New York Eviction Process: Notice Periods, Timeline, and Costs

N.Y. Real Prop. Acts. Law § 711(2) requires a written demand giving the tenant at least fourteen days to pay before a nonpayment proceeding can be brought; an oral demand is no longer enough. The fourteen days are calendar days from service. The demand must state the amount of rent due and the period it covers, and since 2024 it must carry the DHCR Good Cause Eviction notice required by Real Property Law § 231-c. Serve it the way § 735 requires: personal delivery, delivery to a person of suitable age and discretion plus mailing, or conspicuous-place posting plus mailing.

New York has no single statewide statutory pre-suit cure period for unregulated tenancies; the ten-day notice to cure that most landlords use comes from the lease itself, or from Rent Stabilization Code § 2524.3(a) for a rent-stabilized apartment, so read your lease before choosing a period. Separately, RPAPL § 753(4) gives residential tenants statewide a thirty-day stay of the warrant after judgment in a breach-of-lease holdover, during which the tenant can cure and defeat the eviction.

Real Property Law § 226-c requires at least thirty days' written notice for a tenant who has occupied under a year, sixty days for one to two years, and ninety days after more than two years, and the same schedule applies to a rent increase of five percent or more. In New York City and every municipality that has opted in, the Good Cause Eviction law bars ending a tenancy without an enumerated good cause unless the unit is exempt, and the small landlord exemption for owners of no more than ten units statewide covers most small portfolios, though opt-in municipalities such as Albany have lowered that threshold.

Inside New York City the petition is filed in the Housing Part of the Civil Court and the index number fee is $45; outside the city it goes to the City Court, Town Court, or Village Court for the municipality, where fees generally run from about $20 to $185 depending on the court.

In a New York City nonpayment proceeding under RPAPL § 732 the tenant must answer within ten days of service, in person at the clerk's office, on the court's answer form, or through NYSCEF, and a judgment can be entered if they do not. In a holdover, RPAPL § 733 requires the notice of petition and petition to be served at least ten and not more than seventeen days before the return date, and the tenant answers by then.

Uncontested cases in New York City routinely take three to six months and often longer because of Housing Court backlogs and the citywide right to counsel; upstate courts usually run one to three months. RPAPL § 749(2) requires the marshal, sheriff, or constable to give at least fourteen days' written notice before executing the warrant, a nonpayment tenant can stop execution by depositing the full arrears with the court, and RPAPL § 753(1) lets a judge grant a hardship stay of up to one year.

Locking a tenant out, changing the locks without giving a key, cutting off heat, water, or electricity, and removing a tenant's possessions are all unlawful evictions, and they apply to anyone in occupancy thirty days or more even without a lease. Only a sheriff, city marshal, or constable executing a court-issued warrant may remove a tenant. Under RPAPL § 768 an unlawful eviction is a class A misdemeanor carrying a civil penalty of $1,000 to $10,000 per violation, and RPAPL § 853 lets the tenant recover treble damages.

The Good Cause Eviction law, Real Property Law Article 6-A, took effect April 20, 2024 in New York City and now applies in a growing list of opt-in municipalities including Albany, Kingston, Ithaca, Poughkeepsie, Beacon, Newburgh, Nyack, Hudson, New Paltz, Rochester, Binghamton, White Plains, and Troy, which opted in during April 2026. DHCR reissued the required Good Cause notice effective May 4, 2026 and set the New York City local rent standard at 8.38 percent.

Since the Good Cause Eviction law took effect, every New York landlord must append the DHCR Good Cause notice to initial leases, renewal leases, RPL § 226-c notices, RPAPL § 711 rent demands, and RPAPL § 741 petitions, and an exempt landlord must check the box identifying the exemption rather than skip the form. Petitions filed without it get dismissed, which is the single most common new mistake. A landlord claiming the small landlord exemption may have to disclose every natural person with a direct or indirect ownership interest in an LLC. Note also that the 30/60/90-day notice under § 226-c is a notice of non-renewal, not a notice to quit, and it does not by itself let you file; you file a holdover after the period ends and the tenant stays.

• N.Y. Real Prop. Acts. Law § 711
• N.Y. Real Prop. Law § 226-c
• N.Y. Real Prop. Acts. Law § 749