Rental Property Rules in New York, NY (2026)
11 verified rental property rules for New York, New York, sourced directly from the municipal code and official government pages.
Verified from official government sources
Rent Control
New York City's rent stabilization law rests on a standing council finding that a housing emergency continues to exist citywide, first enacted in 2015 and reaffirmed by amendment in 2018, 2022 and 2024. Local Law 2024/047 last renewed the declaration effective March 25, 2024, extending it "on and after April 1, 2024" under Administrative Code §§ 26-501 and 26-502, the mechanism keeping the city opted into the state's Emergency Tenant Protection Act.
New York City Rent Stabilization Emergency Declaration
Significant RestrictionsNew York City Administrative Code §§ 26-501, 26-502
§ 26-501 Findings and declaration of emergency. The council hereby finds that a serious public emergency continues to exist in the housing of a considerable number of persons within the city of New York and will continue to exist after April first, nineteen hundred seventy-four; that such emergency necessitated the intervention of federal, state and local government in order to prevent speculat...
Rental Registration
Owners of multiple dwellings and non-owner-occupied 1-2 family homes must file an annual registration statement with HPD naming the owner and a local contact.
NYC Rental Property Registration Required
Some RestrictionsNew York City Administrative Code § 27-2097
The owner of a dwelling required to register under this article shall register with the department in accordance with the provisions of this article... For all one- and two-family dwellings where neither the owner nor any family member occupies the dwelling and thereafter not later than ten days after the date neither the owner nor any family member occupies the dwelling... An owner who is requ...
Relocation Assistance
When a city agency orders a privately owned building vacated for health, safety, or maintenance violations, HPD must provide displaced tenants relocation services, including temporary housing and help toward moving expenses, under Administrative Code Section 26-301.
NYC Tenant Relocation Assistance for Vacate Orders
Some RestrictionsNew York City Administrative Code § 26-301
for tenants of any privately owned building where such tenants vacate such building during a period when any law, regulation, order or requirement pertaining to the maintenance or operation of such building or the health, safety and welfare of its occupants requires such occupants to vacate such building. ... Upon a request from a tenant ..., such commissioner shall relocate such tenant to suit...
Cash-for-Keys Agreements
Landlords who pay a tenant to vacate under a cash-for-keys buyout deal must electronically file the agreement's terms with HPD within 90 days of signing, reporting the owner's name, unit address, payment amount, and execution date.
NYC Cash-for-Keys Buyout Agreement Filing Rule
Some RestrictionsNew York City Administrative Code § 26-2403
Within 90 days after the execution of a buyout agreement for a dwelling unit, the owner of such unit must electronically provide the following to the department...: 1. The name of the owner; 2. The address of the dwelling unit that is the subject of the buyout agreement; 3. The amount of money or...consideration agreed upon in the buyout agreement...; 4. The date that the buyout agreement was e...
Pass-Through Charges
New York City bans landlords from billing residential tenants for legal fees, notary charges, or building-management admin costs unless a court order allows it.
NYC Bars Passing Legal Fees to Tenants
Heavy RestrictionsNew York City Administrative Code § 26-416
An owner, lessor or agent thereof shall be prohibited from assessing a lessee any fee, surcharge or other charges for legal services in connection with the operation or rental of a residential unit unless the owner, lessor or agent has the legal authority to do so pursuant to a court order. Legal services include, but are not limited to, court fees, legal representation, attorney fees, notary p...
Tenant Anti-Harassment
New York City's Housing Maintenance Code bans landlords from pressuring tenants out through threats, service cutoffs, frivolous lawsuits, lockouts, or repeated buyout offers, with tenants able to pursue harassment claims in Housing Court.
New York City Tenant Anti-Harassment Law
Significant RestrictionsNew York City Administrative Code § 27-2004
the term "harassment" shall mean any act or omission by or on behalf of an owner that (i) causes or is intended to cause any person lawfully entitled to occupancy of a dwelling unit to vacate such dwelling unit or to surrender or waive any rights in relation to such occupancy, and (ii) includes one or more of the following acts or omissions ... a. using force against, or making express or impli...
Source-of-Income Discrimination
NYC landlords cannot refuse to rent, or otherwise discriminate, because a tenant pays with Section 8, CityFHEPS, or other lawful income sources.
NYC Bans Source-of-Income Bias
Significant RestrictionsNew York City Administrative Code § 8-107(5)(a)(1)
Because of the actual or perceived race, creed, color, national origin, gender, age, disability, sexual orientation, uniformed service, height, weight, marital status, partnership status, or immigration or citizenship status of any person or group of persons, or because of any lawful source of income of such person or persons... To refuse to sell, rent, lease, approve the sale, rental or lease ...
Section 8 Voucher Acceptance
New York City landlords cannot refuse to rent, discriminate in lease terms, or advertise against tenants because they pay with a Section 8 voucher or other lawful source of income under the city's Human Rights Law.
NYC Bans Section 8 Voucher Rental Discrimination
Significant RestrictionsNew York City Administrative Code § 8-107(5)(a)
It shall be an unlawful discriminatory practice for the owner, lessor, lessee, sublessee, assignee, or managing agent of...a housing accommodation...or any agent or employee thereof: Because of...any lawful source of income of such person or persons...: (a) To refuse to sell, rent, lease, approve the sale, rental or lease or otherwise deny to or withhold from any such person or group of persons...
Mold Disclosure
New York City landlords must include a mold-hazard notice in every lease and give tenants a Health Department mold pamphlet before move-in.
NYC Rental Mold Disclosure Notice
Some RestrictionsNew York City Administrative Code § 27-2017.2
All leases offered to tenants or prospective tenants in such multiple dwellings shall contain a notice, conspicuously set forth therein, which advises tenants of the obligations of the owner and tenant as set forth in this section... The owner of such multiple dwelling shall provide the tenant or prospective tenant of such dwelling unit with the pamphlet developed by the department of health an...
Rent Increase Notice
In New York City, a landlord who plans to raise the rent by 5% or more, or to not renew a tenancy, must give written advance notice of 30, 60, or 90 days depending on how long the tenant has lived there.
New York City Rent-Increase Notice: 30/60/90 Days
Some RestrictionsNY Real Property Law §226-c(1)(a), (2)(b)-(d)
Whenever a landlord intends to offer to renew the tenancy of an occupant in a residential dwelling unit with a rent increase equal to or greater than five percent above the current rent, or the landlord does not intend to renew the tenancy, the landlord shall provide written notice as required in subdivision two of this section... at least thirty days' notice... at least sixty days' notice... a...
Repairs & Habitability
NYC landlords must keep apartments at 68°F during the day and 62°F overnight from October 1 through May 31 whenever outside temps drop low enough to trigger the rule.
NYC Heat Law: 68°F Day, 62°F Night
Some RestrictionsNew York City Administrative Code § 27-2029
During the period from October first through May thirty-first, centrally-supplied heat, in any dwelling in which such heat is required to be provided, shall be furnished so as to maintain, in every portion of such dwelling used or occupied for living purposes: (1) between the hours of six a.m. and ten p.m., a temperature of at least sixty-eight degrees Fahrenheit whenever the outside temperatur...