Neither rent regime applies
The Emergency Tenant Protection Act is adopted municipality by municipality, and the state's published list of covered places names sixteen municipalities in Nassau County, two in Rockland, one in Ulster and twenty-three in Westchester. It names none in Suffolk. Since 2019 any municipality in New York may adopt the Act by local law, so the list is worth checking rather than assuming.
The good cause eviction law is in effect in New York City by statute, and elsewhere only where a village, town or city has adopted it by local law. The state's list, as of 4 May 2026, holds nineteen localities, and none of them is in Suffolk County.
So a Suffolk rent is what the lease says, subject to the notice periods below.
The notice that applies anyway
Real Property Law section 231-c requires a landlord to append to or incorporate into any initial lease, any renewal lease, a notice of a rent increase or non-renewal, a fourteen day rent demand, or a petition, a form headed "Notice to tenant of applicability or inapplicability of the New York State good cause eviction law."
The form carries no geographic exception, and the first exemption on it is for a village, town or city outside New York City that has not adopted the law. A Suffolk landlord completes the form and checks that box.
Which courthouse
Suffolk County has six district courts. Five of them hear landlord and tenant matters.
The Second District Court, 30 East Hoffman Avenue, Lindenhurst. The Third District Court, 1850 New York Avenue, Huntington Station. The Fourth District Court, in the North County Complex, Building C-158, Hauppauge. The Fifth District Court, 3105 Veterans Memorial Highway, Ronkonkoma. The Sixth District Court, 150 West Main Street, Patchogue.
Public window hours at each are nine fifteen to one and two to five, Monday to Friday, with money transactions taken between nine fifteen and twelve thirty and between two and four. The First District Court's Civil Term, which shares the Ronkonkoma building, hears civil and small claims matters rather than landlord and tenant.
Two of those courthouses sit in villages that have courts of their own, and the court system is explicit that the Second District Court is not the Lindenhurst Village Court and the Sixth is not the Patchogue Village Court.
On the East End, a summary proceeding goes to the town's Justice Court. The Town of Southampton's court, for instance, processes all criminal, civil, traffic and parking summonses issued within the town.
The forum changes the filing fee. Commencing a summary proceeding costs forty-five dollars in a district court and twenty dollars in a town or village justice court.
The timetable
A nonpayment proceeding in Suffolk runs on Real Property Actions and Proceedings Law section 733: the notice of petition and petition are served at least ten and not more than seventeen days before the petition is noticed to be heard.
The faster procedure in section 732, a ten day return and a trial fixed three to eight days after issue is joined, applies in a court only where the Appellate Division has provided for it by rule. That rule exists for the New York City Civil Court. The rules for the district courts and for the justice courts contain no such provision.
At joinder of issue the court adjourns the trial by at least fourteen days unless all parties consent. A second or later request to adjourn is granted in the court's discretion. The rent deposit that may follow repeated adjournments in New York City has no counterpart here.
A tenant of a dwelling may apply to stay the warrant for up to one year, on a showing of good faith and an inability to find comparable premises in the neighborhood after due efforts, or of extreme hardship, the court weighing the landlord's hardship as well, and the stay continuing only on deposit of rent at the rate payable before the tenancy expired. Where the proceeding rests on a breach of a lease provision, the court grants a thirty day stay for the tenant to correct it.
Before a warrant is executed, the officer gives at least fourteen days' written notice and executes on a business day between sunrise and sunset.
The town rental permit
Several Suffolk towns require a rental permit or registration. Brookhaven's is among the most demanding, and its deadlines are the part that catches owners.
It is unlawful in Brookhaven for any rental occupancy to exist in a dwelling without the owner having first obtained a rental registration from the Chief Building Inspector. A registration runs fifteen months. A complete application produces a temporary registration valid ninety days, within which the owner either arranges a Town inspection or files an inspection report signed by a New York State licensed professional engineer, licensed architect or certified home inspector.
Renewal is filed on or within ninety days before the expiration date, and the Town will not accept, review or approve a renewal once that date has passed. An owner who misses it applies afresh.
The application is sworn, and it states the maximum number of persons allowed to occupy the premises, describes each room, and attaches a survey or site plan dated within the year and every certificate of occupancy or certificate of existing use. Parking is limited to one registered vehicle for each legally designated bedroom plus one, with more available by application to the Board of Zoning Appeals. A building of eight or more units needs a designated site manager available twenty-four hours.
A first offense carries a fine of not less than five hundred dollars and not more than five thousand, or fifteen days, and a second within five years runs from one thousand to ten thousand. Each week counts separately. The code separately makes it unlawful to accept a deposit of rent or security, or a commission, where no valid rental registration has been issued.
What applies everywhere in New York
A nonpayment proceeding begins with a written rent demand giving at least fourteen days, served the way a notice of petition is served.
Before raising a rent by five percent or more, or declining to renew, a landlord gives thirty, sixty or ninety days' written notice according to how long the tenant has occupied the premises or the length of the lease.
A security deposit may not exceed one month's rent, and an itemized statement with the balance is due within fourteen days of the tenant vacating. A landlord who misses that deadline forfeits the right to retain any part of the deposit.
An application fee is limited to the cost of a background and credit check or twenty dollars, whichever is less. A late fee requires the rent to be five days overdue and is capped at fifty dollars or five percent of the monthly rent, whichever is less.