Rochester, NY — landlord and rental rules

Good Cause Eviction applies in Rochester, 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

245% 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.

Residential rentals require renewable Certificate of Occupancy inspections: ordinarily six years for non-owner-occupied one- and two-family properties and three years for mixed-use and three-or-more-unit properties.

Owner-occupied one- and two-family buildings and specified family occupancy may qualify for exemptions; lead-high-risk properties use the shorter cycle.

Pre-1980 rentals requiring a Certificate of Occupancy receive visual deteriorated-paint review; affected high-risk properties receive dust-wipe testing and require a Lead Safety Certificate on a three-year cycle.

The 2026 state-integration subset is a pre-1980 rental in the mapped high-risk area. An active certificate is required by 1 October 2026; address-level map coverage must be confirmed.

Construction

Built before 1980