N.Y. GBS Law § 209

§ 209. Certain sales after eighteen months. Any keeper of a hotel,\nmotel, apartment hotel, inn, boarding-house, rooming-house or\nlodging-house, except an immigrant lodging-house, whose lien for fare,\nlodging, accommodation or board upon any goods, baggage or other chattel\nproperty, shall not have been paid for a period of eighteen months, may\nsell such property at public auction for cash to the highest bidder upon\nmailing a notice inclosed in a securely closed postpaid wrapper,\ndirected to the person who left such property with such keeper, at the\npost office of the ctiy, town or village where such hotel, motel,\napartment hotel, inn, boarding-house, rooming-house or lodging-house is\nsituated, such notice to contain a statement of the time and place when\nand where such goods, baggage or other chattel property will be sold and\nsuch notice shall be mailed at least fifteen days before such sale shall\ntake place. Such keeper shall, out of the proceeds of such sale, retain\nthe amount of his lien and the expense of selling such property, and, if\nthere be any surplus, he shall, within ten days after such sale, upon\ndemand, pay over such surplus to the person whose property was sold. In\ncase such surplus shall not be demanded and paid as aforesaid, within\nsaid ten days, then within five days thereafter, such keeper shall pay\nsuch surplus to the treasurer of the county or chamberlain or other\nchief fiscal officer of the city in which such sale took place, and\nshall, at the same time, file with said treasurer, chamberlain or other\nchief fiscal officer a statement in writing containing the name of the\nperson whose property was sold, the price at which it was sold, the date\nof such sale and by whom sold. Such surplus shall be kept and disposed\nof in the manner provided in section two hundred and eight of this\nchapter. Nothing contained in this article shall preclude any other\nremedy now existing for the enforcement and satisfaction of a lien of\nthe keeper of a hotel, motel, apartment hotel, inn, boarding-house,\nrooming-house or lodging-house, except an immigrant lodging-house, nor\nbar his right to recover for so much of the debt as shall not be paid\nthrough such sale.\n