Albany’s New Residential ‘Good Cause Eviction” Law Kicks In

Legislation proposed in Albany back in February 2024 has led to the new Good Cause Eviction law that went into effect on April 20, 2024; and is intended to put rent-gauging protections in place for tenants in market rate apartments. As of August 18, 2024, landlords are required to provide a notice of Good Cause Eviction to a tenant when offered a renewal or a new lease to let them know whether or not they are subject to the protections under the state law. In addition, depending upon the tenant’s number of years of tenure in the residential unit, they must be notified 30, 60, or 90 days if the rent is increasing by more than 5%, or that their lease will not be renewed. Some of the allowable reasons for ‘good cause’ eviction by the landlord include the recurring creation of a nuisance or illegal activity within the unit, and if the rent is not paid by the tenant, unless it is due to an unreasonable increase. The amount of rent increase considered reasonable is based on the current year inflation rate in the local area plus 5%. Currently the New York City threshold is 8.82%, however since the law caps the maximum local rent standard at 10%, if inflation was 6%, the increase of 11% would be considered unreasonable. Some examples where residential units are not subject to the Good Cause Eviction law are buildings with 10-units or less, condo or co-op buildings, units built on or after January 1, 2009 will not be subject to the law until 30 years after the temporary or permanent certificate of occupancy is issued, and units where rents and/or evictions are already regulated by federal, state, or local law, such as rent stabilized or rent controlled units. Litigation prompted by disputes would be decided by Housing Court judges, however lawyers caution that tenants shouldn’t assume it will play out in court in their favor. The impact of the law remains to be seen, but at the time of the February proposal, a policy brief published by the Furman Center at New York University raised the argument that the “New York proposal is essentially an effort at extending rent regulation to free market apartments,” while “giving landlords a benchmark for raising rent prices annually for all tenants.”

Source:    https://www.thecity.nyc/2024/08/23/good-cause-rent-reductions-tenants/

Source:    https://www.nyc.gov/site/hpd/services-and-information/good-cause-eviction.page