Section 715. Grounds and procedure where use or occupancy is illegal

1. An
  owner or tenant, including a tenant of one or more rooms of an apartment
  house, tenement house or multiple dwelling, of any premises  within  two
  hundred  feet from other demised real property used or occupied in whole
  or in part as a bawdy-house, or house or place of assignation  for  lewd
  persons,  or  for  purposes  of  prostitution, or for any illegal trade,
  business or manufacture, or any domestic corporation organized  for  the
  suppression  of  vice,  subject to or which submits to visitation by the
  state department of social services and  possesses  a  certificate  from
  such  department  of such fact and of conformity with regulations of the
  department, or any duly authorized enforcement agency of the state or of
  a subdivision thereof, under a duty to enforce  the  provisions  of  the
  penal  law  or  of  any  state  or  local  law, ordinance, code, rule or
  regulation relating to buildings, may serve personally upon the owner or
  landlord of the premises so used or  occupied,  or  upon  his  agent,  a
  written  notice  requiring  the owner or landlord to make an application
  for the removal of the person so using or occupying  the  same.  If  the
  owner  or  landlord  or  his agent does not make such application within
  five days thereafter; or,  having  made  it,  does  not  in  good  faith
  diligently  prosecute  it, the person, corporation or enforcement agency
  giving the notice may bring a proceeding under  this  article  for  such
  removal  as  though  the  petitioner  were  the owner or landlord of the
  premises,  and  shall  have  precedence  over  any  similar   proceeding
  thereafter  brought  by  such  owner  or  landlord or to one theretofore
  brought by him and not prosecuted diligently and in good faith. Proof of
  the ill repute of the demised premises or of the inmates thereof  or  of
  those  resorting  thereto  shall  constitute presumptive evidence of the
  unlawful use of the demised  premises  required  to  be  stated  in  the
  petition  for removal. Both the person in possession of the property and
  the owner or landlord shall be made respondents in the proceeding.
    2. For purposes of this section, two or more convictions of any person
  or persons had, within a period of one year, for  any  of  the  offenses
  described in section 230.00, 230.05, 230.20, 230.25, 230.30 or 230.40 of
  the  penal  law  arising  out  of  conduct  engaged  in at the same real
  property consisting of a dwelling as that term is defined in subdivision
  four of section four of the multiple dwelling law shall  be  presumptive
  evidence  of  conduct  constituting  use of the premises for purposes of
  prostitution.
    3. For the purposes of this section, two or more  convictions  of  any
  person  or  persons  had,  within  a  period of one year, for any of the
  offenses described in section 225.00, 225.05,  225.10,  225.15,  225.20,
  225.30,  225.32,  225.35  or  225.40  of  the  penal law, arising out of
  conduct engaged in at the same premises consisting of a dwelling as that
  term is defined in subdivision four of  section  four  of  the  multiple
  dwelling  law  shall  be  presumptive  evidence  of unlawful use of such
  premises and of the owner's knowledge of the same.
    4. A court granting a  petition  pursuant  to  this  section  may,  in
  addition  to any other order provided by law, make an order imposing and
  requiring the payment by the respondent of a civil penalty not exceeding
  five thousand dollars to the municipality in which the subject  premises
  is  located  and, the payment of reasonable attorneys fees and the costs
  of  the  proceeding  to  the  petitioner.  In  any  such  case  multiple
  respondents  shall  be  jointly  and severally liable for any payment so
  ordered and the amounts of such payments shall constitute  a  lien  upon
  the subject realty.
    5. For the purposes of a proceeding under this section, an enforcement
  agency  of  the  state or of a subdivision thereof, which may commence a
  proceeding under this section,  may  subpoena  witnesses,  compel  their

  attendance,  examine  them  under  oath  before  himself  or a court and
  require that  any  books,  records,  documents  or  papers  relevant  or
  material   to  the  inquiry  be  turned  over  to  him  for  inspection,
  examination or audit, pursuant to the civil practice law and rules. If a
  person  subpoenaed to attend upon such inquiry fails to obey the command
  of a subpoena without reasonable cause, or if  a  person  in  attendance
  upon such inquiry shall, without reasonable cause, refuse to be sworn or
  to  be  examined  or to answer a question or to produce a book or paper,
  when ordered to do so by the officer conducting such inquiry,  he  shall
  be guilty of a class B misdemeanor.