If you have a pet in your apartment, you are a possible candidate for an eviction proceeding if your landlord seeks to enforce a “no pet” clause in your lease. Our firm has defended many unlucky pet owners who have been asked to choose between their home and their pet.

The urban legends surrounding pet cases in New York are ubiquitous. First of all, many of our clients initially believe that they cannot be singled out “if everybody else in the building has a pet.” This is flatly incorrect; there is no prohibition against being the first tenant in your building to face a pet case.

One legend that certainly is true is the 90-day rule – after discovering a pet, the landlord loses his right to object unless he commences an action within 90 days. Our firm has successfully applied this 90-day defense at trial, where the landlord invariably denies that he had knowledge of the pet.

Although having a pet dog in a pet lover’s paradise like New York would seem to be a trivial objection, landlords spend significant resources to take these cases to trial. The landlord’s injury in having a dog in your apartment may be slight, but the profit he seeks from evicting you is real.