Our attorneys often represent clients in eviction proceedings where the landlord claims the apartment for his own use. What is the owner’s claim for use? It could include anything from wanting to throw his son out of his house to live on his own, to opening up a study in an adjoining apartment, or any number of family reasons. The unique problem with this type of case is its unpredictability. In most cases, the landlord’s own testimony is the primary source of evidence at trial. Judges apply different standards when assessing the credibility of the landlord’s story.

The challenge is to closely scrutinize the landlord’s story, and where the landlord makes a claim which requires some empirical evidence, scrutinize the evidence that would support or disprove the landlord’s story. We work on minimizing sphere of proof which is simply based on the landlord’s say-so.