The New York Housing Court Section

Introduction

The Housing Part handles only residential landlord and tenant cases. Commercial landlord and tenant cases and ejectment actions are handled on the civil side of the Court. Each year, over 300,000 residential cases are filed in the Housing Part of the Civil Court, generally referred to as the Housing Court. 50 Housing Judges are appointed to serve in the court.

The Judges assigned to the Housing Part and over 1,000 non-judicial employees work together to serve the people of New York City. Our court is where everyday people come to resolve their everyday civil legal problems (Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs, pp. 45-57).

Whether you are a landlord or a tenant, the Civil Court is dedicated to providing access to fair and efficient justice. We hope our website will provide you with information you need concerning the Housing Part of the Civil Court. We continue to strive to ensure that the Civil Court is a court for all the people of New York City.

Overview

In addition to the main civil division of the Court, and the Small Claims Part, the Civil Court of the City of New York has a Housing Part devoted to actions and proceedings involving the enforcement of state and local laws for the establishment and maintenance of housing standards. The Housing Part has jurisdiction of summary proceedings, and in addition to judgments of possession, can award a judgment for rent in any amount (Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs, pp. 45-57). The kinds of cases filed in the Landlord-Tenant Housing Part Office and decided in the Housing Court, include the following:

1. Residential Holdover Proceedings

2. Residential Non-Payment Proceedings

3. RPAPL Section 7A actions

4. Post-Eviction proceedings

5. Housing Part Proceedings (HP)

Read about the various types of cases on our Legal and Procedural Information sections.

When a residential proceeding is filed in the courthouse it is assigned to a Resolution Part. Refer to the Resolution Part to learn more about the Part. When the case is ready for trial, it is sent Trial Part. The only exceptions are HP cases which are assigned to the HP Part and the presiding Housing Court Judge handles all matters in the case, including trials. For more information on trials, go to How to Prepare for a Landlord-Tenant Trial.

Most residential landlord and tenant matters are handled by Housing Judges. For information about Housing Court Judges' profiles, assignments or part rules, refer to Judges.

The Housing Part also offers litigants the opportunity to visit a Housing Court Counselor in the Civil Court's Help Center for free legal information. The Help Center also offers an array of free materials, pamphlets and videos on a variety of housing questions for both landlords and tenants. More information and hours of operation is available at the Resource Center. The Housing Part also offers free consultations for landlords and tenants with Volunteer Lawyers (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance-United States, pp. 78-88).

Nonpayment Proceedings

Following are the nonpayment proceedings

Starting a Case

Answering a Case

Poor Person's Relief

Service of the

Notice ...