Good Cause Eviction compliance for Capital Region landlords

New York City is covered by the statute itself (RPL 212). Everywhere else, the law reaches only a city, town, or village whose legislative body adopts it by local law (RPL 213(1)). If a town and a village inside it both adopt it, the town’s law doesn’t apply within the village (RPL 213(3)).

As of September 29, 2026, the City of Albany and the City of Troy were the only municipalities in Albany, Schenectady, Rensselaer, and Saratoga counties to have adopted it (RPL 213(1)). DHCR, the state housing agency, publishes a yearly list of municipalities that have opted in; its newest list is current as of May 4, 2026, and it can trail a local law that has already been filed (RPL 213(5), (6)). On that date, the law didn’t apply in places such as the Town of Colonie or the City of Saratoga Springs (RPL 213(1)). Leases, renewals, non-renewal notices, rent demands, and petitions there still have to carry the Good Cause notice (RPL 231-c(1); RPAPL 711(2), 741(5-a)).

The two local choices

A municipality that opts in can set the rent level above which a unit is exempt, as a percent of fair market rent, and the number of units a small landlord may own. If it doesn’t, the state’s figures apply: 245 percent of fair market rent and ten units (RPL 213(2)). The City of Albany and the City of Troy each chose 345 percent of fair market rent and a limit of one unit in New York State (Albany City Code § 231-139(B), (C); Troy City Code §§ 46-3, 46-4). DHCR publishes each county’s fair market rent by August 1 of each year (RPL 214(15)).

Where the law applies, it covers every housing accommodation, including homes in a mixed-use building, except the kinds the statute exempts (RPL 211(1), 214). Among the exemptions that come up for Capital Region landlords:

• Property owned by a small landlord (RPL 214(1)). The unit count looks through to each natural person who owns the property, directly or indirectly, and an entity that can’t name all of its natural-person owners doesn’t qualify (RPL 211(3)(b), (c)). A landlord who claims this exemption in an eviction case has to give the tenants those owners’ names, how many units each owns, and where those units are, leaving out each owner’s principal residence (RPL 214(1)).
• A building of ten units or fewer that the owner lives in (RPL 214(2)).
• A building whose temporary or permanent certificate of occupancy was issued on or after January 1, 2009, for 30 years after it was issued (RPL 214(8)).
• A unit renting above the municipality’s fair-market-rent threshold (RPL 214(15)).
• A unit already subject to rent or eviction regulation, or one that must be affordable at a set income level under a statute, regulation, or government agreement (RPL 214(5), (6)).
• A condominium or cooperative unit, or one subject to an offering plan filed with the Attorney General (RPL 214(7)).

The statute lists others, including seasonal units, manufactured homes in a manufactured home park, a unit occupied solely because of a job that is being or has been lawfully ended, and a sublet unit the sublessor seeks in good faith for personal use (RPL 214(3), (4), (9), (11)).

Who counts as a tenant

The law protects a tenant, subtenant, lessee, or anyone else entitled to lawful possession of the home. It excludes a person with no landlord-tenant relationship, as defined by the grounds in RPAPL 713, and a tenant’s roommate whom the landlord never agreed, expressly or by implication, to accept as a rent-paying resident living there as a primary home (RPL 211(4)). For those cases, see licensee and squatter removal.

Every lease, renewal, non-renewal notice, rent demand, and eviction petition must append or contain the state’s Good Cause notice, which says whether the unit is covered and, if not, why (RPL 231-c(1)). The notices page explains which papers carry it and what it states.

In a covered home, no case can go forward and no judgment of possession can be entered unless the landlord has followed the laws on the case and on notice to tenants, including how and when each notice was served and what it said (RPL 217).

For property in a Good Cause municipality, we check whether the law covers the rental and follow what it requires, as part of your case (RPL Article 6-A). That means looking at the property and its owners against the exemptions, at the tenant’s status, and at which ground, if any, the facts support, before any notice goes out.

The case itself is a nonpayment case when rent is unpaid, or a holdover case on the other grounds. We represent landlords in courts across Albany, Schenectady, Rensselaer, and Saratoga counties, and our attorney decides whether to accept each case after reviewing it; how it works describes the steps.

A residential case is a flat-fee case. In a Good Cause municipality, the flat fee includes checking whether the law covers the rental and meeting its requirements for the notices and court papers. Additional costs apply only if your case needs them. Our pricing page explains:

• What the flat fee includes
• Additional costs, if your case needs them
• Optional warrant coordination
• What’s not included
• When you’re charged