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How much does it cost to file an eviction in New York?

New York prices an eviction in small statutory pieces. In New York City Housing Court the clerk charges $45 to issue a notice of petition in a summary proceeding and $45 for the filing of the first paper — about $90 in court fees to open the case — with process service and, at the end, a city marshal's enforcement fees paid separately.

New York eviction fees at a glance

Every figure in the table is from the New York City Civil Court's published Housing Court and Civil Court fee schedules, which track §1911 of the New York City Civil Court Act: $45 for issuing a notice of petition or an order to show cause in a summary proceeding to recover possession of real property, $45 on issuance of a summons or filing of the first paper, $70 for a jury demand, $40 for a notice of trial, $30 for a notice of appeal, $6 for certifying a paper or issuing a satisfaction, and $15 for an exemplification. Fees are payable by cash (exact change), certified check, money order or bank check to the Clerk of the Civil Court — personal checks are not accepted. Outside the city, summary proceedings run in city, town and village courts under the parallel fee provisions of the Uniform City Court Act and Uniform Justice Court Act, with the same $45 notice-of-petition structure in substance. The contrast with Illinois eviction costs — one large county filing fee — is sharp: New York's court-side total is among the lowest on this site, and its real costs sit in service and enforcement. National context: eviction filing costs.

Predicate notices: the spending starts before the $45

A New York summary proceeding under RPAPL Article 7 cannot be filed until the correct predicate notice has been served and has expired. A nonpayment case requires a 14-day written rent demand under RPAPL §711(2), served in the manner prescribed for the notice of petition, after the separate five-day late-rent notice and certified-mail rent-receipt notices required by RPAPL §235-e and Real Property Law §235-g in many tenancies. Termination of a tenancy outside a lease term requires the notice ladder in RPL §226-c — 30, 60 or 90 days depending on how long the tenant has occupied the unit and the length of the tenancy — and holdover cases after a lease expires require their own predicate notices. None of these notices carries a court fee, but each must be served, and the landlord may not serve the court papers personally: service is made by a process server or other non-party, whose charges are market-set and are the first real money in most New York evictions. A defective predicate notice is fatal to the case and restarts the clock — the $45 is cheap; the months are not.

How the case runs

1. Serve the predicate notice that matches the case — 14-day rent demand, or the 30/60/90-day termination notice — and let it expire no court fee; process-server charges apply
2. Buy the index number and have the clerk issue the notice of petition at the Housing Court part in the county where the property sits $45
3. File the petition and proof of service with the clerk $45 first-paper filing
4. Serve the notice of petition and petition on the tenant — not less than 10 nor more than 17 days before the hearing date under RPAPL §733 — and file the affidavit of service promptly.
5. Appear in the Housing Court resolution part and, if unresolved, at trial. If the landlord prevails, the court issues a judgment and a warrant of eviction under RPAPL §749; only a city marshal in New York City, or the sheriff or constable elsewhere, may execute the warrant, after the statutory notice period — marshal and sheriff fees are charged under their own schedules.

What actually makes New York evictions expensive

Because the clerk's fees total roughly $90, the economics of a New York eviction are dominated by everything around the filing: repeated process-service attempts where a tenant avoids service, the cost of the predicate-notice service itself (each notice is a separate service), attorney time in a court system where cases routinely adjourn, and the marshal's mileage, service and execution charges at the end. Two clerk-side items do recur and are worth knowing: a respondent who demands a jury trial pays the $70 jury fee, which can materially slow a nonpayment case, and an appeal costs only $30 to file but typically requires a stay application and an undertaking for rent accruing during the appeal under RPAPL §747-a in practice. Tenants in New York City may also have a right to appointed counsel in eviction cases under the city's Universal Access programme — a cost borne by the city, not by either party's filing fees. Compare the service-heavy New York model with the constable-fee model in Texas eviction costs and the statutory-fee model in California eviction costs; the state overview is the New York court costs guide.

Can't afford the fee?

A litigant who cannot pay may ask the court to waive the fee as a poor person under CPLR 1101; the New York Courts' published fee pages confirm that a litigant who cannot afford a required fee can file papers asking a judge to waive it in their case. In Housing Court, fee-waiver applications are made to the clerk in the first instance. See the fee waiver guide for how waivers work across states.

Sources: New York State Courts — NYC Housing Court Fees and NYC Civil Court Fees (notice of petition $45; first paper / summons $45; jury demand $70; notice of trial $40; notice of appeal $30; certification and satisfaction $6; exemplification $15) · New York City Civil Court Act §1911(a)–(m) · RPAPL §§711(2) (14-day rent demand), 733 (service 10–17 days before hearing), 749 (warrant of eviction), art. 7 (summary proceedings) · Real Property Law §226-c (30/60/90-day termination notices) · CPLR 1101 (poor-person relief). Last verified: October 2026 — confirm current figures with the clerk of the court where you file; marshal and sheriff enforcement fees are set separately.