NY Good Cause Eviction: Local Rent Standard and RPL 226-c

Under New York’s Good Cause Eviction law, a rent increase on a covered unit is presumed unreasonable if it exceeds the local rent standard, which is the annual change in the regional Consumer Price Index plus five percentage points, or ten percent, whichever is lower.1New York State Senate. New York Code RPP 211 – Definitions Any increase of five percent or more also triggers a separate advance-notice requirement of 30, 60, or 90 days depending on how long you’ve lived in the unit.2New York State Senate. New York Code RPP 226-C – Notice of Rent Increase or Non-Renewal of Residential Tenancy Together those two rules set the ceiling and the timing for what your landlord can do at renewal.

How the Local Rent Standard Is Calculated

The formula has two moving parts, and you take the lower of the two:

  • The annual percentage change in the Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers (CPI-U) for your region, plus five percentage points.
  • A flat ten percent cap.

Whichever number is smaller becomes the local rent standard for that year.1New York State Senate. New York Code RPP 211 – Definitions If regional CPI rose 3.79 percent, the inflation index comes out to 8.79 percent, which is below the ten percent cap, so the standard for that year is 8.79 percent.3NYC.gov. Good Cause Eviction Information for Tenants If CPI ever ran hot enough to push the inflation index above ten percent, the ten percent hard cap would take over.

Which CPI Applies to Your Building

The statute uses different CPI measures depending on where you live. New York City and opt-in localities in Dutchess, Nassau, Orange, Putnam, Rockland, Suffolk, and Westchester counties use the New York-Newark-Jersey City CPI. Every other opt-in municipality uses the broader Northeast Region CPI.1New York State Senate. New York Code RPP 211 – Definitions You don’t have to run the calculation yourself. The Division of Housing and Community Renewal (DHCR) publishes the applicable figures by August 1 each year.

When a Landlord Can Charge More

The word “presumed” matters. An increase above the local rent standard is not automatically illegal; it is presumed unreasonable, and the landlord carries the burden of rebutting that presumption in court. RPL 216 allows a judge to consider whether the increase reflects the cost of significant repairs or improvements to the unit or building.4New York State Senate. New York Code RPP 216 – Grounds for Removal of Tenants A landlord who just replaced a boiler or renovated a kitchen might justify a larger jump. Absent evidence like that, an above-standard increase should not survive a challenge.

Notice Requirements Before a Rent Increase

RPL 226-c applies to every residential tenancy in New York, not just Good Cause units. Whenever a landlord plans to raise rent by five percent or more, or intends not to renew the tenancy at all, written notice is required in advance.2New York State Senate. New York Code RPP 226-C – Notice of Rent Increase or Non-Renewal of Residential Tenancy The lead time is based on how long you’ve occupied the unit or the length of your current lease term, whichever is longer:

  • Less than one year: at least 30 days’ notice.
  • One to two years: at least 60 days’ notice.
  • More than two years: at least 90 days’ notice.

If the landlord skips or shortens the notice, the existing tenancy continues under its current terms until the full notice period runs from the date written notice is actually delivered.2New York State Senate. New York Code RPP 226-C – Notice of Rent Increase or Non-Renewal of Residential Tenancy You keep paying the old rent in the meantime. That is where the statute has real teeth.

One thing to keep straight: the five percent trigger in RPL 226-c is a separate threshold from the local rent standard. A four percent increase requires no advance notice under this statute at all. At five percent, the notice clock starts. And the notice requirement exists regardless of whether the increase itself is within the local rent standard.

The Good Cause Eviction Notice Your Landlord Must Attach

Starting August 18, 2024, RPL 231-c added a disclosure requirement that layers on top of the 226-c notice.5NYC.gov. Good Cause Eviction A standardized Good Cause Eviction Notice must be attached to or incorporated in every initial lease, renewal lease, 226-c notice, 14-day nonpayment notice, and court eviction petition.6New York State Senate. New York Code RPP 231-C – Good Cause Eviction Law Notice

On that form, the landlord has to fill in:

  • The street address, apartment number, and municipality.
  • Whether the unit is subject to Article 6-A (yes or no).
  • If exempt, which specific exemption applies, checked from a list that tracks RPL 214.
  • If the unit is covered and the rent is going up by more than the local rent standard, the reason justifying the higher increase.
  • If the lease is not being renewed, the specific good cause ground the landlord is relying on.

A court can dismiss an eviction petition that arrives without this disclosure, forcing the landlord to restart the process.6New York State Senate. New York Code RPP 231-C – Good Cause Eviction Law Notice If you receive a renewal offer or a notice with no Good Cause disclosure attached, that is worth flagging.

Whether the Local Rent Standard Applies to Your Unit

The rent cap only helps you if your unit is covered in the first place. The law took effect April 20, 2024, and automatically covers residential units in New York City.5NYC.gov. Good Cause Eviction Outside the city, coverage exists only where the local government has opted in. As of early 2025, seventeen localities had done so: Albany, Rochester, Croton-on-Hudson, Kingston, Hudson, New Paltz, the city and town of Poughkeepsie, Catskill, Beacon, Fishkill, White Plains, Newburgh, Binghamton, Middletown, Ithaca, and Nyack.7New York State Senate. 1+ Year Later, Good Cause Eviction Adopted by 17 NY Municipalities and Protects One Million Renters The list continues to grow, so if you’re outside those areas it’s worth checking whether your city or town has passed its own ordinance. Opt-in localities can also tighten or adjust some of the thresholds. Albany, for example, only exempts owner-occupied buildings with fewer than four units, rather than the ten-unit cutoff used in New York City.8Office of the New York State Attorney General. New York State Good Cause Eviction Law

Even within a covered locality, RPL 214 exempts a number of unit types. The rent standard does not apply if:

  • Your landlord owns a total of ten or fewer residential units statewide (in New York City; other localities may draw the line differently).
  • The landlord lives in the building and it has ten or fewer units.
  • The building received its certificate of occupancy on or after January 1, 2009 (exempt for thirty years from that date).
  • Your monthly rent exceeds 245 percent of the HUD Fair Market Rent for your county (opt-in localities can set a different percentage).
  • The unit is already covered by rent stabilization, rent control, or another rent regulation.
  • The unit is income-restricted through a regulatory agreement or restrictive declaration.
  • The unit is a condo, co-op, or in a building subject to an offering plan filed with the Attorney General.
  • You are a subletter and the sublessor wants the unit back for personal use.

Employee housing, manufactured homes, dormitories, seasonal dwellings, and certain institutional settings are also excluded. The high-rent exemption in particular trips up a lot of tenants because 245 percent of Fair Market Rent varies significantly by county. DHCR publishes the applicable dollar figures by August 1 each year, and if your rent is anywhere near that line it’s worth checking the number for your specific county rather than estimating.9New York State Senate. New York Code RPP 214 – Covered Housing Accommodations

When a landlord claims the small-landlord exemption, they must disclose every natural person with an ownership interest, how many units each of them owns across the state, and the addresses of those units.9New York State Senate. New York Code RPP 214 – Covered Housing Accommodations That transparency requirement is meant to stop landlords from hiding behind shell entities to duck the law.

Using the Standard If You Are Facing Eviction

The local rent standard is primarily a shield in court. If your landlord raises rent above the presumed-reasonable level and then files a nonpayment case when you refuse the new amount, you can raise the standard as a defense. If the court agrees the increase was unreasonable and the landlord cannot justify it with proof of repairs or improvements, the nonpayment claim fails, because you were never legally obligated to pay the inflated rent in the first place.4New York State Senate. New York Code RPP 216 – Grounds for Removal of Tenants

You don’t have to wait for a court filing to push back. If a renewal offer arrives with an above-standard increase, you can negotiate directly and point to the statute.3NYC.gov. Good Cause Eviction Information for Tenants Many landlords will adjust once they realize the increase would be presumptively unreasonable and hard to enforce.

Procedural defenses stack on top of the substantive one. If the 226-c notice was late or never sent, the old rent stays in place until proper notice runs. If the 231-c Good Cause Notice was not attached to the court petition, dismissal is on the table. Courts have treated both notices as prerequisites rather than paperwork, so a landlord who cuts corners on either one gives you real ground to stand on.