record of her payments and claims that was the rental amount.

IMHO