Collecting rent once you have started the case may jeopardize your court case and may be grounds for the judge to dismiss it. If the person you are trying to evict was a tenant, you cannot collect rent after the date of the termination of tenancy on the notice of termination. If the occupant you are trying to evict is not a tenant, you cannot collect rent at all. However, you can ask the court in your holdover petition to award you use and occupancy for the time that the person you are evicting continues to stay in the apartment after you start the case. The amount of use and occupancy that you may collect is decided by the judge and is based on the reasonable rental value of the apartment.