Good-Cause Eviction and Rent Caps for Landlord Counsel: Practical Considerations for New York & California

This session shows owner-side counsel how to build each renewal cycle as an exemption and increase file under New York’s good-cause law and California’s rent caps. It walks through the exemptions under both laws, the practical considerations that shape each renewal, and the documentation owners need to support every notice and increase. Attendees will learn how to prove small-landlord status, how exemptions apply under both rent caps and just cause, and how the definition of rent affects the cap arithmetic and the notice calendar. The session also addresses when to advise owners to offer at the cap instead of defending a larger increase, with a focus on notices and files prepared for multistate portfolios, so counsel can make that call with confidence before a dispute ever begins.

This session covers owner-side New York Good Cause Eviction Law holdover practice for intermediate landlord counsel. It addresses pleading coverage and the commencement-date line, the RP Wimbledon/Wagab versus Bedrock/Inga particularity split, drafting the predicate notice to the stricter standard, and the fatal-versus-curable decision that follows when a notice is challenged. Attendees will examine withdrawal and owner-use grounds, the discovery exposure that intent-based grounds can open up, and the notice-drafting errors that can be fatal to a case. The session also explains when to re-serve rather than oppose, how to choose between a holdover based on nonpayment and a rent-demand proceeding, and how to prove good cause at trial, giving counsel a practical roadmap from the first notice through final judgment.