Schuyler County, New York Eviction Risk: Elevated

Schuyler County sits in the Finger Lakes region of upstate New York, wedged between Seneca Lake to the east and the rugged terrain of the Southern Tier. It is one of the smallest counties in the state by population, with roughly 4,512 renters and owner-residents combined, and a renter share of about 38.8 percent. That figure is meaningful context: nearly two in five households here pay rent, which means the county's legal environment touches a substantial slice of the community. Eviction Risk Map scores Schuyler County at 6.6/10 (Elevated), placing it at rank 27th of 60 New York eviction laws counties -- in the middle of the state for landlord operating conditions. New York's statewide average is 8.3/10, and Schuyler lands firmly in the elevated range relative to that benchmark.

Within the county, conditions are not uniform. Scores across the four incorporated places span from 6.2 to 6.6/10, a tighter-than-average band that reflects how consistently New York eviction risk's statewide tenant-protection framework applies in smaller rural jurisdictions. Montour Falls registers the highest individual score at 6.6/10. The village serves as the county seat, home to 1,743 residents, and its score reflects the same combination of rent burden, poverty concentration (the county's average poverty rate is 16.2 percent), and layered state-law protections that drive readings across the county. Burdett follows at 6.6/10, a small village of 536 where the renter share tends to run above the county average. Watkins Glen -- the county's most recognizable address outside race-week crowds -- scores 6.6/10 across a population of 1,725, making it a useful middle-ground reference for landlords assessing the county as a whole. Odessa records the lowest reading at 6.2/10, though even that figure sits in territory most landlords would classify as elevated.

The legal framework driving these scores is New York state law under N.Y. RPL § 226 et seq. and RPAPL § 711, which applies uniformly to Schuyler County because no local rent stabilization ordinance is in effect here. Landlords must serve a 14-day notice for nonpayment (RPAPL § 711(2)) before filing, and holdover notices scale to 30, 60, or 90 days depending on tenancy length under RPL § 226-c. Just cause is required for non-renewal, and source-of-income discrimination is prohibited by the NY State Division of Human Rights. Court filing fees run $45 to $210; sheriff lockout fees add another $50 to $200 on top of that. Attorney costs in contested matters typically land between $1,000 and $4,000, and timeline estimates range from 30 to 90 days for uncontested cases and 90 to 210 days when a tenant contests. Average asking rent in the county is approximately $817 per month, and the average rent burden sits at 27.4 percent of income -- elevated enough that payment disputes are a recurring friction point rather than an edge case.

Schuyler County's 6.6/10 score reflects the cumulative weight of New York eviction laws's just-cause and notice requirements, a 27.4 percent rent burden among local renters, and a 16.2 percent poverty rate that makes contested proceedings more likely when disputes arise. The county's small size limits the data sample, so individual city scores carry more variance than they would in a large metro, but the 6.2-to-6.6 range across the four places signals a fairly consistent underlying risk environment driven primarily by state law rather than local ordinance.