to pay their rent arrears by the date to which they agree. While it is not atypical for
attorneys for landlords to assert that "my client will agree allow for X days for payment"
(where "X" typically will be an arbitrary 30, 45, or 60 days) few operate under the
assumption that the arrears will be paid by the agreed upon date, and most will readily
acknowledge that the tenant's time to pay will be extended, often with the landlord's
agreement. Unexpectedly, the situation is little different when the tenant is represented by
an attorney. The bottom line is that few tenants facing eviction for nonpayment have the
ability to pay the rent arrears that they owe. By and large, nonpayment eviction
proceedings are resolved by payment of rent arrears through various government-funded
programs, over which the court, landlords, tenants, and their attorneys have no control.
Footnote 3:The moniker "right to
counsel law" conveys a gross mischaracterization of what the statute actually requires.
Neither Article 7 of the New York State Real Property Actions and Proceedings Law
("Summary Proceedings to Recover Possession of Real Property") nor any other state law
have been amended. Instead, the New York City Administrative Code was amended to
include a chapter entitled "Provision of Civil Legal Services in Eviction Proceedings
(Administrative Code of City of NY, tit 26, ch 13). The law requires the Office of Civil
Justice of the New York City Human Resources Administration to "establish a program
to provide access to legal services for covered individuals in covered proceedings in
housing court" (Administrative Code § 26-1302[a]), including "full legal
representation" for "all income-eligible individuals" (Administrative Code §