The FARE Act got all the headlines, but the law quietly doing the most work at Brooklyn lease-renewal time is one many renters still haven't heard of: Good Cause Eviction. It's been in effect since April 2024, it's mandatory in New York City, and two years in, we still meet tenants who don't know they're covered — and small landlords who don't realize they're exempt.
Here's the plain-English version we walk clients through at TorsX, on both sides of the lease.
What the law actually does
For covered apartments, Good Cause changes two things.
First, your landlord can't simply decline to renew your lease. Ending a covered tenancy requires one of the "good cause" grounds spelled out in the statute — nonpayment, a genuine lease violation, nuisance, the owner taking the unit for personal use, taking the unit off the rental market, and a handful of others. "I'd just rather not renew" is no longer one of them.
Second, the law puts a number on rent increases. Each year, the state sets a "local rent standard": 5 percent plus local inflation, capped at 10 percent, whichever is lower. Under the state's latest published figures, that standard for New York City is 8.38 percent — down from 8.79 percent the year before, because inflation cooled. An increase above that line is presumptively unreasonable, and a tenant can challenge it in housing court.
The part everyone gets wrong
Notice the word presumptively. This is the most misunderstood piece of the law, so it's worth being precise: the standard is not a hard cap.
A landlord can raise rent above 8.38 percent — but if the tenant challenges it, the burden shifts to the owner to justify the number, with things like a significant property tax increase or major documented repairs and improvements to the building. No justification, no increase. In practice, the standard functions as a strong default: most covered renewals now land at or below it, because going above invites a court fight most owners don't want over a market-rate unit.
For tenants, the practical takeaway is the mirror image: an increase above the standard isn't automatically illegal, but you have a real right to ask why, and a real defense if the answer is thin.
Not every apartment is covered — here's how to tell
Good Cause has meaningful exemptions, and Brooklyn's housing stock lands on both sides of them. The big ones:
Rent-stabilized apartments are outside Good Cause — not because they're unprotected, but because they already have stronger protections. Their increases are set by the Rent Guidelines Board, which is a different (and lower) set of numbers entirely.
Newer buildings are exempt. If the building received its certificate of occupancy on or after January 1, 2009, it stays outside the law for 30 years from that date. A lot of new development in Williamsburg, Greenpoint, and Downtown Brooklyn falls here.
Small landlords are exempt. Owners with small portfolios — no more than ten units statewide — are outside the law. In brownstone Brooklyn, where a large share of rentals are owned by someone with one or two buildings, this exemption does a lot of quiet work.
High-rent units above a threshold tied to federal Fair Market Rent (245 percent of FMR, set by bedroom count and updated annually) are also exempt.
You shouldn't have to guess. Since August 2024, every lease, renewal, and non-renewal notice in New York must include a Good Cause disclosure stating whether the unit is covered and, if not, which exemption applies. If you signed or renewed recently, that notice is in your paperwork. Read it — it's the single fastest way to know which rules govern your apartment.
What we tell each side
If you rent: find your Good Cause notice before your renewal conversation, not after. If you're covered and the proposed increase is above the current standard, ask — in writing, politely — for the basis. Sometimes there's a legitimate one. Often the number simply moves.
If you own: the law rewards paperwork. If your increase relies on tax hikes or capital work, document both before you send the renewal, and make sure the required notice is in every lease packet, including for exempt units — the disclosure obligation applies to everyone, exempt or not. The owners who get into trouble under this law are rarely the ones with bad intentions; they're the ones with thin files.
One more thing worth flagging: the standard resets every year with inflation, and the state's published figures have a habit of lagging. Whatever number you read in an article — including this one — confirm it against the current DHCR notice before you rely on it in a negotiation.
The bigger picture
Between the FARE Act on fees and Good Cause on renewals, the ground rules of market-rate renting in Brooklyn have shifted more in two years than in the previous twenty. Our read at TorsX, working with renters and owners every week: the market hasn't gotten harder so much as it's gotten more procedural. The people who do well in it — on either side of the lease — are the ones who know which rules apply to their unit and have the paperwork to match.
TorsX is a rental brokerage based in Brooklyn. If you're weighing a renewal, listing a unit, or just trying to figure out which of these laws covers your apartment, we're happy to help you sort it out.
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