On January 15, 2022, the Eviction Moratorium implemented by New York State expired. Both the COVID-19 Emergency Eviction and Foreclosure Prevention Act of 2020 and COVID-19 Emergency Protect Our Small Business Act of 2020 expired on this date. Although this is good news for the Cooperative Board of Directors, the processing of nonpayment cases will still be problematic for the foreseeable future due to the lack of in-person Court appearances and the extraordinary backlog of cases due to the Covid 19 pandemic.
The lapse of the eviction moratorium will have several significant consequences in the processing of maintenance nonpayment cases. All cases that could not be prosecuted due to the shareholders filing a hardship affidavit may now proceed in the Courts. As stated above, the backlog in the Court is significant and there will be a time lag in the filing of new nonpayment cases and when they will appear on the Court’s calendar.
In addition, there are new orders and directives from the Court which will make prosecuting nonpayment cases more difficult. The most significant is that you now need a motion and/or a conference to be held to execute a warrant of eviction that was issued prior to March 16, 2020, as well as warrants of eviction that were issued between March 16, 2020, and September 2, 2021.
Please feel free to contact our office with any questions or concerns you have regarding this or any other legal matter.
