Did you know that New York State has passed the Good Cause Eviction Law?
After years of talking about “Good Cause Evictions”, legislators have finally succeeded in starting to put them in place in New York State. What does that mean? If you are a Landlord or new to the Landlord-Tenant Law world, Good Cause Eviction means a Landlord can no longer terminate a tenancy without good cause to do so, whether the Tenant has month-to-month tenancy or the lease term is coming due.
The good news: legislation has only mandated the Good Cause Eviction Law for New York City. This law does not immediately apply to all of Upstate New York. The State has allowed each municipality to opt into these restrictions. At the moment, there are no upstate cities, towns or villages that have adopted the Good Cause Eviction Law. However, some jurisdictions may eventually opt in.
Other good news, there are a number of exceptions to the Good Cause Evictions Law, the largest of these exceptions being that Landlords with less than 10 units, who the Law considers to be “small landlords”, are exempt. For Landlords personally residing within a building with less than 10 units, and the law also will not apply to any building that received its certificate of occupancy after January 2009.
Other exceptions include instances where the Landlord is trying to recover the property for their own personal use or the personal residence of an immediate family member, or when the unit is subject to mandatory low-income housing, just to name a few.
Contact a member of the MCV Law Landlord Services team to hear more about the Good Cause Eviction Law and find out if it applies to you.