Good Cause Eviction: Does It Cover Your Apartment?

Good Cause Eviction is a New York State law that took effect on April 20, 2024. It covers some market-rate apartments in New York City. It does not cover all of them, and a luxury rent does not answer the question by itself.

What it does, if the apartment is covered

In a covered home, the owner needs a "good cause" reason to evict, to refuse a renewal, or to end a tenancy. Nonpayment of rent is a good cause reason, unless the nonpayment is because of a rent increase a court finds unreasonable. The law is enforced in Housing Court. It is not a form you file with the building to freeze your rent.

HPD's current local rent standard is 8.38%, based on a New York-area inflation rate of 3.38% as of May 4, 2026. A renewal increase above that level can be challenged as unreasonable if the apartment is covered. The court still decides. An owner can offer reasons for a larger increase, such as significant repairs or higher property taxes.

Three reasons a unit is left out

The high-rent exemption is the one people misread. In New York City, Good Cause does not apply if the monthly rent is greater than 245% of the federal fair market rent for that unit size. The August 2026 notice from New York State Homes and Community Renewal, using fiscal-year 2025 fair market rents, puts the Manhattan cutoff at $6,196 for an efficiency, $6,505 for a one-bedroom, $7,130 for a two-bedroom, and $8,928 for a three-bedroom. Above that rent, the law does not apply. At or below it, this exemption does not knock the unit out.

Asking rents listed on this site currently run from $3,000 to $11,000, so some apartments sit under those cutoffs and some sit over them. The test is the rent on your lease, not a neighbor's asking rent.

Two other exemptions matter just as much. Homes built on or after January 1, 2009 are exempt for 30 years from the certificate of occupancy. And a "small landlord" — an owner of 10 units or fewer in New York State, with a separate rule if the owner lives in a building of 10 or fewer apartments — is exempt. The Department of Buildings profile for 222 East 34th Street lists 480 dwelling units and says the property is not a condo. That unit count makes the small-landlord exemption the wrong thing to assume here. It does not, by itself, tell you whether your apartment is covered. The certificate-of-occupancy date and your rent still have to be checked.

What you should actually look at

When an owner offers a rent increase of more than 5%, the law requires a notice that says whether Good Cause applies and, if it does not, why. That notice is the document to read. It is more reliable than a blog post, including this one, because coverage is unit-specific.

Rent-stabilized apartments are already regulated and are not covered by Good Cause. They have a different set of rules. If you are not sure which regime an apartment is in, ask HCR, not the listing headline.

This is a plain-language summary of public pages, not legal advice. The operative explanations are HPD's Good Cause page and the August 2026 DHCR notice. For a tour of a specific residence, use the listings or call (212) 684-3222.