Towing Issues: EVITION TOWING NY STATE, court paperwork, unregistered cars

Question
Hello, We have a month-to-month rental property in NY state, Delaware county, were the tenant has not paid rent in over 5 months. We have proceeded, with our lawyer in the eviction stuff but the question I have is this...In our deed to the property it states that no unregistered vehicles can be on the property, and the tenant that we are evicting has 5 unregistered cars. As per the building inspector, we gave them 7 days legal written notarized notice. Yet the sheriff says that we can't tow the cars because even though they have not paid rent they still are renters the cars are their responsibility and I cant touch them until they move out...
this doesnt sound right so I figured I would ask you...I should be able to have them towed (at the owners expense) off my own property shouldnt I?

what do you think?
Thanks so much,

Guy


Answer
While I am not a lawyer, I know that in many states the eviction process has to be followed to the letter.
The sheriff might be wrong as you as the property owner does have control over the property...   If you are there and sign the authorization and have the proper court paperwork you can have them removed.

Now you have not said if they are no longer living on the property. That is also a key... If they are gone then the vehicles are abandoned and as such can be removed at the vehicle owners expense.
As a side note, if the vehicles are all trash, then you might find it hard to get a towing company to remove them as the costs of getting the paperwork to legally dispose of then is very expensive in addition to the actual removal costs.  

I do hope that you have been in contact with an attorney during the process as you want to be 100% legal on this.

One thing to also remember is that most police officers do tend to try and follow the laws and as such give answers that might be partially correct (at least based on their experience) as the courts can always rule different.

Hope this gives some guideline for you.  

It would not hurt to also have the actual New York State (and any county or city) rules and regulations in your possession during the removal of the vehicles in case someone questions the procedures.