Eviction notices for Capital Region landlords

The right notice turns on facts you can check: whether rent is unpaid, whether a lease or other tenancy is coming to an end, how long the tenant has lived there, and whether the person in the home is a tenant at all. The situations below are common ones; for a case we take, we confirm which notice the facts call for before anything is sent.

The tenant hasn’t paid the rent

A nonpayment case starts with a written demand for the rent, at least 14 days ahead, that asks the tenant either to pay it or to give up possession (RPAPL 711(2)). A second duty, under a different statute, applies when a landlord doesn’t receive payment within five days of the date specified in a lease agreement: a written notice sent by certified mail (RPL 235-e(d)). See the rent demand and the 5-day late notice.

The lease is ending and you won’t renew it

Not renewing calls for written notice in advance, and the minimum is 30, 60, or 90 days, depending on the tenant’s time there or the lease’s length (RPL 226-c(1)(a), (2)). If the tenant remains once both have run out and without permission, the next step can be a holdover case (RPAPL 711(1)). See the non-renewal notice.

You’re renewing at a higher rent

Offering a renewal at five percent or more above the current rent calls for the same written notice and the same minimums (RPL 226-c(1)(a), (2)). See the non-renewal notice.

A month-to-month tenancy you won’t continue

The one-month notice that ends a monthly tenancy outside New York City belongs to the tenant; a landlord may give it only for a rental that isn’t a home (RPL 232-b). To stop a residential month-to-month arrangement, the landlord gives the non-renewal notice, with its 30, 60, or 90-day minimums (RPL 226-c(1)(a), (2)).

The person living there isn’t a tenant

When the occupant is a licensee whose permission is over, or a squatter, the case comes after a 10-day notice to quit (RPAPL 713(3), (7)). The statute exempts two grounds from that notice (RPAPL 713(10), (11)). See the notice to quit, and for who counts as a licensee or a squatter, licensee and squatter removal.

A lease violation, a nuisance, or a commercial rental

Each of these can call for a different notice. The lease may set one, and where Good Cause Eviction covers the home, a lease violation counts only after a written notice to cease that the tenant hasn’t cured (RPL 216(1)(b)). Tell us the facts before you send anything. This page covers residential rentals; for a commercial rental, see commercial evictions.

Notices, court papers, and the officer’s notice

A landlord’s notice comes before any case. The case itself begins with court papers, a notice of petition and a petition (RPAPL 731(1), 741), served as RPAPL 735 prescribes (RPAPL 735(1)). A judgment for the landlord leads to a warrant from the court, and the officer who carries it out first gives the occupants written notice at least 14 days ahead (RPAPL 749(1), (2)(a)). That last notice comes from the officer, not the landlord, and it isn’t one of the notices on this page.

The rent demand is the written demand a nonpayment case depends on. It demands the unpaid rent, gives at least fourteen days’ notice, and requires, in the alternative, the payment of the rent or the possession of the premises (RPAPL 711(2)).

It must also append or contain the Good Cause notice (RPAPL 711(2); RPL 231-c(1)). The notice’s form includes an answer for a municipality that hasn’t adopted the law (RPL 231-c(1)).

The tenant must be served with the demand in the manner RPAPL 735 prescribes (RPAPL 711(2)). That section allows personal delivery to the tenant; or delivery to a person of suitable age and discretion who resides or is employed at the property, if admittance can be obtained on reasonable application; or, if admittance can’t be obtained and no such person is found, affixing a copy to a conspicuous part of the property or placing it under the entrance door. The second and third methods add a mailing within one day, by registered or certified mail and by regular first-class mail (RPAPL 735(1)). A landlord shouldn’t serve the demand personally. New York’s general rule lets papers be served by a person 18 or older who isn’t a party, except where a law or court order says otherwise (CPLR 2103(a)), and the CPLR governs special proceedings, such as an eviction case, unless a law provides otherwise (CPLR 103(b)). This is a summary, not a complete statement of the service rules. For a case we take, we write the demand, and a process server serves it and signs an affidavit of service.

The demand is part of the ground itself, so the petition has to describe it among its facts (RPAPL 711(2), 741(4)). In a rental covered by Good Cause Eviction, no action is maintainable and no judgment of possession can be entered unless the landlord has complied with the laws on notice to tenants, including the manner and time of service and the contents (RPL 217). What a payment during the 14 days means is on the nonpayment eviction page.

The 5-day late notice is a written notice, sent by certified mail, stating the failure to receive a rent payment (RPL 235-e(d)). The duty arises when a lessor, or a lessor’s agent authorized to receive rent, fails to receive payment within five days of the date specified in a lease agreement, and the statute places it on that lessor or agent (RPL 235-e(d)).

If the notice isn’t provided, the statute says the failure “may be used as an affirmative defense” by the tenant in an eviction proceeding based on the non-payment of rent (RPL 235-e(d)). It stands apart from the rent demand, with its own statute, its own trigger, and its own consequence (RPAPL 711(2); RPL 235-e(d)). For a case we take, we send the 5-day late notice for you, as we do the rent demand.

The non-renewal notice is the written notice a landlord must give when the landlord “does not intend to renew the tenancy” of a residential unit, or offers a renewal with a rent increase “equal to or greater than five percent above the current rent” (RPL 226-c(1)(a)).

Its minimum length follows whichever is longer, the cumulative time the tenant has occupied the residence or the length of the tenancy in each lease (RPL 226-c(2)(a)):

• 30 days or more: the tenant has occupied the unit less than one year and does not have a lease term of at least one year (RPL 226-c(2)(b)).
• 60 days or more: occupancy of more than one year but less than two years, or a lease term of at least one year but less than two years (RPL 226-c(2)(c)).
• 90 days or more: occupancy of more than two years, or a lease term of at least two years (RPL 226-c(2)(d)).

These periods come from state law, not a City of Albany rule (RPL 226-c(2)).

The notice must append or contain the Good Cause notice (RPL 226-c(1)(a); RPL 231-c(1)). If it comes late, the statute keeps the tenancy going: “the occupant’s lawful tenancy shall continue under the existing terms of the tenancy from the date on which the landlord gave actual written notice until the notice period has expired” (RPL 226-c(1)(a)). In a covered rental, the notice rule described in the rent demand section applies here too (RPL 217). We prepare this notice and arrange its service, for a case we take.

Once the lease term and the notice period are over, a tenant who stays on without the landlord’s permission can be the subject of a holdover case (RPAPL 711(1)). Accepting rent after the term can change the tenancy (RPL 232-c); the holdover page covers that.

The notice to quit comes before a case against an occupant with no tenancy: a special proceeding “may be maintained … after a ten-day notice to quit has been served upon the respondent in the manner prescribed in section 735” (RPAPL 713). The grounds include a licensee whose permission has ended and a squatter (RPAPL 713(3), (7)); the licensee and squatter page explains who fits each.

Service follows the same RPAPL 735 methods set out for the rent demand (RPAPL 713, 735(1)). On the grounds that require it, serving the notice comes first, since the statute allows the case only “after” service (RPAPL 713). The notice isn’t required on two grounds: possession taken or kept through force or other unlawful means, under the statute’s conditions, and possession tied to a job for the petitioner once the job or the agreed time is over (RPAPL 713(10), (11)).

Preparing the notice to quit and seeing to its service is part of our work, for a case we take.

A residential case is a flat-fee case, and the fee includes preparing and serving all required notices for a case we take, including the 5-day late notice and the 14-day rent demand. 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