Eviction

What it means

A court process a landlord uses to remove a tenant. In New York, a landlord has to file papers in court, serve the tenant, and get a judge's order before anyone can be physically removed. The sheriff or a city marshal is the only one who can carry out the removal — never the landlord directly. Self-help lockouts are illegal and a tenant can sue a landlord who does one. There are two main kinds of eviction: nonpayment (for unpaid rent) and holdover (for everything else, like a lease ending).

When you might hear this

You hear this when a landlord is trying to force a tenant out. It is a court process. A landlord cannot just change the locks or move a tenant's things out — that is illegal. Every eviction in New York has to go through housing court first.

What to ask