Albany, NY Problem Tenant - 30 day notice to vacate

[Jakob Mykytyn]

Hi all,

I recently closed on my first property and gave one of the tenants 30-day notice to vacate. It has been two weeks and I noticed during an inspection of the unit that they had moved all their stuff out. I went to the property a few days later and I noticed that there was a cat in the window of their unit. All of their stuff is still gone and the same day they took utilities out of their name. They have not left a key and I do not have contact information for them. Do I need to give 24-hour notice to inspect the unit to see if the cat is still there? Also can I take possession of the unit?

[Michael Gansberg]

@Jakob Mykytyn - congrats on your first purchase. A warning about the 'leave-on-for-landlord' program. A risk is that your tenant will stop paying the utilities. In that case, National Grid can backdate use and bill it to you. You might get a bill for $1k for a few month's heat usage. And good luck collecting from your tenants. 

I actually prefer the risk of frozen pipes- if a tenant's living there and Nat Grid shuts off the utilities, they usually figure out a way to get back in Nat Grid's good graces damn quickly!