Albany, NY — landlord and rental rules

Good Cause Eviction applies in Albany, subject to the statute's property, tenancy, rent and owner exemptions.

The local small-landlord exemption is portfolio-wide: an owner with no more than 1 unit anywhere in New York State is exempt. It is not a building-unit threshold.

The HCR notice is the current authoritative opt-in list. A buyer must test beneficial ownership across the statewide portfolio and the unit's rent against the current county/bedroom FMR before treating the protection as binding.

Unit counts

See note

Fair market rent exemption

345% of HUD FMR

The 2024 Good Cause Eviction law requires good cause to evict or to refuse renewal, but exempts landlords owning 10 or fewer units statewide.

The exemption is counted on the *owner's* total holdings, not the building — and there is active litigation attempting to pierce LLCs to aggregate beneficial ownership.

Municipalities outside New York City opt in, and several have tightened the exemption to 1–4 units, so upstate is harder than the statewide baseline rather than softer.

Unit counts

Up to 10 units

In effect since 2024-04-20.

All rental dwelling units must be registered and hold a Residential Occupancy Permit after inspection every 24 months.

The current city page states a $50 fee per rental unit; an owner/family-occupied unit may use the city's affidavit route.

Fee per unit

$50

The state proactive lead-rental registry reaches pre-1980 buildings with two or more rental units only in Albany County community-of-concern ZIP codes 12202, 12206, 12208, 12209 and 12210.

Two or more rental units, and only inside the state's listed community-of-concern geography.

This is not county-wide coverage. Confirm the ZIP before applying the three-year inspection, dust-wipe and certification regime; conflicting legacy deadline pages are not treated as a settled deadline.

Unit counts

2+ units

Construction

Built before 1980

In effect since 2025-11-03.