On the first court appearance of June 4, 2012, Landlord and Tenant entered
into a Stipulation of Settlement consenting to the issuance of a final judgment of
possession and rent arrears of $3,656.80 against her, which was all the rent due through
June 2012. Tenant, who appeared pro se, was fully allocuted by the Court on her
agreement and further stipulated that there were "No repairs" needed in the apartment.
My predecessor judge, Judge Susan Avery, entered a Final Judgment of Possession and
$3,656.80 on June 4, 2012, and a Warrant of Eviction was subsequently issued. A notice
of eviction was served resulting in Tenant filing her first Order to Show Cause returnable
on August 2, 2012, at which date, Landlord consented to a stay of the execution of the
warrant until August 17, 2012, for her to pay $5,782.70 then owed. Unable to pay,
Tenant then filed her second order to show cause returnable August 30, 2012, but she
failed to appear and the motion was denied.
It was discovered during the proceedings that Tenant fell into arrears when
FEPS failed to make several payments in 2012. Upon Tenant being alerted of the error,
she promptly requested, and secured, the back payments from FEPS. However, Public
Assistance then erroneously considered the reissuance of those payments as an additional
rent arrears grant and, as a result, has lowered Tenant's monthly benefits by $130 each
month as a recoupment. This reduction had made it very difficult for Tenant to pay her
share of the rent on an ongoing basis.
Subsequently, Tenant filed her third order to show cause, which was heard
on October 15, 2012, when Tenant signed a stipulation of settlement agreeing to pay
$2,025.60 with execution of the warrant stayed until October 31, 2012. After falling