Frequently Asked Questions

These duties may include money judgment enforcement, evictions, legal possessions and other court-authorized functions.

The Sheriff is a City employee. Both can carry out evictions. Both can collect money judgments from the Civil Court. Both charge the same fees, because New York State law sets them.

A marshal is paid from the fees the law sets for each task, plus a share of any money collected on a judgment. The City agency that regulates marshals is the Department of Investigation.

They are not City employees.

City Marshals are regulated by the New York City Department of Investigation.

Money judgment enforcement is the process of attempting to collect that judgment using court-authorized enforcement tools.

The marshal needs two things from you. First, a court paper called an execution. Second, your information about where the money is, such as a job, a bank account or things the person owns.

Your attorney or the court clerk issues the execution. The marshal may serve an income execution on the person who owes the money, and then on that person’s employer. Or the marshal may go after a bank account or other things the person owns. New York State law sets a notice and a waiting period at each step.

Many people refer to this as wage garnishment.

The limit depends on how much the person earns.

The law also sets the order of the steps. The marshal serves the income execution on the person who owes the money first. That person gets a chance to pay in installments on their own. If they do not, the marshal serves their employer. The employer takes the amount the law allows out of each paycheck and sends it to the marshal. Some kinds of income are protected and cannot be touched at all.

The City’s own answers: DOI judgment questions and answers.

It lets the marshal reach a bank account, a vehicle, business equipment or inventory and money owed to the debtor. It never reaches a house or land.

The marshal can sell what is taken at a public sale, and the money goes toward the judgment and the fees. New York State law protects some things and those cannot be taken at all. A City Marshal can only take property that is inside the five boroughs of New York City.

The marshal may be given court-authorized paperwork to collect money from a bank account connected to a judgment debtor.

The judgment creditor, attorney or representative must provide the available bank or asset information to the marshal.

A City Marshal cannot take or sell a house or land. A marshal can only reach the things a person owns, such as money in a bank account, a vehicle or business equipment. A marshal can also collect from wages. Houses and land are called real property, and they are off limits to a marshal.

Real estate is governed by a different process that runs through the courts and the Sheriff.

New York State law adds interest to a judgment, starting the day the court enters it. So the amount owed grows over time. The marshal collects the interest as it is figured on the court paper.

The rate is not the same for every kind of judgment. The execution states the judgment amount, the interest and the fees. The marshal collects what the execution states.

For more information on judgment fees, see the DOI judgment questions and answers.

The marshal acts once the proper warrant and the required procedures are in place.

In a legal possession, possession of the premises is transferred to the landlord while personal property remains at the premises under the landlord’s control until arrangements can be made by the former occupant to pick up their possessions.

In an eviction, the marshal hires a bonded, licensed moving company. The belongings are moved to a licensed warehouse while the marshal watches. In a legal possession, the belongings stay at the place, in the landlord’s care, until the tenant arranges to move them.

Either way, the marshal writes up a list of what is in the place. A tenant who is there can take their things and valuables along.

The marshal then asks the court for the warrant of eviction. In New York City only a City Marshal or the Sheriff can ask for one, and the court can only issue it to one of them.

The marshal needs the facts of the case: the index number, the names of both sides, the address of the place and a copy of the judgment. Everything the office needs, for every kind of matter, is on our Filing Requirements And Timelines page.

New York State law and the City’s rules for marshals both require a written notice of eviction first. The 14 days are calendar days, so weekends and holidays count. The rule is the same for a home and for a business.

Fourteen days is the legal floor, not a schedule. The notice says the earliest date the eviction can happen. The warrant says an earliest date too. If the eviction does not happen within 30 days of that earliest date, a new notice is required. The same is true if a court stops the eviction.

The marshal first tries to hand the notice to the tenant or to another person at the place who is old enough to take it. If that does not work, the marshal posts it on the door or slides it under. Copies go out in the mail within one day, one certified and one regular. The law also requires an online filing.

Landlord and tenant cases in New York City Civil Court are filed through the court’s own online system, and the court does not take a paper filing from a side that has a lawyer. Someone with no lawyer does not have to file online, and a lawyer can ask the court to be excused. The marshal carries the paper warrant to the door with a copy for the tenant, and the office keeps a scan of everything it receives. After serving the notice of eviction the office posts the paper notice on the door and files a copy in the court’s system within 24 hours.

Landlord and tenant cases in New York City Civil Court are filed through the New York State Courts Electronic Filing system, known as NYSCEF. In a case filed online, the court does not take a paper filing from a side that has a lawyer.

Two exceptions are set by law. A side with no lawyer may file on paper, and a lawyer may ask the court to be excused. Those papers go in on paper even though the case stays online.

This is a rule about the court, not about this office. The office still works from paper, and the marshal carries the paper warrant to the door with a copy for the tenant. If you are not sure which kind your case is, contact the office before you send documents.

A notice can go stale. If the eviction or legal possession does not happen within 30 days of the earliest date on the notice, the marshal has to serve a new one. The same is true if a court stops the eviction, unless the court says a new notice is not needed. A new notice restarts the 14 days.

That means an older, disabled or sick adult, or a child on their own. If there is, the marshal tells the Department of Investigation, and it tells Adult Protective Services.

The marshal writes down that the question was asked. If the marshal is not told, and only finds out upon arriving at the property, the marshal has to call the Department of Investigation or the right social service agency before going any further. To avoid any delay, it is important to share everything you know up front.

Marshal Fraiden’s office handles court-authorized evictions and legal possessions for residential and commercial premises, in all five boroughs. Residential means apartments and houses. Commercial means stores, offices and warehouses.

Residential cases are heard in each borough’s Housing Court. Commercial landlord and tenant cases are heard in each borough’s Civil Court, in its commercial part. The steps are the same in both. The marshal asks the court for the warrant, serves the 14 day notice of eviction, then carries out whichever one the landlord chose. The paperwork the office needs is the same too: the judgment, the index number, the names of both sides and the address.

The court’s word for it is replevin.

Marshal Fraiden’s office handles these matters when a court has authorized them and the paperwork is in order.

A vehicle may be booted or towed when legally authorized. If the required amounts are not paid within the applicable time period, the vehicle may later be sold at auction under the required procedures.

Marshal Fraiden is authorized to perform vehicle booting on behalf of the Parking Violations Bureau.