Tarrytown Board Considers “Good Cause” Eviction Law

By Elizabeth Tucker–

The Good Cause Eviction law is part of the New York State legislative package passed in April 2024. Its goal was to address the housing crisis by protecting tenants, building more housing, and making homeownership more accessible. It started as law in New York City but has since been adopted by Albany, Ithaca, Kingston, Poughkeepsie, Rochester, Beacon, Newburgh, Nyack, Hudson, New Paltz, Rochester, Fishkill, Catskill, and Binghamton. In January, Croton-on-Hudson became the first town in Westchester to approve the law. Peekskill, White Plains, Yonkers and Port Chester are also considering it. So now is Tarrytown.

While the law is new in New York State, New Jersey’s Anti-Eviction Act has been on the books since 1974. It aims to prevent landlords from raising tenants’ rent beyond the inflation rate or from evicting tenants for the purpose of raising rent. It is also intended to protect tenants from dramatic rent increase in buildings that change hands. Specif­i­cally, the law en­sures lease re­newal to ten­ants in good stand­ing and lim­its rent in­creases to be­tween 5% and 10%, de­pend­ing on the lo­cal con­sumer price in­dex–unless the landlord can demonstrate in housing court valid reasons for a higher hike, such as significant repairs or increased property taxes.

Good causes for eviction include non-payment of rent, violation of the terms of the lease, or refusal to agree to a lease renewal in a timely manner, among others. “Small landlords” who hold between one and ten units are exempt. Just how many are exempt is set by the municipality.

Tarrytown trustee Kenny Herzog began advocating for the policy shortly after his election last December. In early May, economist Brian Callaci presented arguments in favor of the law to the Board of Trustees. Rents are high, he said—median monthly rent in Tarrytown in 2024 was $2,065 with 40% of tenants paying more than a third of their income on rent. And housing is scarce, with a vacancy rate in Westchester County of 2.3%, below the level considered a housing emergency. Corporate landlords, who have a higher rate of eviction, have been increasing their holdings in the area. According to Callaci, the law will give tenants more stability and confidence to request basic repairs or to report unsafe conditions without fear of being evicted as a result.

At its May 19 meeting, the board heard arguments against the law from Ann Korchak of the Small Property Owners of New York, based in Manhattan, and from Jason Hilliard of the Building and Realty Institute of Westchester. They voiced concerns that the law may discourage landlords from renting units. Anne Korchak said she has heard from landlords who decide not to rent anymore because of difficulties they have encountered in court, or when “the rent can’t keep up with the operating expenses.” She also predicted that the law may spur landlords to raise rent at the maximum allowable rate each time a lease comes up for renewal. She argued that this could be avoided if small landlords were defined at the ten-unit level. Every other municipality to opt into the law so far has defined a small landlord as one unit.

At the previous board meeting, Callaci warned that setting the number at ten units would encourage landlords to divide their holdings among multiple LLCs to evade qualification. He urged that Tarrytown follow precedent and set the number at one rental unit. When landlords themselves live in a building with ten or fewer units—as they often do in Tarrytown—their building is automatically exempt. In an interview, Herzog said, “The conversation about landlord size in Tarrytown is obscuring the reality that most of our tenants already have corporate landlords who are not invested in the community in any way besides profiting off their tenants.”

The most recent Housing Needs Assessment, conducted by Westchester County in 2019, reported a total of 1,775 renter-occupied housing units in Tarrytown. Many of these are contained in several large corporate-owned complexes. Tallyrand off Route 119, which has 300 units, for example, was purchased in 2019 by the Boston-based real estate investment company DSF Group for $91 million, according to Westfair Business Journal. On its website, DSF claims to offer “a strong track-record of creating value through renovating, repositioning and enhancing multi-family real estate investments.” In the same year that DSF bought Tallyrand, the Housing Needs Assessment stated that 41.2% of renters in Tarrytown were “living in severely cost burdened and unaffordable housing” and recommended that municipalities in Westchester should “establish a permanent tracking and monitoring system of all housing developments over 10 units.”

During public comments at the May 19^th meeting, Tasha Young, a renter in downtown Tarrytown, described the village as a tight-knit community. In her experience, smaller landlords are often able to resolve disputes with their tenants without going to court, whereas “well-resourced” corporate landlords are quick to take tenants to court, she asserted. Another commenter, Amanda Wallwin of the TUFSD Board of Education, spoke of the importance of housing stability to the school community and to children’s academic performance. At the conclusion of comments, Mayor Karen Brown said she would seek more information about how rents have been increasing annually in Tarrytown.

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