Reporting a tenant to the credit bureaus but concerned about threatening the tenant.

You are treading on dangerous ground. Yes, it is legal to report him. But threatening to do so in order to leverage payment from him may well violate debt collection laws. Why is he still there? If he has cause massive damage, why haven't you terminated his tenancy long ago? And you are now worried about his wanting to break his lease? It would seem to be cause for celebration instead of complaint. Regardless, you need to review everything in detail with a good landlord-tenant attorney, preferably one that is also knowledgeable in debt collection laws. Rarely is there ever a good reason to let a tenant continue when they have already damaged your property. Good luck.

Dear New York Property Owner: I agree with Mr. Abbott. Your "damage" claim is not judicially determined; a court may not even agree with your claim the tenant caused "massive" damage to your property. If your tenant owes rent, you are entitled to sue in a nonpayment summary proceeding. That alone will likely result in the tenant landing on the so-called tenant Blacklist, without you doing nothing more than initiating the Housing Court case and pursuing the case to a judgment if the tenant does not defend. You do not even need to lift a finger since the Housing Court sells the data base for filed cases to companies that provide information to tenant reporting companies. Read more at: http://cwtfhc.org/tenant-blacklists-credit-reports-and-debt-collection/ Do yourself a favor. Hire an attorney to initiate a lawsuit so you have some legal claim to settle. And, why will you not terminate the tenancy and start your holdover proceeding since you know ahead of the lawsuit your tenant wants out of the landlord and tenant relation.