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NYC Marshal Services in Forest Hills, NY
Forest Hills Landlords and Creditors: Your Judgment Has an Expiration Date
Hear from Our Customers
NYC Eviction and Judgment Enforcement, Queens
Forest Hills carries some of the highest average rents in Queens. When a tenant stops paying in a neighborhood where a two-bedroom unit runs over $3,600 a month, three months of arrears can put you past $10,000 before a case even gets to housing court. What happens after you win that case matters just as much as the case itself — and that’s where most landlords and creditors get stuck.
The court issues the judgment. It doesn’t collect it. We have the legal authority to actually move on it — serve notices, garnish wages, seize property, or execute a warrant of eviction. That’s what a NYC Marshal does, and it’s the only path to turning a court order into money back in your pocket.
Forest Hills also has a professional, managerial workforce with stable employment income. That matters because income execution — wage garnishment — only works when the debtor has garnishable wages above the legal threshold. In this neighborhood, the odds of that are significantly better than in most of Queens. If you have a judgment and the debtor is employed, there’s a real path to recovery here.
About NYC Marshal Edward Guida, Queens
Edward F. Guida Jr., Badge #14, was appointed NYC Marshal by the Mayor of New York City — verifiable on NYC.gov. His father, Edward Guida Sr., founded this office in 1988 and served Forest Hills and Queens for 25 years. Edward Jr. came into the field in 2007, managed the office through a transition after his father’s passing, and was formally appointed in 2016. The staff who worked under his father still work here today.
That continuity means something in Forest Hills. Cases go through Queens Housing Court and Queens Civil Court in Kew Gardens — courts we’ve worked with for decades. We’re based in Corona, just north of Forest Hills along the Q23 corridor, and are authorized to enforce across all five boroughs. When your case is adjudicated in Queens, you want a marshal who knows that system from the inside.
We operate under the oversight of the NYC Department of Investigation and carry a $100,000 public official’s bond. We are not a collection agency. We are not a process server. We are a court-appointed enforcement office with the legal authority to execute warrants, garnish wages, and seize property under court order.
How NYC Marshal Enforcement Works in Queens
Once you have a judgment or a warrant of eviction issued by a Queens court, the next step is engaging us to enforce it. You provide the execution documents — we’ll walk you through exactly what’s needed — and the process begins from there.
For income execution, we first serve the debtor directly, giving them a 20-day window to voluntarily arrange payment. If they don’t respond within that window, we serve the execution on the employer. The employer is then legally required to withhold up to 10% of the debtor’s gross wages per pay period and remit those funds to us. In Forest Hills, where the dominant workforce is professional and managerial, this step tends to be straightforward — stable employment is the norm here, and employers are accustomed to complying with court-issued garnishments.
For evictions, the process starts with a Warrant of Eviction issued by Queens Housing Court. We cannot initiate an eviction without that warrant — it has to come from the court first. Once the warrant is in hand, we schedule and execute the legal possession or eviction, conducting the entire process professionally and in compliance with all current regulations, including the 2024 state requirement to post notices online within 24 hours of service. Throughout every step, we keep you informed and move the case forward without requiring you to chase it.
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NYC Marshal Services for Forest Hills Residents
We handle the full range of civil enforcement services for Forest Hills landlords, creditors, and judgment holders. That includes income execution for wage garnishment, property execution for seizure of cash and personal assets, landlord and tenant services for legal possession and eviction after a Warrant of Eviction has been issued, and judgment collection for both Civil Court and Supreme Court judgments. Small claims court winners are also covered — if you won a judgment in Queens Small Claims Court and the other party hasn’t paid, we can enforce that judgment by income or property execution across all five boroughs.
Forest Hills’s housing stock is heavily weighted toward pre-war co-op buildings — particularly along Queens Boulevard and the side streets off Austin Street. Co-op enforcement situations, whether a shareholder-landlord evicting a subtenant or a dispute tied to a proprietary lease, require procedural accuracy that leaves no room for error. A misstep in the service process can invalidate the enforcement action entirely and send you back to square one. We use current technology and documented procedures specifically to prevent that outcome.
Commercial landlords on Austin Street and along the 108th Street corridor who have obtained judgments for unpaid rent also have enforcement options with us. Whether the judgment came from Queens Civil Court or Queens Supreme Court, the process is the same: you provide the execution, we move on it. The fees are set by New York State statute — not by us — and in many cases are added to what the debtor owes, meaning your enforcement costs can be recovered as part of the judgment.
How do I hire a NYC Marshal to enforce a judgment in Forest Hills?
Once you have a money judgment from Queens Civil Court or Queens Supreme Court, you can contact us directly to begin the enforcement process. You’ll need to provide the execution documents — typically an income execution or property execution issued by the court clerk — along with any information you have about the debtor’s employer, assets, or bank accounts. The more information you can provide upfront, the more efficiently we can act.
We’ll walk you through the specific paperwork required for your situation. Forest Hills cases are handled through Queens courts, and we’ve worked within that system for decades. There’s no guesswork about local procedures or court-specific requirements. If you’re not sure whether you have everything you need, reaching out directly is the fastest way to get clarity — we can tell you exactly what’s missing and how to get it.
What is the difference between a NYC Marshal and a private collection agency?
A private collection agency can contact debtors, negotiate payment arrangements, and report accounts to credit bureaus. That’s essentially where their authority ends. We are a court-appointed public officer with legal authority that a private agency simply does not have — the power to execute a warrant of eviction, garnish wages through an income execution served on an employer, seize personal property under a property execution, and restrain bank accounts under court order.
If you’ve already won a judgment in court and the debtor isn’t paying voluntarily, a collection agency cannot force the issue. Only a court-appointed enforcement officer can do that. NYC Marshal Edward F. Guida Jr., Badge #14, holds that appointment, issued by the Mayor of New York City, and operates under the oversight of the NYC Department of Investigation. For Forest Hills creditors dealing with an unresponsive debtor after a court judgment, we are the enforcement path — not an alternative to it.
Can a NYC Marshal enforce a small claims court judgment in Forest Hills, Queens?
Yes. Many Forest Hills residents who win in Queens Small Claims Court assume the court will handle collection — it won’t. The judgment is yours to enforce, and we are authorized to do exactly that. We can enforce small claims judgments by income execution or property execution across all five boroughs, including Queens.
The process works the same way as any other civil judgment enforcement. You provide the execution documents from the court, along with whatever information you have about the debtor’s employment or assets, and we proceed from there. Given Forest Hills’s professional workforce profile, income execution is often the most direct path — if the debtor has stable employment income above the garnishment threshold, we can serve the employer and begin recovering funds on your behalf. It’s a step most small claims winners never take, but it’s available to you.
How does income execution work, and how long does the process take in Queens?
Income execution is a two-stage process governed by New York State law. In the first stage, we serve the income execution on the debtor — typically by mail — and give them 20 days to voluntarily contact us and arrange payment. Some debtors respond at this stage and begin making payments directly to us, and we then remit to you.
If the debtor does not respond within 20 days, we move to stage two: serving the execution on the debtor’s employer. From that point, the employer is legally required to withhold up to 10% of the debtor’s gross wages per pay period and send those funds to us. The garnishment cap is set by statute — it cannot exceed 10% of gross wages, and the debtor’s net wages must exceed 30 times the applicable minimum wage to be subject to garnishment at all. In Forest Hills, where the workforce skews professional and managerial, the majority of employed debtors will clear that threshold. The timeline from initial service to first employer remittance is typically a few weeks once the process is underway.
What do I need to provide before a marshal can execute a warrant of eviction in Forest Hills?
We cannot initiate an eviction on your behalf without a Warrant of Eviction issued by Queens Housing Court. That warrant has to come from the court first — it’s the legal document that authorizes us to act. If you’ve received a judgment of possession but haven’t yet obtained the warrant, that step needs to happen before we can be engaged for the physical execution.
Once you have the warrant, you bring it to our office along with the required advance fees, and we schedule the execution. Evictions in New York City are conducted between 8 a.m. and 5 p.m., Monday through Friday. We are required to serve notice to the tenant in advance, and under a 2024 state law, that notice must also be posted to the state court website within 24 hours of service. We use current technology and documented procedures to ensure compliance at every step — a missed posting or improperly served notice can expose you to delays and legal challenges, which is exactly the kind of error you want to avoid when you’re already past the point of litigation.
What happens if the debtor in Forest Hills doesn't have a job or visible assets?
Income execution is the most commonly used enforcement tool, but it’s not the only one. If a debtor doesn’t have identifiable employment income, property execution allows us to seize cash and personal property belonging to the debtor to satisfy the judgment. Bank account restraint is another avenue — if you can identify a financial institution the debtor uses, we can move on that as well.
The reality is that the effectiveness of enforcement depends significantly on the information you provide. We’ll tell you directly what information would help and what avenues are available based on your specific situation. In Forest Hills, where residents tend to be long-term and financially established, debtors are often more traceable and more likely to have recoverable assets than in higher-transience neighborhoods. A judgment that feels uncollectable in one context may have real recovery options in another — and the only way to find out is to engage the process and let us assess what’s available.