My land lord had abandoned the 4 family house that I live in Brooklyn NY. She took all the rent for the past 6yrs and walk off with the money and to this day she has not return. I have been keeping the property clean safe and paying the bills. I also have paid the taxes too, in my name. How can I file a claim to take over the property?

She can't take rent and abandon the property at the same time, and buildings such as yours don't fall under 'abandoned' in the claimable sense, since there is still an owner. She has just failed to pay taxes and repairs. When did you stop paying rent and start paying the taxes? When did she 'disappear?'

You should not be paying taxes, for your own sake. Saying they are 'in your name' is not meaningful. They are essentially a gift until/unless you can find a sympathetic judge and a good lawyer to plead your case (or the owner is grateful). Hopefully they are not more than the rent would be.

You can't claim and take the property, and sorry you are paying her taxes, they are in her name, not your name, you paying them is just giving the landlord a gift.

You can find the landlord and buy the property from them.
You can not pay the taxes and let the state auction the property for taxes and buy them.

But if you are taking the rent money from the other tennants, you may actually be able to be charged with theft of other crimes since it is not your duties to do it.

There is no way you can claim this property.

As Joy said, whatever taxes and other expenses you paid were a gift to the owner. They may have actually made it harder for you to gain ownership. Since the taxes are up to date, you can't buy it in a tax sale.

So what I would do is first check the deed on the property and see who is listed as the owner. More importantly, see who is listed as having a lien on the property. If the property is mortgaged then it may be undergoing foreclosure. How long since the owner disappeared?

You and the other tenants should be paying your rent into an escrow account. You can pay expenses out of this escrow account until someone steps up to claim the rent.

If the property is in foreclosure you can approach the lender and offer to buy the property for the outstanding amount of the mortgage.