I live in Nanuet NY, I rent a house that is zoned for commercial business. When my partners and I signed the lease I asked if we could occupy the upstairs apartment, the landlord said he didn't care what we wanted to do, but you need to fix it up. So we did and have been living up there since 2013. After our lease was up in 1 year, 2 of my partners moved out and left me holding the bag. The business has suffered and not made any money, so we have fallen behind in the rent. My landlord sent me a notice of eviction, I've contacted him and tried to make payment arrangements, he agreed one day then a week later he said no. I went to court and asked for time to get a lawyer, the judge agreed. Unfortunately I missed the date, but asked for an appeal. The appeal was ok'd on Oct 21st 2015. Today I received a notice from the sheriff's dept saying I have 72 hours to vacate the building. What do I do? I haven't been able to get all of the merchandise in my store back to the customers, nor get my personal belongings out. Also I received a violations notice stating that the upstairs apartment was not allowed to be occupied, we did not know this in 2013 when originally rented building. PLEASE HELP

I think your priority is to move and secure your stuff from this building and fight your court battles and get stuff to your customers after. Did you get a lawyer? What did he advise if you did?

I'm with taliniman. Move it into a storge facility FIRST and work on getting it to the customers THEN.

The Sheriffs will put it out on the street, then it becomes YOUR problem when the vultures swoop in to grab everything. And trust me they will.

Then worry about any legal battles.

I don't think you have much of a chance to prevail however. Not impossible, just unlikely.

Beg for the help of every person you know to help move the stuff....sort it out later.

If you got a notice from the sheriff then the landlord obtained a court order of eviction. You say the appeal was OKed, but was a stay of eviction also issued? If so, you can go to the sheriff and show the stay of eviction. Otherwise, you either have to go back to the court to get a stay and show it to the sheriff or you move out. That really is all there is to it.

The issue of the illegal apartment can be put off.

... Also I received a violations notice stating that the upstairs apartment was not allowed to be occupied, we did not know this in 2013 when originally rented building. ...

Your statement that you didn't know of the violation is contradicted by the first few sentences of your post.