Syracuse City Court processed 2,951 eviction cases in 2024 — roughly 160 warrants per month, the highest rate in at least four years. Judges sided with landlords in approximately 64 percent of all cases filed. In holdover proceedings, the rate was 95 percent.
Those numbers look favorable until you account for the cases that never got that far — cases that got dismissed before a judgment because the landlord served the wrong notice, used the wrong dollar amount, or skipped a required disclosure that has been mandatory since August 2024 and that most landlords have never heard of.
Every month a case drags because of a procedural error is another month of unpaid rent. On a $1,200-per-month unit, a 5-month case costs more than $6,000 in lost income before attorney fees, court costs, and turnover repairs. The gap between an eviction attorney who does this work weekly and one who handles it a few times a year is measured in months and thousands of dollars.
What changed in August 2024
New York State’s Good Cause Eviction law took effect in April 2024. Syracuse has not opted into the law’s tenant protections — the Common Council voted it down 4-4 on February 23, 2026. But one piece of the law applies statewide regardless of whether a municipality has opted in.
Since August 18, 2024, every 14-day rent demand served anywhere in New York must include a statutory Good Cause Eviction notice. The notice must disclose whether the unit is or is not covered by the law. Omitting it is a ground for case dismissal.
This is the newest and least-known pitfall in Onondaga County evictions. A landlord who served a rent demand after August 2024 using the same form they have used for years — without the new required language — is sitting on a defective notice. When the case gets to court, a tenant’s attorney or a judge familiar with the requirement will catch it. The case gets dismissed. The landlord starts over.
The procedural traps that kill cases
New York has the most technically demanding eviction process in the country. The requirements are specific, they change, and courts enforce them strictly. Here is where cases die.
The 14-day rent demand must state the exact amount owed. Not approximately. Not rounded. The precise figure. If the number is wrong — even if it is too high — the notice is defective. Courts have dismissed cases over discrepancies of a few dollars.
Court papers must be served at least 10 days before the hearing date using a legally recognized method: personal delivery, posting on the door plus certified mail, or substituted service with follow-up mailing. The affidavit of service must be filed correctly. A missing or defective affidavit invalidates the proceeding.
Landlords regularly file the wrong type of case. Non-payment proceedings apply when rent is owed. Holdover proceedings apply when a lease has expired, a lease obligation has been violated, or there is no lease at all. Filing the wrong petition requires starting over with a new notice and timeline. In a holdover, the required advance notice is 30, 60, or 90 days depending on how long the tenant has lived there — a provision strengthened by the 2019 Housing Stability and Tenant Protection Act that many landlords still do not know about.
Accepting partial rent after filing can be interpreted as reinstating the tenancy and waiving the right to continue the eviction. Experienced attorneys advise clients exactly when and whether to accept any payment once the process has started.
And whatever else happens: do not change the locks, shut off utilities, or remove a tenant’s belongings without a court order. Self-help eviction is a Class A misdemeanor in New York. The Onondaga County Sheriff is the only entity authorized to physically remove a tenant. That happens after you win the case, file the warrant, and coordinate with the Sheriff’s Civil Process Division at 407 South State Street.
Who to hire
We use Anthony Galli at Galli Law. He handles landlord-tenant matters in Syracuse and Onondaga County and does this work regularly enough to know which procedures courts currently enforce strictly and which judges flag specific issues. That matters because the rules shift — the August 2024 Good Cause disclosure requirement is an example — and an attorney who files evictions daily knows about changes faster than one who handles them occasionally.
Anthony C. Galli, Esq.
Galli Law
6555 Ridings Road, Syracuse, NY 13206
Phone: 315-480-1954
Website: galli-law.com
His notices go in correctly the first time. Cases that can close at the first hearing close at the first hearing. That is not a minor thing when every extra month costs you rent.
When to call
Call your attorney when a tenant is late and not communicating — not 30 days in, not when you are already frustrated. Call within 10 days of non-payment.
The reason is math. Best case, an uncontested eviction in Onondaga County takes 4 to 6 weeks from the first notice. Contested cases run 4 to 6 months. If you wait three weeks to make the call, you have added three weeks to the back end of a process that already takes most of a quarter.
The landlords who lose the least money on evictions are the ones who start the process early, document everything in writing from the beginning, and work with an attorney who knows the current procedural requirements. That combination is not foolproof in a state with New York’s tenant protections, but it is as close as you get.
Eviction Court at Syracuse City Court runs Monday through Friday at 9:30 AM at 505 South State Street. The Volunteer Lawyers Project of CNY runs free tenant legal aid clinics there every Tuesday and Thursday from 9:30 to 11:00 AM. Tenants in your case may be coming in with legal representation they did not have when you filed. An attorney who knows the courtroom is the right counter to that.
A note on doing it yourself
You can file pro se in New York housing court. Technically nothing stops you. The practical argument against it: one dismissed petition because of a procedural defect adds months to the timeline. The Good Cause disclosure requirement alone has already created a new category of dismissals in courts across the state. There is no version of that outcome where the filing fee you saved covers the rent you lost.
Whatever you decide, do not attempt a self-help eviction. The consequences are not worth it.
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