New York Eviction Notices: Which One Do You Need?
Before you can file an eviction case in New York, you have to serve your tenant with a formal notice first. Serve the wrong one, serve it incorrectly, or wait the wrong amount of time, and your case gets dismissed. You start over.
Here’s how to figure out which notice you need — and why getting it right the first time matters.
Two Types of Evictions, Two Different Notice Requirements
Every eviction in New York starts with one of two types of proceedings: a nonpayment proceeding or a holdover proceeding. Which one you need depends on why you’re evicting. And which notice you need depends on which proceeding you’re filing.
For Nonpayment Proceedings: The 14-Day Rent Demand
If your tenant hasn’t paid rent, you need a nonpayment proceeding. Before you can file, you must serve the tenant with a 14-day rent demand notice. This notice tells the tenant how much they owe and demands that they either pay in full or vacate within 14 days.
If the tenant pays everything owed within those 14 days, the proceeding ends. If they don’t pay and don’t leave, you can file your petition in court.
One important detail: before serving the 14-day demand, you must also send a certified mail notice to the tenant once the rent is at least 5 days past due, informing them that you haven’t received payment. Both steps are required.
For Holdover Proceedings: The Notice to Quit
A holdover proceeding covers everything else — a lease that ended and the tenant won’t leave, a lease violation, a month-to-month tenancy you want to terminate, a family member or licensee who needs to go. These cases require a notice to quit, and the required notice period depends on the type of occupancy and how long the person has been there.
Holdover Notice Periods: How Long Must You Wait?
Required for licensees, holdovers incident to employment, post-foreclosure prior owners, and certain squatters.
A licensee is someone who had your permission to be at the property but never had a formal landlord-tenant relationship with you — a family member who moved in, an ex-partner, a guest who overstayed. The 10-day notice is the shortest waiting period in New York eviction law, but it only applies to these specific situations. Using it when a longer notice is required will get your case dismissed.
Real-world examples: evicting an ex-partner who refuses to leave your home; a former homeowner who won’t vacate after a foreclosure sale; a live-in aide who stays after their employer passes away.
30-Day Notice
Required for month-to-month tenants and tenants with no written lease who have been at the property for less than one year.
Real-world examples: a month-to-month tenant who’s been there 8 months and stopped paying rent; a family member in a basement apartment who’s been there 6 months and is causing problems.
60-Day Notice
Required for tenants who have been at the property for more than one year but less than two years, regardless of whether they have a written lease.
Real-world examples: a month-to-month tenant who has lived there for 13 months; a tenant whose one-year lease expired and is now month-to-month at 20 months total.
90-Day Notice
Required for tenants who have been at the property for two years or more, tenants with two-year or longer leases, and tenants of foreclosed properties following an auction.
Real-world examples: a month-to-month tenant who has lived there for 3 years; a tenant whose two-year lease expired and hasn’t left.
What Happens After You Serve the Notice?
You wait. New York does not have an expedited option. Once the notice is served, the tenant has the full notice period to vacate voluntarily. If they leave, the proceeding ends. If they don’t, you can file your petition in court once the time runs out.
There is one narrow exception: tenants who have been arrested multiple times for selling drugs on the property can be evicted without serving predicate notices. Outside of that, you wait.
This is worth planning for financially. Between the notice period and the court schedule, the process takes time even when everything goes right.
Why the Wrong Notice Kills Your Case
The most common way eviction cases get dismissed in Nassau and Suffolk County courts is procedural error — and the most common procedural error is notice problems. Wrong type of notice for the occupancy. Wrong waiting period. Served by the wrong person. Missing required attachments.
When a case gets dismissed on a notice defect, you lose your filing fee, lose the time you’ve already waited, and start the clock over from the beginning. In a slow county like Nassau, that can mean adding three to four months to an already lengthy process.
That’s why it’s worth calling us before you serve anything. We’ll tell you exactly which notice applies to your situation — and we’ll draft and serve it correctly.
FAQs About New York Eviction Notices
A predicate notice is the formal term for the eviction notice that must be served on a tenant before you can file an eviction proceeding in court. "Predicate" means it's a required step that comes before — predicates — the court filing. The type of predicate notice required depends on whether you're filing a nonpayment or holdover proceeding and on the details of the tenancy.
The notice must be served by someone who is over 18 years old, lives in New York State, and is not a party to the action. That means you cannot serve it yourself. A professional process server is the most reliable option, but a friend or neighbor who meets those requirements can also serve the notice. Whoever serves it must then sign an affidavit of service.
This is a common misconception. Giving more notice than required doesn't just give the tenant extra time — it can actually invalidate your proceeding. The courts look at whether the correct notice for the specific occupancy type was served. If you serve a 30-day notice when a 10-day notice was required, you may have a problem. Call us before you serve anything if you're uncertain.
In a nonpayment proceeding, yes — if the tenant pays everything owed within the 14-day notice period, the proceeding ends. In a holdover proceeding, payment does not stop the case. Holdover proceedings are about the right to possession, not unpaid rent, so money doesn't resolve them.
