Tenant Screening Laws in New York: Fees, Denials, and Protections

Tenant screening laws in New York cap what a landlord can charge you to apply, limit what they can look at, and bar them from denying you for a long list of reasons. Application fees are banned outright. Background and credit check fees are capped at $20. Housing court history can’t be used against you. Criminal history is sharply restricted, especially in New York City. And the state’s Human Rights Law covers more protected categories than almost any other state’s.

What a Landlord Can Charge You to Apply

Under Real Property Law § 238-a, a landlord cannot charge any fee for processing or accepting a rental application. The only upfront charge allowed is for a background check or credit check, and that fee is capped at $20 or the actual cost of the report, whichever is less. If the screening company charges the landlord $15, the landlord can only pass along $15. Any lease clause that tries to waive or raise these limits is void.¹

You can skip the fee entirely by handing the landlord a copy of your own background check or credit report from within the last 30 days. The landlord has to accept it and waive the charge. Most credit bureaus provide one free report a year, so pulling your own before you start apartment hunting can save real money across multiple applications.¹

When the landlord does run a report, they’re required to give you a copy of it along with the invoice from the screening company. That lets you confirm what they actually paid and see what the report says. If they charged you more than allowed, you’re entitled to a refund of the overcharge. Keep every receipt.¹

Security Deposit Limits

Screening quickly turns into a conversation about move-in money, and the deposit is capped too. General Obligations Law § 7-108 limits any security deposit or advance payment to one month’s rent. A landlord asking for first month’s rent, last month’s rent, and a security deposit on top is breaking the law. The statute prohibits charging advance rent along with a deposit.²

The cap applies to nearly every residential rental, with or without a written lease. Narrow exceptions exist for seasonal-use units, certain owner-occupied cooperatives, and some senior living facilities. Any clause that tries to waive the limit is void.²

Who Landlords Can’t Screen Out

New York’s Human Rights Law makes it illegal to deny housing based on race, color, creed or religion, national origin, citizenship or immigration status, sex, age, disability, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, marital status, familial status, military status, lawful source of income, status as a victim of domestic violence, arrest record, conviction record, predisposing genetic characteristics, or pregnancy-related conditions.³ That’s one of the longest protected-class lists in the country.

Screening standards can’t be used as a workaround. A landlord can require a minimum credit score of 750 if they apply it to everyone, but can’t apply that threshold only to applicants of a certain national origin. The same consistency rule applies to income thresholds, reference requirements, and every other qualification.⁴

Source of Income

Since 2019, it has been illegal to reject applicants because they pay rent with a housing voucher, disability benefits, Social Security, child support, public assistance, or any other lawful income source. The protection runs through every step: a landlord cannot refuse to show you an apartment, decline your application, advertise “no vouchers” or “no programs,” or refuse to complete the paperwork a subsidy program requires.⁵

Income-to-rent ratios are allowed, but can’t be used in a way that defeats the voucher. The Division of Human Rights has made clear that applying an income threshold to the full rent, rather than to the portion the tenant actually owes after the subsidy, is itself a common form of discrimination. If a voucher covers 70 percent of the rent, your income should be measured against the 30 percent you’d pay.⁶

Citizenship and Immigration Status

Landlords cannot refuse to rent, charge higher deposits, make discriminatory statements, or retaliate against anyone based on citizenship or immigration status. Any documentation requirement — including requests for a Social Security number or immigration papers — has to be applied to every applicant equally, not targeted at some groups. For rent-regulated apartments, landlords are also barred from requiring a Social Security number or immigration status information as a condition of lease renewal.⁷

The Housing Court Blacklist Ban

Real Property Law § 227-f makes it illegal for a landlord to refuse to rent to you because you were involved in a past or pending landlord-tenant case. It doesn’t matter whether you won, lost, or settled. The law was passed in 2019 to shut down “tenant blacklists,” which were databases of anyone who had appeared in housing court, including tenants who were entirely in the right.⁸

The statute has teeth. If a landlord or their screening company pulls your housing court records and then denies your application, the denial is presumed illegal. The landlord has to prove the decision rested on entirely different factors. Civil penalties run $500 to $1,000 per violation, and the Attorney General can bring enforcement actions in state court.⁸ The AG’s office maintains an online portal for tenants to file blacklisting complaints.⁹

Criminal History Rules

Statewide Limits

Under Executive Law § 296(16), landlords anywhere in New York cannot ask about or take adverse action based on arrests resolved in your favor, cases adjourned in contemplation of dismissal, youthful offender adjudications, or sealed convictions. If a landlord asks about any of these, you can legally answer as if the event never happened.⁴

For convictions that remain on your record, a blanket “no felons” policy violates the Human Rights Law. Landlords have to conduct an individualized assessment that weighs the nature and severity of the offense, how long ago it occurred, and evidence of rehabilitation.

New York City’s Fair Chance Housing Law

The Fair Chance Housing Law, effective January 1, 2025, bars most housing providers in the city from running a criminal background check until after they’ve reviewed every other eligibility criterion and made a conditional offer. Even then, only a narrow set of convictions can be considered:¹⁰

Misdemeanors from within the past year
Felonies from within the past five years
Release from incarceration within the past year
Current registration on a state or federal sex offense registry

Everything else is off-limits: convictions that don’t involve physical danger or violence, offenses from before the applicant turned 18, sealed or expunged records, youthful offender adjudications, and pending arrests without convictions. Before denying someone based on a qualifying conviction, the landlord has to provide written notice explaining how that specific history poses a direct risk to safety or property.¹¹

Clean Slate Sealing

The Clean Slate Act took effect November 16, 2024, and automatically seals certain convictions after a waiting period: three years from release for misdemeanors, eight years from conviction or release from prison for felonies. The person must have completed their full sentence, including probation or parole, and have no new convictions or pending charges.¹²

Sealed is not erased. Landlords can still ask about criminal history, and some exceptions let certain landlords access sealed records, including owners renting units in owner-occupied two-family homes. Offenses carrying a potential life sentence or requiring sex offender registration are never eligible for sealing.¹²

Service and Emotional Support Animals

Landlords cannot charge pet fees, pet deposits, or breed-restriction surcharges for service animals or emotional support animals. Under both the New York Human Rights Law and the federal Fair Housing Act, a tenant with a disability can request a reasonable accommodation for an assistance animal, even in no-pet buildings.¹³

Federal enforcement changed in May 2026. HUD rescinded its prior guidance on emotional support animals and will now only pursue complaints involving animals individually trained to perform disability-related tasks. Requests to accommodate untrained emotional support animals are no longer “presumptively reasonable” under HUD’s framework.¹⁴

HUD’s shift does not override state or local law. New York’s Human Rights Law still requires reasonable accommodations for people with disabilities, and NYC’s Human Rights Law adds its own independent protections. Tenants denied an ESA accommodation in New York still have grounds to assert that right under state law and should contact the New York State Division of Human Rights or the NYC Commission on Human Rights for current guidance.

If Your Application Is Denied

When a landlord denies you in whole or in part based on a credit report or background check, the federal Fair Credit Reporting Act requires an adverse action notice. The notice must include the name, address, and phone number of the screening company, a statement that the screening company did not make the rental decision, notice of your right to a free copy of the report within 60 days, and notice of your right to dispute anything inaccurate. The credit score used in the decision has to be disclosed too.¹⁵¹⁶

Pull your copy and read it carefully. A screening report error — a prior eviction or judgment belonging to someone else, for instance — can follow you from application to application until you dispute it. Screening companies are required to investigate and correct confirmed errors. The best protection is pulling your own credit and background report before you start apartment hunting, so you find any problems on your schedule rather than after a landlord has already said no.

1
New York State Senate. New York Real Property Code 238-A – Limitation on Fees
2
New York State Senate. New York General Obligations Law 7-108
3
New York State Division of Human Rights. Protected Characteristics
4
New York State Senate. New York Executive Law 296 – Unlawful Discriminatory Practices
5
New York State Attorney General. Source-of-Income Discrimination
6
New York State Division of Human Rights. Guidance on Protections from Source of Income Discrimination in Housing Under the New York State Human Rights Law
7
New York State Homes and Community Renewal. Fact Sheet for Building Owners – Housing Rights of Foreign-Born Tenants
8
New York State Senate. New York Real Property Law 227-F – Denial on the Basis of Involvement in Prior Disputes Prohibited
9
Office of the New York State Attorney General. Attorney General James Stops Bronx Landlord from Illegally Blacklisting Tenants
10
NYC Commission on Human Rights. Fair Chance Act in Housing
11
New York State Homes and Community Renewal. New York City Fair Chance Housing Law Local Law 24
12
New York State Assembly. Clean Slate Act Myths and Facts
13
New York State Homes and Community Renewal. Assistance Animal FAQ
14
NYC.gov. Service and Emotional Support Animals
15
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 15 USC 1681m – Requirements on Users of Consumer Reports
16
Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. What Should I Do if My Rental Application Is Denied Because of a Tenant Screening Report