How Long Can a Guest Stay in My NYC Apartment?

New York law sets no fixed day limit on how long a guest can stay in your NYC apartment, but the answer to how long can a guest stay in my NYC apartment turns on one number: 30 consecutive days. Once someone has lived with you that long, state law treats them as a legal occupant, and you can no longer ask them to leave on your own. Removing them requires a court-ordered warrant of eviction, the same process a landlord would use against a tenant.¹

The 30-Day Line

Section 768 of New York’s Real Property Actions and Proceedings Law protects anyone who has lawfully occupied a dwelling for 30 consecutive days or more. After that point, no one, including the person who invited them in, can force them out without a court proceeding.¹

In practical terms, that means a friend crashing on your couch for a week is a guest you can show the door at any time. A friend who has been there for five weeks is not. You cannot change the locks, put their belongings in the hallway, or shut off their access. You would need to file a holdover case in Housing Court and wait for a judge to issue a warrant.

The clock is about consecutive days of lawful occupancy. Short absences during a continuous stay do not reset it. If someone has been treating your apartment as their home for a month straight, you are past the line even if they spent a weekend elsewhere.

Signs a Guest Has Already Become an Occupant

Courts do not rely on the calendar alone. If a dispute ends up in Housing Court, a judge will look at how the person has actually been living in the apartment. Factors that point toward occupant status include:

Contributing to rent or utility payments
Receiving mail at the address
Moving in furniture or a meaningful amount of personal belongings
Using the apartment as their only address
Holding keys with unrestricted access

No single factor settles it, but the more that apply, the harder it becomes to argue the person is just visiting. Someone who has been in your apartment for only two weeks but gets their paychecks delivered there and pays part of the electric bill may already look like a resident on paper.

What Your Lease Can and Cannot Restrict

Before worrying about overstaying guests, it helps to know what your landlord can actually object to. New York Real Property Law Section 235-f, the Roommate Law, makes it illegal for a lease to limit occupancy to just the people named on it. Any clause that tries to is void.²

If you are the only tenant on the lease, you can live with immediate family, one additional occupant, and that occupant’s dependent children. Your immediate family does not count against the one-occupant limit. You or your spouse must use the apartment as a primary residence.²

When more than one tenant is named on the lease, the total number of tenants plus occupants cannot exceed the number of tenants listed. Dependent children of occupants are not counted. At least one named tenant or their spouse must still use the apartment as a primary home.²

So a landlord cannot tell you a guest has been there “too long” based on the lease alone. The real limits come from the 30-day occupant rule, your notification duty, and the city’s occupancy maximum.

Telling Your Landlord About a Long-Term Guest

If a guest moves in as an occupant, the Roommate Law requires you to inform your landlord of the occupant’s name. You have 30 days after the person moves in, or 30 days after the landlord asks, whichever comes first.²

This is notification, not a request for permission. Your landlord does not get to approve or reject the person. The statute says you must “inform” the landlord but does not demand writing. Putting it in writing anyway, and keeping a copy, protects you if a dispute arises.

Skipping the notification is where tenants get themselves in trouble. Failure to provide the name gives a landlord grounds to issue a Notice to Cure, which starts a potential eviction clock on you, not the guest. The fix is cheap. Send a short written notice.

NYC Occupancy Limits

Even with the Roommate Law behind you, you cannot keep adding people to the apartment indefinitely. The New York City Housing Maintenance Code requires at least 80 square feet of livable floor area for every person living in the unit. To find the maximum, divide your total livable area by 80. Kitchens count as livable area. Hallways, foyers, and bathrooms do not.³

For every two people the apartment can lawfully hold, one child under four can also live there. If a birth or a child turning four pushes the household over the maximum, the city gives you a one-year grace period to come into compliance.³

A 480-square-foot studio tops out at six people. A 640-square-foot one-bedroom allows eight. These ceilings matter more than they sound like they should, because most NYC apartments are small enough that a long-term guest plus the existing household can bump against them quickly.

If You Want to Charge the Guest

One boundary is worth stating directly, because the question of guest length often shades into Airbnb-style arrangements. If a guest pays you to stay fewer than 30 days, you are no longer in Roommate Law territory. You are in short-term rental territory, and NYC’s Local Law 18 applies.

You must register with the city, you must be physically present in the apartment during the stay, you can only rent out part of your home, and you are limited to two paying guests at a time, with access to common areas.⁴ Hosting paying guests without registration carries a civil penalty of up to $5,000 per violation, or three times the rental revenue, whichever is less.⁵ An unpaid friend sleeping on your couch for a week raises none of this. A paid stranger does.

Rent-Stabilized Apartments

The Roommate Law applies to rent-stabilized units, but with one extra constraint: a roommate’s share of the rent cannot exceed their proportionate portion. In a two-person household, a roommate cannot pay more than half the legal regulated rent.⁶

Occupants in rent-stabilized apartments also do not automatically inherit the right to stay if the named tenant leaves. Under Section 235-f, no occupant acquires any right to continued occupancy when the tenant vacates unless the landlord has given express written permission.²

If a Landlord Tries to Force the Issue

Some landlords push back when a guest sticks around. The formal process is slower than a threatening letter suggests.

If a landlord claims you have violated a lease term about occupancy, they must first serve a Notice to Cure. This written notice identifies the specific violation and gives you 10 days to fix it. If the issue is that you failed to provide your occupant’s name, you provide it and the matter ends.⁷

If you do not cure, the landlord can serve a Notice of Termination. The termination date must be at least 30 days out and must fall on the last day of a rental period. Only after both notices have run can the landlord file a holdover case in Housing Court.⁷ A case filed without those steps is likely to be dismissed.

Section 768 also blocks any attempt to force a tenant or long-term occupant out without going through court. A landlord cannot use or threaten force, interrupt heat or water, remove belongings, change locks without providing a key, or otherwise try to drive you out.¹ Each illegal act is a Class A misdemeanor and carries a civil penalty between $1,000 and $10,000. A tenant forced out through unlawful methods can recover triple damages and may be restored to the apartment by court order.⁸

Those same protections run the other way. If a guest has crossed the 30-day line and you try to lock them out, remove their things, or cut off utilities to make them leave, you are the one exposed to those penalties. The practical rule is simple: short visits are yours to end. A stay that has turned into a residency is the court’s to end.

1
FindLaw. New York Code RPA 768 – Unlawful Eviction
2
New York State Senate. New York Real Property Law 235-F – Unlawful Restrictions on Occupancy
3
NYC Administrative Code. Section 27-2075 – Maximum Permitted Occupancy
4
NYC Rules. Registration and Requirements for Short-Term Rentals
5
American Legal Publishing Code Library. NYC Rules 21-13 – Penalties
6
NYC Rent Guidelines Board. Roommates FAQs
7
NY CourtHelp. Holdover Notices
8
New York State Attorney General. Residential Tenants’ Rights Guide