NYC Tenant Law: Rent, Repairs, Fees, and Evictions

As a renter in New York City, your rights cover how much your rent can rise, what condition your apartment must be kept in, how much money a landlord can ask for upfront, who pays the broker, who can live with you, and how an eviction has to proceed. Most of these NYC tenant rights come from state law, with city rules layered on top, and several were strengthened by the Housing Stability and Tenant Protection Act of 2019 and more recent measures like Good Cause Eviction and the FARE Act.

How Much Your Rent Can Go Up

The answer depends on whether your apartment is rent-stabilized, covered by Good Cause Eviction, or neither.

Rent-Stabilized Apartments

Close to one million NYC apartments are rent-stabilized. If yours is one of them, the Rent Guidelines Board sets the maximum percentage your landlord can raise your rent each time you renew. For leases starting between October 1, 2025 and September 30, 2026, the cap is 3% on a one-year renewal and 4.5% on a two-year renewal.¹ You also have a guaranteed right to renew. A landlord can refuse only in narrow situations, such as wanting the unit for personal occupancy or proving the apartment is no longer your primary residence.

Buildings built before 1974 with six or more units generally fall under stabilization. Some newer buildings opted in through tax programs like 421-a. Before 2019, apartments could permanently exit stabilization once rent crossed a high threshold or a tenant earned more than $200,000. The 2019 law repealed both forms of decontrol, so those apartments stay regulated after turnover.²

Landlords can still raise stabilized rents after upgrading your unit, but Individual Apartment Improvement spending is capped at $15,000 over any 15-year period and limited to three projects, with the resulting increase spread over 14 or 15 years depending on building size.² For building-wide Major Capital Improvements, any one tenant’s annual increase is capped at 2%.³

Good Cause Eviction for Market-Rate Tenants

If you are not in a stabilized unit, Good Cause Eviction may still protect you. Covered tenants cannot be evicted or denied a renewal without a legitimate reason, and rent increases above a local standard can be challenged in court as unreasonable. That standard is the rate of inflation plus 5%, capped at 10%. As of early 2025, it worked out to 8.79%.⁴

The law has significant exemptions. It does not apply to rent-stabilized units (which have stronger protections already), condos and co-ops, buildings with a certificate of occupancy issued within the last 30 years, units under affordable housing regulatory agreements, or owner-occupied buildings with ten or fewer units. In New York City, the small-landlord exemption also covers landlords who own no more than ten total units.⁵

Rent Freezes for Seniors and Disabled Tenants

If you are at least 62 and your household income is $50,000 or less, SCRIE (Senior Citizen Rent Increase Exemption) will freeze your rent at its current amount; the city reimburses the landlord through a property tax credit.⁶ DRIE does the same for tenants with a qualifying disability at the same income threshold. If you qualify, applying is one of the most valuable financial steps you can take.

The Condition of Your Apartment

Every residential lease in New York, written or oral, includes an implied warranty of habitability under Real Property Law § 235-b. Your landlord must keep the apartment free of conditions dangerous to your life, health, or safety, and that duty cannot be waived in the lease.⁷

Heat and Hot Water

During heat season, October 1 through May 31, the landlord must keep your apartment at 68°F or warmer from 6:00 a.m. to 10:00 p.m. whenever it is below 55°F outside. From 10:00 p.m. to 6:00 a.m., the indoor temperature must stay at 62°F or above regardless of outdoor conditions. Hot water must run year-round at 120°F or hotter. HPD can fine a landlord $350 to $1,250 per day for an initial heat or hot water violation and $500 to $1,500 per day for a repeat violation at the same building.⁸

Mold, Pests, and Leaks

Habitability goes well beyond heat. Under Local Law 55, owners of buildings with three or more apartments must inspect every unit at least once a year for mold, pests, water leaks, and related hazards, and must give tenants a notice of rights about indoor allergen hazards each year and at every lease signing or renewal. Mold covering more than ten square feet requires remediation by a New York State licensed professional, and the underlying moisture problem has to be fixed first. Hazardous violations must be corrected within 30 days, and immediately hazardous ones within 21 days. Housing code violations generally carry daily fines that scale with severity.⁹

Money a Landlord Can Ask For

Security Deposit

Your security deposit cannot exceed one month’s rent. Any landlord asking for more is breaking the law.¹⁰ The money stays yours, held in trust. In buildings with six or more units, it must sit in an interest-bearing account at a New York bank, and the landlord may keep only a 1% annual administrative fee from the interest. The rest belongs to you.¹¹

When you move out, the landlord has 14 days to return the deposit in full or send you an itemized statement of deductions. Deductions are limited to unpaid rent and damage beyond normal wear and tear. Miss the 14-day window and the landlord forfeits the right to withhold any of it.¹⁰ You also have the right to a joint walk-through before you move in; anything documented in that signed statement cannot later justify a deduction.

Application Fees

A landlord may charge for a background and credit check, but the fee cannot exceed the actual cost or $20, whichever is less. If you supply your own credit report or background check from within the past 30 days, the fee has to be waived. No other application processing fees are allowed.

Broker Fees Under the FARE Act

The Fairness in Apartment Rental Expenses Act took effect June 11, 2025. If a broker is hired by or acting on behalf of the landlord, that broker cannot collect a fee from you. Because a broker needs the landlord’s permission to list a unit, this covers most listings you’ll see. You also cannot be pushed into a dual-agency agreement as a workaround.¹² You can still hire your own broker and agree to pay that person yourself.

Disclosures That Must Come With Your Lease

Several notices are required by law and should arrive with any new lease or renewal:

Lead paint pamphlet and inquiry about children under six, in buildings with three or more units built before 1960.¹³
Bedbug history for the unit and building covering the past year, including any eradication measures.¹⁴
Sprinkler system notice in bold type, stating whether an operative system is installed and the date of its last inspection.¹⁵
Flood history and risk notice, disclosing whether the building sits in a FEMA-designated floodplain or flood hazard area and any known prior flood damage, plus a note that renter’s insurance usually doesn’t cover floods.¹⁶
Rent Stabilization Rider, if your apartment is stabilized, explaining the legal regulated rent and recent increase history.

Roommates and Subletting

You have the right to share your apartment even if the lease says otherwise. If you are the sole tenant on the lease, you may live with your immediate family, one additional roommate, and that roommate’s dependent children, as long as the apartment stays your primary residence.¹⁷ When more than one tenant is named, the total of tenants plus occupants (not counting dependent children) cannot exceed the number of originally named tenants. Any lease clause barring additional occupants is unenforceable. You do have to tell your landlord a new occupant’s name within 30 days of move-in.

In buildings with four or more residential units, you have the right to sublet with the landlord’s written consent, which cannot be unreasonably withheld. You send a written request by certified mail; the landlord has 10 days to request more information and 30 days to consent or explain a denial. Silence counts as consent. If a court finds the landlord unreasonably refused, you can sublet anyway and recover attorney’s fees.¹⁸ One catch: you remain liable for the lease, so a subtenant’s missed rent is still your problem.

How an Eviction Actually Has to Happen

A landlord cannot change your locks, remove your things, or push you out directly. Every eviction in New York City goes through Housing Court, and each step is required.

Nonpayment Cases

Before filing, your landlord must serve a written rent demand giving you at least 14 days to pay or move.¹⁹ Only after that window can the landlord file a petition and send you a notice to appear. Even once a judge issues a warrant of eviction, the marshal or sheriff must serve a 14-day notice before the physical lockout. Paying the full amount owed stops the process at any point before execution.

Holdover Cases

For reasons other than unpaid rent, like a lease violation or an expired lease, the landlord files a holdover case. The required notice to vacate before filing depends on how long you’ve lived there: 30 days if less than a year, 60 days for one to two years, and 90 days for more than two years.

Right to Counsel

NYC’s Right to Counsel program provides a free lawyer in Housing Court if your household income is at or below 200% of the federal poverty level. Tenants with lawyers stay in their homes far more often than those without. If you receive eviction papers, call 311 or visit the courthouse help center to apply.

Harassment and Retaliation

The NYC Housing Maintenance Code defines landlord harassment as any act or omission intended to force you out. That includes cutting off heat, water, or electricity, repeated threats, frivolous court filings, and refusing to make repairs so you give up and leave.

If you file a housing complaint, report code violations, or join a tenant association, the landlord cannot retaliate by trying to evict you or significantly raising your rent. When such action comes within one year of your complaint, the court presumes retaliation, and the landlord must prove a legitimate reason.²⁰

You can bring harassment claims in the Housing Part of Civil Court. First-offense penalties under the rent stabilization enforcement provisions start at $1,000 to $2,000 and rise to $2,000 to $3,000 for repeat violations. For the most serious forms of harassment, fines start at $2,000 to $3,000 for a first offense and reach $10,000 to $11,000 for subsequent offenses or conduct targeting tenants in more than one unit.²¹ Judges can also issue restraining orders to stop ongoing harassment while a case is pending.

1
New York City Rent Guidelines Board. 2025-26 Apartment/Loft Order 57
2
New York State Homes and Community Renewal. Housing Stability and Tenant Protection Act of 2019 Overview
3
Homes and Community Renewal. Apartment (IAI) and Building (MCI) Improvements
4
NYC.gov. Good Cause Eviction Information for Tenants
5
New York State Senate. New York Real Property Law 231-C – Good Cause Eviction
6
NYC.gov. Qualifications
7
New York State Senate. New York Real Property Law 235-b – Warranty of Habitability
8
Housing Preservation and Development. Heat and Hot Water Information
9
Housing Preservation and Development. Penalties and Fees
10
New York State Senate. New York General Obligations Law 7-108 – Deposits Made by Tenants of Non-Rent Stabilized Dwelling Units
11
New York State Senate. New York General Obligations Law 7-103
12
New York City Council. The FARE Act
13
NYC Department of Housing Preservation and Development. Fix Lead Paint Hazards – What Landlords Must Do and Every Tenant Should Know
14
Housing Preservation and Development. Bed Bugs
15
New York State Senate. New York Real Property Law 231-a – Sprinkler System Notice in Residential Leases
16
New York State Senate. New York Real Property Law 231-b – Flood History and Risk Notice in Residential Leases
17
New York State Senate. New York Real Property Law 235-f
18
New York State Senate. New York Real Property Law 226-b – Right to Sublease or Assign
19
New York State Senate. New York Real Property Actions and Proceedings Law 711
20
New York State Senate. New York Real Property Law 223-b – Retaliation by Landlord Against Tenant
21
American Legal Publishing. New York City Administrative Code 26-413 – Enforcement and Penalties