How Tenants Are Getting Rent Breaks as ‘Good Cause’ Kicks In

This article was originally published on August 23 at 5 a.m. EDT by THE CITY

Are you among the tenants covered by “good cause” eviction protections? Your lease — a new one or a renewal — should now tell you.

Starting August 18, landlords have had to begin providing notices to tenants about whether or not their apartments are subject to protections under a new state law, giving lease-holders a way to challenge exorbitant rent increases. These notices must be attached to new leases, renewals or litigation notices.

After years of failed attempts from progressive lawmakers, good cause went into effect in April, after being passed as part of the state budget. But compromises made then could complicate identifying which apartments are and are not covered. 

The law sets parameters for how much a landlord can raise rent and requires them to offer tenants new leases — unless there is a “good cause” to evict them, such as nonpayment of rent, if the tenant creates a nuisance or if the landlord wants to take the apartment off the market. And many buildings are exempt from the law (more on this later).

Tenants can use the law to defend against eviction proceedings in housing court, including by challenging steep rent increases as excessive. The law defines an excessive increase as one that’s more than 10 percent or the annual rate of inflation plus 5 percent, whichever is lower. Currently the threshold is 8.82 percent in New York City.

The impact of the law remains to be seen, and many particulars will be shaped by Housing Court judges, lawyers say.

“There are a number of unclear terms that I know both owners and tenants are confused by,” said Sherwin Belkin, an attorney representing landlords. “I assume some of this will be thrashed out in the courts.”

Still, some tenants have already been able to invoke the law to push back against high rent increases or to gain lease renewals.

One of them is Judy Birnbaum, a 76-year-old Upper West Side resident, who faced a 20 percent rent hike earlier this year when Slate Property Group bought her building. She couldn’t afford to pay nearly $800 more each month, so she began searching for new apartments within her budget. It was a demoralizing process. One day, she ran into the custodian of her building, who told her he had good news: Her apartment is covered by the new good cause law. 

“The timing of this was incredible. How fortunate it was that all of a sudden this law gets passed right about when I’m ready to have to say, ‘I’m going to have to leave,’” she said. “Everyone in the building starts talking, and we’re all thrilled.”

She called the managing agent, invoked good cause and received a lease renewal at about 8.5% more. A spokesperson for Slate said the company “updated any outstanding lease renewals to bring them into line” with the law after it passed.

“An 8.5 percent increase is considerable every year, even though it’s a lot better than what they originally proposed,” Birnbaum said. “That’s still a lot of money for people, especially for seniors.”

‘Where Am I Going to Get $3,000?’

The good cause legislation allows several exemptions. Buildings constructed since 2009, rentals in condos and coop buildings and rent-stabilized or rent-controlled units are exempted, for example. 

Another exemption is for landlords who own 10 or fewer apartments (or 11, if the landlord lives in their building).

But it can be hard to know how many units a landlord that is an LLC or corporation may own, and the law is vague about how many units a person technically owns if they share ownership of some of those units with other people. 

“That’s one of the purposes of this notice being attached to every lease,” Belkin said. “The tenant may have to do some digging, but at least they are given a trail of info where they can find out.”

The notice must explain why the apartment is not subject to good cause eviction, if that is the case. 

The Real Estate Board of New York created a form landlords can use.

The question of whether or not a tenant is covered under the law poses a conundrum for Irene Cespedes, who has been renting her Bushwick apartment with her husband for more than 20 years. The mother of two, who works part time when school is in session, faces an increase of almost 60 percent, which would bring her monthly payment to $3,000. 

“For me, that is too much money,” she said in Spanish. “I suffer from stress and anxiety, and I got pretty worked up that night. I spent all night thinking, where am I going to get $3,000?”

Public records THE CITY reviewed are inconclusive on whether or not the building is exempted from the law, but a lawyer from Make the Road New York who is working with Cespedes took the position that she is covered. The lawyer sent a letter to the landlord in July but has yet to hear back.

Other tenants are currently covered but might not be soon, with changes in their building’s ownership pending.

In Park Slope, Shirly Bahar and her fellow tenants in a two-apartment building gained good cause protections in April because their landlord owned more than 10 units of housing. 

But now the landlord wants to sell the building. 

Bahar said her landlord is contemplating selling to someone who does not own enough housing units to fall under the law. She hopes if that person buys, the relationship would be positive — but then, she faces the loss of her guaranteed protections under the law. A high rent increase, she said, might lead her to search for other housing she could better afford — likely outside her neighborhood.

“Our prospects would be quite grim out there in the world,” she said.

Risk of Failure

Disputes over whether or not tenants may be covered is just one issue that could end up in courts. Another is whether a rent increase over the threshold is “reasonable.” 

Tenants who object to a proposed increase can challenge it in court — but shouldn’t assume that their case will be a slam dunk. Ellen Davidson, a lawyer with the Legal Aid Society, notes that the law allows property owners to argue that their operating costs warrant a sharp increase.

“This language in the statute says that a landlord can rebut, that an increase higher than the reasonable rent standard is still reasonable by looking to increased costs, and suggests that the court look at things like taxes,” said Davidson.

Other parts of the law that must be decided by courts include whether tenants are covered by good cause protections if a landlord attorney issued a termination notice before the law took effect, Davidson said. 

Additionally, the law exempts buildings built since 2009, with protections for those buildings kicking in 30 years after the date the certificate of occupancy was issued. But it’s in the air about whether a building would be exempted, if, say, it was constructed in the 1980s, but the owner more recently combined some units and received a new certificate of occupancy in 2024, Belkin said.

Combining apartments — a process some tenant advocates call “Frankensteining” — is something Assembly Member Linda Rosenthal, a Manhattan Democrat, expects owners seeking to get around good cause to try.

“If you qualify for good cause, you can combine apartments, so the building now will not be eligible for good cause,” said Rosenthal, who sponsored a version of the good cause bill. “I’m sure we will see that. It will take complaints. The issue with providing and enforcing good cause will be litigated in a lot of cases.”

Still, the prospect of litigation may scare off tenants — even those who are protected under the law. The uncertainty of how a decision may play out in court is one thing for lawyers, said Mark Natanawan, a tenant organizer with Housing Conservation Coordinators, but it can result in real anxiety and fear for tenants.

“It’s another thing for a person facing the actual situation of losing their homes to game that out in their heads and ask themselves whether they’re willing to take that risk,” of ending up in court, he said. 

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