Dealing with hoarders in New York State

Hey everyone, this is my first post and probably not my last. I have a situation where a tenant has really let her apartment get out of hand. She has a large amount of junk throughout her house, boxes everywhere and a smell so bad that windows have to be opened when our maintenance technicians are there working. She has a storage area in the basement of the apartment. She not only filled her storage area. But she also stacked boxes and miscellaneous junk on the floor which has gotten wet and some boxes are moldy and falling apart.

As of the items outside of her leaseable area, I have no problem saying something to her. However, I don't know what I can say or do about the situation in her apartment. Unfortunately, in the great state of New York landlords are the bad guys and do not have a lot to stand on in some situations. Anyone in the NYS area experience something like this? If so, how did you approach and handle the situation?

Thanks for your advice in advance!

Hey Andrew - This blog is a bit older, but it might help you out a bit: www.multifamilyinsiders.com/multifamily-...m-not-a-hoarder.html . I would definitely keep in mind that it has Fair Housing implications, so be mindful of that.

Anne Sadovsky also touched on it in a webinar one time, although I don't know if you want to buy a webinar just for that one segment: www.multifamilyinsiders.com/shop-multifa...-housing-guess-again

Oh, and here was a discussion about hoarders a while back: www.multifamilyinsiders.com/apartment-id...-deal-with-a-hoarder