Good-Cause Eviction and Rent Caps for Landlord Counsel: Practical Considerations for New York & California

Shari S. Laskowitz, Partner and Co-Chair, Landlord & Tenant Practice | Tarter Krinsky & Drogin

Shari S. Laskowitz is a Partner and Co-Chair of the Landlord & Tenant Practice at Tarter Krinsky & Drogin LLP in New York, New York. A seasoned litigator with more than 25 years of experience, she works closely with residential and commercial landlords on complex landlord-tenant disputes that arise throughout the development and management of their properties. Her clients include owners of multi-family residential properties, co-op and condo associations and owners, and landlords of office, retail, and restaurant properties.

• Education & Credentials

Ms. Laskowitz earned her J.D. from New York Law School and her B.A. from the State University of New York at Stony Brook. She is admitted to practice in New York and before the U.S. District Courts for the Southern and Eastern Districts of New York.

• Recognition & Leadership

Ms. Laskowitz co-chairs the firm’s Landlord & Tenant Practice, and the New York Real Estate Journal featured her appointment to that role. She took part in “Lessons in Leadership: Industry Leaders Discuss Overcoming Challenges” at Green Pearl’s 2024 National Real Estate Women’s Forum.

• Professional Involvement

Ms. Laskowitz speaks often on landlord-tenant law. She has presented “New York Evictions, Residential and Commercial” for Lorman Education Services, “Commercial Landlord & Tenant Overview” for the Madison Learning Center, and “Pets and the Law” for the New York Women’s Bar Association. Her firm profile also lists insights on New York’s rental market, including “New Legislation Affecting New York’s Rental Market: The Good Cause Eviction Law” (April 25, 2024) and “NYC Housing Providers Required to Conduct Bifurcated Screening for Criminal Background Checks on Prospective Tenants” (January 1, 2025).

• Experience

Ms. Laskowitz handles a broad range of real estate disputes, including landlord-tenant and co-op/condo conflicts, and has deep experience with complex motion practice and trials in the New York State courts. For co-op boards, she advises on many matters, including terminating a shareholder’s proprietary lease because of nuisance conduct.

She also counsels landlords on breach of contract, real estate taxes, adjacent-property issues, community opposition, brokerage agreements, and the Americans with Disabilities Act. Her practice includes business and partnership disputes, and she regularly represents clients in negotiations and arbitrations before the American Arbitration Association and JAMS.

Tracey L. Merrell, Attorney | Law Office of Ada Cordero-Sacks

Tracey L. Merrell is a Los Angeles–based landlord-tenant attorney with the Law Office of Ada Cordero-Sacks, where she represents individual owners and multi-family residential property owners. She is a frequent educator on California rent control and just cause eviction law.

• Education & Credentials

Ms. Merrell earned her law degree, together with a Certificate on International and Comparative Law, from DePaul University College of Law, where she published two articles in the DePaul Rule of Law Journal in 2009. She graduated magna cum laude from CSUN with dual B.A. degrees in Deaf Studies and Political Science, and her languages include American Sign Language. She was admitted to the State Bar of California in 2009 and, in 2010, to the U.S. District Courts for the Central, Northern, Eastern, and Southern Districts of California.

• Recognition & Leadership

Before joining her current firm, Ms. Merrell served as Managing Partner of Education at Kimball, Tirey & St. John LLP, where she trained clients and fellow attorneys on legal compliance with state and local laws throughout California. She serves as Advisory Director of Education for the Affordable Housing Management Association of Northern California and Hawaii (AHMA-NCH) and sat on its 2024 Board of Directors. She is also an Advisory Director of Cal NARPM and was named Volunteer of the Week by the Southern California Rental Housing Association.

• Professional Involvement

Ms. Merrell is a sought-after speaker on landlord-tenant law, local rent control, fair housing, and legislative updates. She presented “Understanding State and Local Rent Control and Just Cause Eviction Laws” at NARPM Sacramento’s Residential Property Management Expo 2024, and has spoken at the Cal NARPM Conference, including a pre-conference legal workshop for property managers on habitability standards, tenant screening and applications, and contracts. She has also presented at the AOA Million Dollar Trade Show and Landlord Conference in Los Angeles. She has served as an editor of Continuing Education of the Bar (CEB) practice publications, including the CEB Evictions Guide and the Landlord Tenant Practice Guide. Since 2018, she has volunteered with the LA Law Library’s Ask a Lawyer sessions.

• Experience

Ms. Merrell handles residential landlord-tenant matters from pre-trial strategy, discovery, and motion practice through bench and jury trials. She began her career handling high-volume post-foreclosure evictions for mortgage lenders in all 58 California counties before transitioning to individual-owner and multi-family residential litigation.

SESSION 1 – Exemption Triage and Above-Cap Increase Files Under Statewide Eviction Laws: New York & California | Shari S. Laskowitz & Tracey L. Merrell | 2:30pm – 3:30pm

This session shows owner-side counsel how to build each renewal cycle as an exemption and increase file under New York’s good-cause law and California’s rent caps. It walks through the exemptions under both laws, the practical considerations that shape each renewal, and the documentation owners need to support every notice and increase. Attendees will learn how to prove small-landlord status, how exemptions apply under both rent caps and just cause, and how the definition of rent affects the cap arithmetic and the notice calendar. The session also addresses when to advise owners to offer at the cap instead of defending a larger increase, with a focus on notices and files prepared for multistate portfolios, so counsel can make that call with confidence before a dispute ever begins.

BREAK | 3:30pm – 3:40pm

SESSION 2 – Practical Aspects of Representing Landlords in New York & California | Shari S. Laskowitz & Tracey L. Merrell | 3:40pm – 4:40pm

This session covers owner-side New York Good Cause Eviction Law holdover practice for intermediate landlord counsel. It addresses pleading coverage and the commencement-date line, the RP Wimbledon/Wagab versus Bedrock/Inga particularity split, drafting the predicate notice to the stricter standard, and the fatal-versus-curable decision that follows when a notice is challenged. Attendees will examine withdrawal and owner-use grounds, the discovery exposure that intent-based grounds can open up, and the notice-drafting errors that can be fatal to a case. The session also explains when to re-serve rather than oppose, how to choose between a holdover based on nonpayment and a rent-demand proceeding, and how to prove good cause at trial, giving counsel a practical roadmap from the first notice through final judgment.