“Good cause eviction” struck down in Newburgh

Judge rules local law conflicts with state legislation

 Justice Sandra Sciortino and Newburgh mayor Torrance Harvey (Facebook, Daniel Case, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons)
Justice Sandra Sciortino and Newburgh mayor Torrance Harvey (Facebook, Daniel Case, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons)

A judge struck down Newburgh’s good cause eviction law Tuesday, ruling that the legislation conflicted with state property laws.

The upstate city’s year-old law required landlords would need to show good cause, such as proof of missing payments, to evict tenants, even if their leases had expired. The legislation also demanded that landlords justify a rent hike above 5 percent in eviction proceedings.

State Supreme Court Justice Sandra Sciortino found that Newburgh’s Local Law 6 conflicted with state property law. And under preemption, the higher level of government wins out.

Her decision noted that while state law enables landlords to evict tenants who overstay their leases, Newburgh’s law “expands the rights of the tenant” by requiring landlords to do more to evict renters, including those without a current lease.

Sciortino also took issue with the 5 percent clause, reasoning that state law allows a property owner to bring a non-payment proceeding, but Newburg’s statute infringes on that right by requiring landlords to rebut the presumption that a rent increase was too high.

“Accordingly, the ‘good cause’ provisions of Local Law 6 clearly conflict with the landlord’s rights,” the justice writes, referencing the state property law.

The decision is another blow to New York tenants and advocates. Last week, a state judge blocked Kingston’s rent stabilization ordinance, at least temporarily.

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Nonprofit group For the Many, which is aiding tenant movements in both cities, seized on the courtroom defeat to call for a statewide implementation of good cause eviction.

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“If judges won’t allow cities to protect their tenants, Governor Hochul and the state legislature must pass good cause protections statewide,” a spokesperson said in a statement. Efforts to do that have failed for two years’ running.

Tuesday’s decision did offer tenants a bit of validation.

Landlords have condemned good cause as universal rent control. The property owners who sued the city of Newburgh called the city’s law “back door rent control.”

While some good cause backers have embraced that notion, others have contested it, noting that the law allows large rent hikes if landlords provide a valid rationale for them in eviction cases.

In the Newburgh case, the judge wrote, “Local Law 6 is not a rent control law” as it does not declare certain rents illegal or give tenants the right to recoup overpayments.

“It bears no resemblance to the Emergency Tenant Protection Act,” Sciortino writes, referring to the state’s rent stabilization law.

The city of Newburgh could appeal the decision.

Albany filed an appeal after its nearly identical good cause law was blocked last summer, Law360 reported.