The 7 Toughest States to Be a Landlord in 2026

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New York City has always been known as a tough town for landlords. It’s about to get tougher. The city’s new mayor, Zohran Momdani, is putting “bad landlords” with outstanding violations, or those who owe the city money for stepping in to do emergency repairs, on notice and, in some cases, threatening to take away their buildings and freeze rents, raising fears throughout the real estate community.

“New York has the most tenant protections of any state,” Ann Korchak of the Small Property Owners of New York told the right-leaning American Enterprise Institute.  

While there’s no question that living conditions in some New York apartment buildings are atrocious and slumlords have long been associated with the Big Apple, equally, New York City is a very tough place to be a rental property owner.

In a city where over 70% of residents are tenants, laws skew heavily in tenants’ favor, making evictions—which can take up to a year—time-consuming and expensive. Now, as the housing crisis tightens its grip on renters, other states are following suit with enhanced tenant protection laws. As taxes, insurance, and repair costs rise, landlords, both big and small, are feeling the pressure.

The Effect of Increasing Tenant Protections on Small Landlords

As expenses rise, smaller landlords, who own about 90% of single-family rentals in the U.S., many of whom own only a few rentals, don’t have the deep pockets of corporate landlords to withstand a prolonged eviction. The Urban Institute found that one-size-fits-all landlord-tenant laws are disproportionately tough on smaller landlords who lack the experience and resources to fight increased regulations.

A December 2025 analysis on TurboTenant’s education platform highlighted these states as among the toughest to be a rental property owner:

Connecticut

Massachusetts

Minnesota

Maryland

Illinois

Washington

Oregon

Factors considered include high carrying costs plus slow, tenant-friendly legal systems, making it especially challenging for mom-and-pop investors.

Here’s a deeper dive into some of these states.

Connecticut

In Connecticut, where the majority of evictions occur in five cities—Hartford, Bridgeport, Waterbury, New Haven, and New Britain—an effective property tax rate of 1.92% (well above the national average of 0.98%) and the expansion of “just cause” evictions make it especially challenging for smaller landlords.

“It takes away the control of my building, and I do protect my building to protect my good tenants more than anything, but occasionally you have to do other things. You have to remodel the units, and I can’t do it when somebody’s in there cause it’s too much, you know, you have too much work, especially half the housing in Connecticut’s over 100 years old,” John Souza, of the Connecticut Coalition of Property Owners, told WVIT/NBC Connecticut.

Illinois

Illinois is another state that is increasingly tough to be a landlord in, due to high property tax rates and increased tenant protection. As of Jan. 1, 2025, under the Landlord Retaliation Act—Public Act 103-0831, landlords “can’t raise rent, cut utilities, refuse to renew a lease, evict, or take other retaliatory actions if a renter does a protected activity or action like reporting unsafe conditions, requesting repairs, joining a tenants’ group, or taking legal action,” Apartments.com wrote about the statute.

Complicating issues in the state are the “crime-free housing laws.” The laws were promoted as a way to remove nuisance tenants from buildings, but their implementation has been mishandled, with the wrong people getting punished. As a result, city officials ordered landlords to evict tenants in 500 of 2,000 cases from 2019 to 2024, an investigation by The New York Times and The Illinois Answers Project found, causing a loss of income for property owners.

Infractions cited for evictions included accusations that tenants neglected their pets or eavesdropped on a neighbor, with a single violation enough to trigger an eviction. In families, the misdeeds of one member can result in the entire family being evicted. It has caused multiple complaints from landlords and tenants alike, the Times reported.

Oregon and Washington

On the West Coast, Oregon and Washington are known for their stringent tenant-protection laws. The TurboTenant report notes that Oregon’s statewide rent control, relocation fees tied to certain rent hikes, sealed eviction records, and certain rules that punish long-term ownership all contribute to what it calls “tough sledding”—making it difficult to find or build a home.

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In Washington, the same issues occur, along with caps on rent increases in certain areas and the potential for multiyear legal disputes over contested cases. TurboTenant describes the state as a “financial and legal burden” for many rental owners.

Maryland

Maryland is another state named in the TurboTenant list. The Renter’s Rights and Stabilization Act of 2024 was one of two bills recently introduced. It gives tenants residing in a rental property the right of first refusal if the landowner wants to sell the property. It also increases court fees for landlords to file an eviction.

House Minority Leader Jason C. Buckel (R-Allegany) said during the court hearing:

“This bill is disincentivizing. How do I know this? Because they all come here and tell us that. Every group that represents people who invest in these types of property into this sector of the economy—multifamily housing, building associations, all of them. They all come here and say, ‘this doesn’t work. This is a bad compromise.’” 

Final Thoughts: Strategies for Small Landlords in a Tougher Landscape

The housing crisis has seen cities and municipalities across the nation undertake measures to keep tenants in their homes to stave off homelessness, making it tough for landlords, especially those with only a handful of rentals, to run their businesses efficiently. 

The lesson here is less about panic and more about planning. Investors need to assume that tenant protections will continue to increase in many markets. The key is to do your homework before investing. Being a landlord in any state is tough. Don’t make it tougher by not being prepared.

Key issues include:

Consider eviction rules

For landlords involved in government rental assistance programs or with HUD mortgages, the federal 30-day eviction-notice requirement, similar to the CARES Act requirement, is likely to remain in place, and landlords should plan for long eviction lag times.

Increase your slush fund

Landlords need to boost their reserves to cover compliance costs and capital expenditures. City-cited violations must be corrected promptly to avoid additional fines and legal action.

Research rent control laws

Small landlords need to research how local and state policies treat different types of housing within the same region. Are two-to-four-unit properties exempt from rent control? What about higher unit counts?  Can you add an ADU or convert a basement to livable space?