The NYS eviction moratorium will end on January 15, 2022.
But, after January 15, 2022, landlords are still going to face big obstacles if they want to evict residential tenants because of the Emergency Rental Assistance Program ("ERAP").
To evict under ERAP, a landlord is required to demonstrate that their tenant:
- Intentionally caused significant damage to the property;
- Engaged in nuisance behavior or behavior that poses a safety hazard to others (landlord will have to provide specific instances and show that the behavior occurred more than one time);
- Tenant owes rent prior from to the pandemic that was not covered by ERAP funding;
- Owes rent after receipt of ERAP funding; or
- Tenant doesn't qualify for ERAP because:
- Income is above 80 percent of the area medium income ("AMI") for federal program or Income is above 120 percent for NYS program;
- A member of the household did not experience significant costs or a financial hardship due to COVID;
- Tenant has paid rent and there are no rental arrears owed on or after March 13, 2020; or
- The household is not at risk of homelessness.
Without making the above demonstration, tenants that applied for ERAP will be safe from eviction for another year.
Landlords should therefore consider this checklist carefully before proceeding. While the moratorium is over on Saturday, landlords are still prevented from evicting many tenants and if they do evict, their costs are going to increase to prove that they can evict in the face of ERAP.
