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Housing Court - When does it become public record?

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Housing Court - When does it become public record?

Postby lionelvr » Thu Sep 01, 2016 8:48 pm

When does an actual searchable housing court record get created? Does a holdover create the record?

The reason I ask is that I'm having issues with my landlord but want to stay out of housing court because as we know, once your in the database that data is sold to management companies via one-site and other 3rd party vendors and then your "blacklisted".

I would like to see how far a landlord eviction can go before it becomes public record.

Thanks
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Re: Housing Court - When does it become public record?

Postby TenantNet » Thu Sep 01, 2016 9:12 pm

UPDATE - 9/2/16 6:30 AM

The answer is a bit complicated ... creating an actual file is one thing, but "commencing a proceeding" has to do with filing the Petition and Notice of Petition in Housing Court. I'm not the expert on this, and it is different between a Holdover and Non-Payment cases.

On a Holdover the LL has to first obtain the index number from the court clerk (and pay the fee). Once that's done it has to be served on the tenant by a non-party, usually a process server. I'll omit all the issues of proper service, but once service has been completed, the Petition and the Affidavit of Service are filed in court.

A court file is created when the index number is purchased, that's when a public record is created. When service of the papers happens or (doesn't) is irrelevant for blacklisting purposes.

With a non-payment case the process differs somewhat in that the tenant is served and they are supposed to put in an answer (and get a date for the first appearance). With Holdovers the date is already set and indicated on the Petition itself.

Note that Holdovers will appear on Ecourts even before the tenant is served. So if you anticipate Holdover, I'd keep checking Ecourts.

With Holdovers tenants are usually given a Notice of Termination and/or Notice to Cure before hand. That's another signal the LL is getting serious.

If you really want to avoid the blacklist, one way is to beat the LL to the punch and file a case in Supreme Court. If the case is in Supreme Court, it's not on the blacklist. One tenant attorney who seems to specialize in this strategy is Jamie Fishman - one of our advertisers.
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