Yonkers, NY Accessory Structures: ADU Rental Restrictions (2026)

The rental restriction runs through both operative subsections of Section 43-22. Subsection A lets a pre-existing, already-certificated accessory apartment continue in use, but only if it is occupied by one of five categories of relative of the lot owner or the owner's spouse: parents, children, grandchildren, siblings, or nephews and nieces. Subsection B, the path for legalizing an apartment that never received a certificate of occupancy, repeats the identical five-category list as its own numbered standard, Section 43-22B(10), so there is no route to a legal accessory apartment in Yonkers that allows renting to an unrelated tenant, a roommate, or a boarder at any point, whether the unit is newly legalized or has operated for decades.

An apartment that stops being occupied exclusively by one of those relatives, for example after being rented to someone outside the family, no longer meets the conditions of either subsection and falls into the prohibited category under Section 43-22C. Because the rule sits inside the certificate-of-occupancy conditions rather than a separate rental-license chapter, the City enforces it through the same certificate of occupancy and code enforcement process used for any other zoning violation, not through a landlord-tenant or short-term-rental registry.