Good Cause Eviction in NYC

Good Cause Eviction is a New York State law that stops a landlord from refusing to renew your lease, or evicting you, without a specific legal reason. It applies to market-rate apartments in New York City, meaning units that are not already rent stabilized, and it also caps how much your landlord can raise the rent before the increase counts as unreasonable. The law took effect April 20, 2024, under Real Property Law Article 6-A.

Want to know what else is on file for your building before you sign or renew? Look up any NYC address to see violations, complaints and legal actions alongside your lease decision.

Who the Law Covers

Good Cause Eviction protects tenants in unregulated, market-rate apartments. It does not replace rent stabilization, which already comes with its own, generally stronger, protections. If your unit is stabilized or rent controlled, this law is not the one doing the work for you.

Buildings and Units Covered

The law covers market-rate apartments in buildings with 11 or more units, and in smaller buildings of 10 units or fewer where the owner does not live on site. Coverage generally reaches buildings built before January 1, 2009. Newer buildings fall outside the law for 30 years from the date of their certificate of occupancy, so a building finished in 2015 stays exempt until 2045.

Building size and age are the two facts worth confirming first, since they decide the question before you ever get to a landlord's claimed exemption. A 40-unit prewar elevator building built in 1930, for example, clears both the unit-count and construction-date tests automatically. A six-unit building where the landlord lives in unit 1 does not, regardless of when it was built. The New York City Department of Housing Preservation and Development lays out this coverage and exemption breakdown in full, including the family members an owner can move a relative in under and the documentation a landlord has to produce to back up a claimed exemption.

Who Is Exempt

Several categories of housing sit outside the law entirely:

• Small landlords. An owner of 10 units or fewer statewide, counting apartments and single-family homes together, is exempt.
• Owner-occupied buildings. Buildings of 10 units or fewer where the owner lives on the premises are exempt.
• Already-regulated housing. Rent-stabilized and rent-controlled units, public housing, and Section 8 developments have their own rules and sit outside this law.
• Co-ops and condos. Ownership units are not covered.
• High-rent units. An apartment renting for more than 245% of the Fair Market Rent for its size and area, a figure HUD publishes annually, is exempt. DHCR's August 2026 notice puts that cutoff for all five boroughs at $6,196 a month for a studio, $6,505 for a one-bedroom, $7,130 for a two-bedroom, $8,928 for a three-bedroom and $9,700 for a four-bedroom.
• New construction. Buildings inside their 30-year exemption window are exempt, as described above.

If more than one of these applies, only one has to hold for your apartment to fall outside the law.

How Much Your Rent Can Go Up

Good Cause Eviction does not freeze rent. It sets a ceiling on what counts as a reasonable increase, and treats anything above that ceiling as presumptively unreasonable, which you can raise as a defense if your landlord tries to push you out over refusing it. The formula is the region's rate of inflation plus 5 percentage points, capped at 10% no matter how high inflation runs. The Division of Housing and Community Renewal (DHCR) publishes the current figure every year.

DHCR's 2026 notice puts the New York City area's inflation rate for 2025 at 3.38%, which sets the local rent standard at 8.38%. That is the number covered tenants can point to right now when a renewal offer looks steep. On a $2,800 monthly rent, an increase at the standard works out to roughly $235 more a month; anything meaningfully above that shifts the burden onto the landlord to justify the increase in court, with evidence like higher property taxes, insurance or maintenance costs.

The standard resets every year, and it moves with inflation rather than staying fixed, so do not assume last year's percentage still applies. DHCR is required to publish the new figure annually, and the number can shift by a point or more from one year to the next depending on where inflation lands.

Grounds a Landlord Can Use to Not Renew or Evict You

Outside of these specific grounds, a covered landlord has to renew your lease. The lawful reasons include:

• Nonpayment of rent, unless the nonpayment followed an unreasonable rent increase
• A violation of a substantial lease term
• Nuisance behavior or damage to the unit
• A government vacate order affecting the building or unit
• Using the apartment for an illegal purpose
• Refusing the landlord reasonable access for repairs or inspections
• The owner or a qualifying family member wants to move into the unit, with added protections for tenants who are 65 or older or have a disability
• The owner is demolishing the building
• The owner is taking the unit permanently off the rental market

A landlord who cannot point to one of these grounds has to keep offering you a renewal lease. If you get an eviction notice that does not name one of them, that gap is a defense you can raise in Housing Court. The owner-occupancy ground carries an extra layer of protection: if you are 65 or older, or have a disability, the landlord generally cannot use it to remove you unless a comparable unit is offered.

If a landlord has already filed against you, raising Good Cause as a defense goes more smoothly with help, and the Legal Aid Society represents income-eligible NYC tenants in Housing Court free of charge.

The Notice Your Landlord Must Give You

Since August 18, 2024, landlords covered by the law have had to give tenants a Good Cause Eviction Law Notice. The notice has to state plainly whether your unit is covered or exempt, and if the landlord claims an exemption, it has to say which one. Landlords must issue this notice when they offer a lease, when they raise the rent by more than 5%, when they end a tenancy, and when they file an eviction case. If you never received one and you think your apartment qualifies, that is worth raising with the landlord in writing, or with a tenant attorney if a case is already in court.

Review any notice against your eviction notice and next steps before you respond, since the good cause protection only helps if you raise it at the right stage of the case.

Where the Law Stands in 2026

Good Cause Eviction is mandatory only in New York City. Everywhere else in the state, it is optional: a city, town or village has to vote to opt in before its tenants get the protection. As of 2025, 17 municipalities statewide, including Albany, Rochester, Kingston, Poughkeepsie and Ithaca, had opted in, extending the law to roughly one million renters beyond the five boroughs. That number has kept growing as more local governments take up the question.

The annual rent standard is the part most tenants need to track. DHCR is required to publish it every year, and the figure changes with inflation, so the percentage that applied to your last renewal will not automatically be the one that applies to your next one. Check the current figure before you sign anything.

Frequently Asked Questions

Does Good Cause Eviction Apply to Rent-Stabilized Apartments?

No. Rent-stabilized and rent-controlled units already have their own protections and are specifically excluded from this law. Good Cause Eviction fills the gap for market-rate tenants who previously had none of these protections.

Can My Landlord Still Raise My Rent as Much as They Want?

A landlord can offer any increase, but one above the published local rent standard, currently 8.38% in the New York City area, is presumed unreasonable. You can challenge it in Housing Court, and the landlord has to justify it with evidence like higher taxes or operating costs.

What Happens if My Landlord Just Refuses to Renew My Lease?

If your unit is covered and your landlord cannot point to one of the lawful grounds, such as nonpayment, a lease violation or owner occupancy, a refusal to renew is not enough on its own. You can raise the law as a defense if the landlord files a holdover case against you.

How Do I Know if My Building Is Covered or Exempt?

Start with your landlord's Good Cause Eviction Law Notice, which is required to state your unit's status. Cross-check the building's age, unit count, and whether the owner lives there or owns other units statewide, since any one exemption is enough to take your unit out of the law.

Does Good Cause Eviction Cover Month-to-Month Tenants?

Yes, as long as the underlying apartment meets the building and rent criteria. Month-to-month status alone does not exempt you, though your landlord still needs a lawful reason before ending the tenancy or declining to continue it.

Is Good Cause Eviction the Same in Every New York City Borough?

Yes. The law is a New York City-wide, mandatory protection, so the same coverage rules and rent standard apply whether you rent in the Bronx, Brooklyn, Manhattan, Queens or Staten Island. Coverage outside the city depends on whether that specific municipality opted in.