Experts: Pause in foreclosures, evictions a reprieve for New Yorkers

A court-ordered pause in home foreclosure and eviction proceedings in New York due to the coronavirus will provide a temporary reprieve for homeowners and renters that could allow some to stay in their homes longer, according to experts.

The state court system, which oversees landlord-tenant court and foreclosure proceedings in Nassau and Suffolk, last week ordered a suspension of all nonessential proceedings, including eviction and foreclosure actions. Meanwhile, on Wednesday, President Donald Trump announced the Department of Housing and Urban Development would suspend foreclosures and evictions for mortgages insured by the Federal Housing Administration until the end of April, according to news reports.

“They’ve gotten an extra lifeline for a period of time,” said Craig D. Robins, a Melville-based attorney whose firm does foreclosure defense and consumer bankruptcy cases. “I would expect very soon that we will see the lenders and the large banks being much more receptive to working things out with homeowners. … It’s not going to be politically correct for them to evict these people left and right because they were adversely affected by the coronavirus. I expect that we’re going to see various rules, guidelines and legislation on the federal and state levels to assist homeowners through this crisis.”

Four people on Long Island have died from the coronavirus, while there have been more than 300 confirmed cases in Nassau and Suffolk. The pandemic has forced the closure of restaurants, bars and some stores, both across the region and country, as health officials have called for social distancing to avoid transmission of the virus, for which there is no vaccine.

Foreclosures statewide have been on a downward trajectory in recent years, according to a 2019 report from the state comptroller. Foreclosure filings fell by 46% between 2013 and 2018, from 46,696 to 25,334, and the number of pending cases in the court system has fallen by half since reaching a high of more than 92,000 in 2014, the report said.

“We do, unfortunately, expect a rise in foreclosure cases” due to the coronavirus, said Leslie Mendoza, an attorney at Smithtown-based Lieb at Law, which represents both tenants and landlords, as well as lenders and homeowners. “That’s something that our firm is unfortunately preparing for.”

Maria Sanz, a HUD-certified housing counselor at the Hauppauge-based Long Island Housing Partnership, which helps people in foreclosure, said her organization has stopped seeing clients in person because of the virus. She said the suspension of home foreclosures could result in more people currently in foreclosure proceedings staying in their homes longer because of the additional time to seek legal remedies, such as a loan modification.

“The most important point to get across is for people to keep on trying to save your home,” Sanz said. “It’s not too late.”

By Nicole Fuller

nicole.fuller@newsday.com@NicoleFuller

Nicole Fuller is Newsday's senior criminal justice reporter. She began working at Newsday in 2012 and previously covered local government.