NYC Local Law 18: Registration, Rules, and Fines for Short-Term Rentals

New York City’s Local Law 18 requires anyone offering a paid stay of fewer than 30 consecutive days to register with the Mayor’s Office of Special Enforcement (OSE), host only while physically present, cap guests at two, and include the registration number on every listing.¹ Booking platforms must verify each listing through a city system before they can process a transaction, and violations carry fines of up to $5,000 per incident for hosts and $1,500 per booking for platforms.

What Counts as a Short-Term Rental

Any paid stay in a dwelling unit lasting fewer than 30 consecutive days falls under the law. Rentals of 30 days or longer sit outside the framework and need no OSE registration.¹

Units inside Class B multiple dwellings are also exempt. These are properties the city has already approved for transient occupancy, including hotels, rooming houses, boarding houses, and college dormitories.² If your building appears on the city’s published Class B list, you don’t need a registration number and platforms are not required to verify your listing.

Who Can Register

Only a natural person who permanently occupies the unit may hold a registration certificate. Corporations, LLCs, and other business entities are ineligible. Renters must also certify that their lease does not prohibit short-term rentals or subletting.³

Some units cannot be registered no matter who the host is:

Apartments in the New York City Housing Authority (NYCHA) system
Rent-controlled apartments
Rent-stabilized apartments⁴

Building owners, co-op boards, and condo corporations can also opt an entire property out by placing the address on the city’s Prohibited Buildings List under NYC Administrative Code § 26-3102(l).³ OSE will automatically deny any application for a unit at a listed address. The list is published on the city’s open data portal, so check it before you apply.

The Rules That Apply During Every Stay

The registration doesn’t buy you flexibility. Local Law 18 sets terms for how each individual stay must be run:

You must physically occupy the same unit for the entire duration of the guest’s stay. Handing over the keys and leaving is not allowed.
No more than two paying guests may stay at any time.⁵
Guests must have free and unobstructed access to every room and every exit in the apartment.⁴

Together, these rules make it effectively impossible to rent an entire apartment while you’re away.

Key locks on individual bedroom doors are prohibited. The city treats them as both an obstruction to emergency egress and evidence that the unit is being run as a hotel. If inspectors find them, OSE can issue a temporary vacate order.⁵

Inside the unit, you must conspicuously post your registration certificate and a diagram showing normal and emergency egress routes for both the apartment and the building.⁶ Standard FDNY smoke and carbon monoxide alarm requirements apply, with alarms placed outside each sleeping room (and inside each bedroom in newer buildings), tested monthly, and replaced per the manufacturer’s instructions.⁷

How to Register

Applications go through the OSE online portal. Before you start, gather one proof of identity and two proofs of permanent occupancy from different approved categories. Two utility bills from the same provider won’t qualify as separate proofs.⁸

The application asks whether you own or rent, who the permanent occupants are, and how to reach you. Renters must certify that their lease permits the activity. Make sure the name and address on your documents match city records exactly; mismatches cause denials.

A non-refundable fee is paid by credit card or electronic check at submission.⁹ OSE reviews the application against municipal databases to confirm residency and verify the building isn’t on the prohibited list. Review commonly takes several weeks and OSE may request more documents during that time. Approval produces a unique registration number that must appear on every public listing for the rental.

Keeping the Registration Good

Compliance continues after approval. Three obligations have teeth of their own:

Include the registration number on every advertisement or listing. Omitting it is a separate violation.⁶
Keep a record of each short-term rental transaction for at least seven years after the stay.
Notify OSE promptly when application information changes, such as a new roommate, a lease renewal with different terms, or a change in ownership.

Your registration number, address, unit number, status, and listing URLs are published on the city’s open data portal and are publicly accessible.

How Booking Platforms Enforce the Law

Platforms like Airbnb and VRBO cannot process a transaction for a short-term rental until they verify the listing through the city’s electronic system.⁶ The system cross-checks the host’s name, address, registration number, and listing URL. Verification must be renewed at least every twelve months, so a listing that cleared on day one can be blocked later if the registration lapses, gets revoked, or stops matching city records. You cannot simply post an unregistered unit and hope the booking slips through; the platform’s own system will refuse it.

Fines for Getting It Wrong

Penalties under Local Law 18 target hosts, platforms, and building owners separately.

Hosting Without a Registration

Operating or advertising a short-term rental without a valid registration draws the heaviest host-side penalty: up to the lesser of $5,000 or three times the revenue from the rental, assessed per violation.⁶ A host who collected $300 for a weekend stay could face up to $900 for that booking, while a host earning $2,000 per stay reaches the $5,000 cap.

Other Host Violations

Other breaches, such as omitting your registration number from a listing or failing to post the egress diagram, follow a graduated schedule:

First violation: $100, or $500 on default
Second violation: $500, or $2,500 on default
Third and subsequent violations: $1,000, or $5,000 on default⁶

Some are curable, meaning you can fix the issue and avoid escalation. Failing to keep records for seven years is not curable and starts at $500 for the first offense. A false statement on your application carries a flat $1,000 penalty regardless of offense count.

Platforms and Building Owners

A booking platform that processes a transaction for an unregistered rental faces a civil penalty of up to $1,500 per transaction. Owners and managers who allow unregistered short-term rentals in units they control face the same penalty as hosts: up to the lesser of $5,000 or three times rental revenue per violation.⁶ For landlords, the Prohibited Buildings List is the preemptive shield against liability for tenant activity.

Taxes and Insurance

Hosting income has federal consequences separate from city rules. If you rent your home for fewer than 15 days in the year, you don’t report the income and can’t deduct rental expenses. At 15 days or more, every dollar becomes reportable on Schedule E.¹⁰ Deductible expenses, prorated between rental and personal use days, generally include utilities, cleaning, supplies, platform fees, and depreciation on the rental portion of the home.

Platforms must send you a Form 1099-K if your gross payments exceed $20,000 and you have more than 200 transactions in a calendar year.¹¹ You’re required to report the income even if you fall below those thresholds and never receive the form.

Standard homeowners and renters insurance routinely excludes claims arising from short-term rental activity, treating it as a business use. A guest injury, stolen guest property, or damage caused by a guest will likely not be covered. Platform host protection programs act as secondary coverage with meaningful limitations and usually exclude cash, jewelry, and intentional damage. Call your insurer before your first guest and ask directly whether your policy covers short-term rental activity. Losing a homeowners policy for an undisclosed business use is a worse outcome than any city fine.

1
NYC Office of Special Enforcement. Short-Term Rental Registration
2
NYC Office of Special Enforcement. Class B Multiple Dwellings List
3
NYC Administrative Code. NYC Administrative Code 26-3102 – Short-Term Rental Registration
4
NYC311. Short-Term Rental Registration
5
NYC Office of Special Enforcement. Information for Hosts
6
NYC.gov. Final Rules Governing Registration and Requirements for Short-Term Rentals
7
FDNY. Smoke and Carbon Monoxide Alarms
8
NYC.gov. Tips for Hosting a Legal Short-Term Rental
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NYC Office of Special Enforcement. FAQ for Prospective Hosts
10
Internal Revenue Service. Topic No. 415, Renting Residential and Vacation Property
11
Internal Revenue Service. Understanding Your Form 1099-K