I've made it a point to screen my tenant's thoroughly, however I now find myself... again... with a tenant from hell.

I live in a two family. I live downstairs... tenants live upstairs.

I rented out to a professional 30 "something couple" in February.
March 12... wife moves out because husband caught cheating.

Husband pays rent for April/May.
May 21th... husband disappears. No car in the driveway, no noise upstairs... nada!

I have not seen or heard from him since.

Posted a 24 hour notice to enter on June 3rd to inspect. I actually wanted to make sure the tenant did just move out in the middle of the night.

All of the tenants belongs are still there along with about 30 bags of garbage (mostly beer cans) in the kitchen. I removed the garbage because of the smell.

Rent was due on the 1st. I posted a 3 day pay or quit on the 4th.

Contacted the wife... she claims she does not know where he is, although I suspect she does. Contacted his job... he quit 5 weeks ago.

New York STATE law is extremely hard to follow on what a landlord needs to do as far as abandonment goes. I assume I need to put all of his furniture and belongs in storage, which is fine, however I can't seem to find how long I have to wait to re-take possession of the apartment. Do I need to get a court order to acquire possession?

Thanks to all!!
LILL (Long Island LandLord)

Believe me, I was there before, so he is still "living" there, you just don't see him. Go though all the formal eviction just like he is there.
The issue with him just missing, you will find is not covered often, I know in TN there is just no law covering it, If I admitted he was missing, then I could not evict him, If I could not evict him, I could not legally move his stuff out.