How to serve your HP action papers

Follow these instructions to serve your HP Action papers on your landlord and/or management company. They will guide you through the process starting from the moment you submitted your HP Action through JustFix.

PLEASE MAKE SURE TO READ THIS ENTIRE PAGE.

Follow these steps

At this point, the paperwork that you signed and filed electronically has been sent to your borough’s Housing Court Clerk for review. This is what will happen next and what you need to do to make sure the process goes smoothly.

1. Receiving the Judge’s decision

   The Clerk will present your paperwork to the Judge and the Judge will decide whether or not to accept your case.

   1. If the Judge does NOT accept your case, your case will be rejected, and you will get an email from the Clerk with the rejected paperwork as an attachment. You will see that the paperwork has not been signed by the Judge and may say “Rejected” on the bottom right of the page called “Order to Show Cause” (the page with the number “1” at the top right). On rare occasions, the Judge may have written an explanation on the documents as to why your case was rejected, or to tell you that you should file a different type of case.
   2. If the Judge accepts your case, you will get an email from the Clerk with an attachment. That attachment is the accepted paperwork. It will be signed by the Judge and may say “Accepted” on the bottom right of the page called “Order to Show Cause” (the page with the number “1” at the top right). It contains a lot of valuable information. Make sure to read it in full, especially the page called “Order to Show Cause” (the page with the number “1” at the top right). The most important piece of information is how to tell your landlord and/or management company that you are suing them. This is called “Service” and it is your responsibility.
2. Serving the paperwork on your landlord and/or management company

   If your case was accepted, now you have to “serve” the papers on your landlord and/or management company. This means that you have to give your landlord or management company a copy of (some) of the papers in the attachment you got from the Clerk. Although we wish we could automate this part of the process for you, given the current legal structure, you have to do it yourself. If two or more addresses are listed, you must serve copies of the paperwork to each address. You will have to print the pages that you have to serve. If you don’t have a printer, you can go to your local library, elected official’s office or your nearest print shop.

   This step is very important because if you don’t serve the papers in exactly the way that the Judge ordered and by the deadline assigned, your case will be considered invalid and you will have to start all over again. (The deadline to serve could be very tight, sometimes less than 24 hours, so please be aware of doing this quickly.)

   See more details on how to serve below.

3. Possible attorney assignment

   Your case might be considered an emergency by the Judge. If so, you will be contacted by a lawyer. If your case is not considered an emergency, you will need to do everything yourself. (This is called being “pro-se”.) If you do not hear from a lawyer within a few days, you should assume that you will need to do things on your own.

   Regardless of whether or not you hear from a lawyer, YOU must serve the paperwork on your landlord and/or management company. The lawyer will not do this on your behalf. There are instructions on how to serve below.

4. Requesting a Virtual Hearing for your court date

   You will have a court date assigned to you, which is listed on the “Order to Show Cause” (the page with the number “1” at the top right) but remember that you DO NOT have to go to the courthouse in-person right now. Instead, your court hearing can be done virtually through the internet using Skype.

   To request the instructions to have a virtual hearing email or call your Borough’s office. Make sure to include your name and Index Number (found at the top right of your HP Action paperwork).

   • Your Borough office's email: civnyc-skype-vc@nycourts.gov
   • Your Borough office's phone number: (646) 386-5730
5. HPD inspection

   Since you filed for repairs, an inspector from HPD (the Department of Housing Preservation and Development) will come to inspect the conditions in your home to see if they are violations of the law called the Housing Maintenance Code. They will make a report and give it to the court so the court knows if there are in fact violations in your home.

   The date and time scheduled for your inspection is written at the bottom of the "Tenant's Request for Inspection" (the page with the number "3" at the top right). On the day of your inspection, make sure to follow sanitation and social distancing measures as much as you can.

Serving the papers

This section includes instructions for:

A. When to serve
B. Who to serve
C. What to serve
D. How to serve

You will find all of the information you need to know (when, to whom, what, and how) in order to serve your paperwork on your landlord and/or management company on the page called “Order to Show Cause” (the page with the number “1” at the top right). It is in the section below where your court date is listed.

Here's an example:

A. When to serve

You must serve your paperwork by the deadline set by the Judge on the page called “Order to Show Cause” (the page with the number “1” at the top right). Remember that most post offices close at 5pm Monday - Friday and 1pm on Saturdays.

Here's an example:

B. Who to serve

If there are 2 people or companies listed on the paperwork you will need to serve them each separately. This could be because there is both a landlord and a management company in charge of your building.

You will find their address information here:

C. What to serve

Since you are suing for Repairs and Harassment, the only pages you need to serve your landlord and/or management company are:

• The “Order to Show Cause” (the page with the number “1” at the top right)
• The “Verified Petition” (the pages with the numbers “2”, “3”, and “4” at the top right)

Here's an example:

Note that it is important NOT to send any other pieces of information that may contain sensitive details like your email address or financials. If you see any pages with that kind of info, please take them out and do not send them.

D. How to serve

There are multiple ways to serve the papers and you have to do it exactly in the way that the Judge orders. You will find out what the Judge chose by looking at the page called “Order to Show Cause” (the page with the number “1” at the top right).

Note that the Judge might have typed-in or hand-written a different way than the standard shown here:

The most likely way the Judge might ask you to serve

USPS Certified Mail, Return Receipt Requested is the most likely way the judge might ask you to serve. This will involve keeping two slips ready to show the Clerk on your court date, described below.

Certified mail receipt slip

The postal worker will give you a green slip as proof that you sent the paperwork by the right date. You can track the progress of the envelope by using the tracking number on the left of the slip. Keep it safe and be ready to show it to the Clerk on your court date.

Here's an example:

Return receipt requested slip

After the envelope reaches its destination, a green card will be mailed back to you at the address that you wrote in the “sender” box, which should be a mailbox that you have access to. Keep an eye out for it. Keep it safe and be ready to show it to the Clerk on your court date.

Here's an example:

Possible additional secondary methods

The Judge may require you to serve a second copy of the papers using another method to make sure that the landlord and/or management company receives them. If this is the case, the Judge will write this additional method on the “Order to Show Cause” (the page with the number “1” at the top right).

Possible additional methods include:

• Regular first class mail
• Email
• First class mail with certificate of mailing

  Using this method, the postal worker will give you a slip as proof that you sent the paperwork by the right date. Keep it safe and be ready to show it to the Clerk on your court date.

Less likely ways the Judge might ask you to serve

• USPS Priority mail/overnight mail
• Personally (in-person)

  If this is the case, you or someone other than you who is over the age of 18 needs to hand-deliver the “Order to Show Cause” (the page with the number “1” at the top right) and “Verified Petition” (the pages with the numbers “2”, “3”, and “4” at the top right) directly to each person or company you are suing. The person doing the service will need to fill out the "Affidavit of Service" at the end of the attachment and sign as the “Deponent”.

If you have any further questions, please feel free to email documents@justfix.org explaining your concerns and we will be in touch to help.

The JustFix Team