Mayor Kathy Sheehan has signed legislation officially establishing the City of Albany as the first municipality in New York state to opt-in to the Good Cause Eviction law.
Good Cause Eviction protects tenants from unreasonable rent hikes and retaliatory or discriminatory evictions, ensuring fair leases and stable housing for the city's residents. Albany had previously passed Good Cause Eviction protections in 2021, but the efforts were halted when a court ruled only the state was allowed to pass the measure.
11th Ward Common Councilor Alfredo Balarin, himself a landlord, says the new law will have little impact on “good landlords.”
"I'm optimistic that it's going to raise the bar for everybody," said Balarin. "Now I do expect that landlords are going to have probably stricter leases moving forward, as well as stricter guidelines for people who are looking for apartments. And I think that's important for us to recognize, and also rise to the occasion and make sure that your tenants are very well aware of what they're signing and what they're agreeing to, and what are the terms of the agreements, what are the expectations, so that when they sign a lease, they understand that contract, and if you break the lease, that is a good cause for eviction."
Canyon Ryan is executive director of United Tenants of Albany.
"So now that the mayor has signed Good Cause Eviction, tenants can feel secure in their home knowing that their landlord can no longer evict them for no reason at all. But instead, they'll have to provide one of 11 reasons, all of which are totally within the bounds of a good landlord needing to remove a tenant. And it will also put a limit on rent gouging, insofar as a landlord can no longer increase rent more than 5% plus the CPI, which is a measure of inflation, the consumer price index, or 10% whichever is less, unless the landlord can prove that they need to increase it beyond that amount, due to, say they invested in a washer dryer in the basement. Now the tenant has access to that, but because of that, they had to increase the rent 10% and 5% plus the CPI was only 7.8% so the landlord can justify the need to increase the rent based on, you know, a benefit in the tenant’s living standards upon the new lease. So basically, a tenant can know that their landlord can't be increased beyond a certain extent without cause, and they can't be evicted without cause," Ryan said.
Ryan suggests tenants who believe they've been subjected to an unfair rate increase first try working things out with their landlord. If they don't get satisfaction, the next step is to call United Tenants or Legal Aid for assistance, and possibly a trip to court.
"This protection is only going to work when a tenant stands by their rights," said Ryan. "How that will go is going to be up to the judge and how they determine it. I think that the way that the law finally passed is purposefully confusing for a lot of tenants, which is why, in Albany, we defined a small landlord as those with one unit or less, and define the maximum fair market value as 345% of the FMR [Fair Market Rent]."
According to the Common Council, residents will now receive guaranteed lease renewals, protections against eviction without good cause, and the ability to challenge unreasonable rent hikes. The new law differs slightly from the state version, exempting landlords who own one unit instead of the state law's one to 10 units, as well as units with rent higher than 345% of the fair market value.
Joining Albany and Kingston, the Poughkeepsie Common Council voted unanimously to opt in on Tuesday. It also exempts landlords who own only one rental unit. Under the new state law, buildings constructed after 2009 and owner-occupied units with 10 or fewer units are exempt.
