New York Landlord-Tenant Law: 2026 Guide to Rent, Deposits & Notices

New York is three rulebooks stacked on top of each other. The statewide baseline applies to every rental from Buffalo to Montauk. New York City layers rent stabilization over roughly a million apartments. And since April 2024, Good Cause Eviction adds a third regime covering the five boroughs plus a growing list of opt-in cities. Get the layers straight before you quote a renewal number, because the same 8% increase can be routine in Syracuse, presumptively unreasonable in Albany, and flatly illegal in a stabilized Brooklyn walk-up.

Statewide rules first. The condensed version lives on our New York quick-reference page, and the statutes themselves are searchable at the New York Senate's Real Property Law portal.

The 30/60/90 ladder: notice before you raise rent or end a tenancy

Real Property Law § 226-c scales your notice obligation to the length of the tenancy. Before raising rent 5% or more, or declining to renew, you owe written notice of at least:

• 30 days when the tenant has been in possession less than a year and holds no lease term of a year or more
• 60 days after one to two years of occupancy, or under a lease of at least one year
• 90 days past two years of occupancy, or under a lease of two years or more

The penalty for skipping it is elegant and painful: the existing tenancy simply continues on its existing terms until the proper period has run from the day you actually gave notice. Month-to-month terminations ride the same ladder, so a five-year month-to-month tenant is owed 90 days even with no lease in hand. Outside the regulated stock there is no cap on the size of the increase itself; the ladder governs timing, not amount.

Good Cause Eviction: the 2024 law that grades your renewal math

Enacted April 20, 2024 as Real Property Law Article 6-A, Good Cause Eviction applies automatically inside New York City and, by local opt-in, in Albany, Kingston, Ithaca, Poughkeepsie, Rochester, Binghamton, Newburgh, Beacon, Hudson, Nyack, New Paltz, Fishkill, Catskill, and Croton-on-Hudson, with more municipalities free to join. Where it applies, a covered tenant can only be removed for a listed good cause: nonpayment, lease violation, nuisance, refusing access, owner or family occupancy, demolition, or withdrawing the unit from the market, among others.

The teeth are in the rent test. A renewal increase above the "local rent standard," the lesser of 10% or 5% plus the regional CPI change, is presumptively unreasonable, and a court can decline to evict for nonpayment of the unreasonable portion. In practice a covered landlord who wants a big increase has to be ready to justify it with costs or improvements.

The exemptions carry real weight: landlords whose statewide portfolio is 10 or fewer units, owner-occupied buildings of 10 or fewer units, units renting above DHCR's published high-rent threshold (245% of fair market rent), buildings with a certificate of occupancy issued on or after January 1, 2009 (exempt for 30 years), condos, co-ops, and units already rent-regulated. Coverage or exemption is no longer a private conclusion: every lease, renewal, rent demand, and eviction pleading must attach a notice stating whether Good Cause applies and, if not, why (RPL § 231-c).

What New York City runs differently

Everything above applies in the city too, but NYC adds its own machinery, so here is the city-only layer in one place. Rent stabilization covers roughly one million apartments, generally in buildings of six or more units built before 1974 plus newer buildings that took tax benefits. Stabilized renewal increases are set annually by the Rent Guidelines Board, not by the market: Order #57 allows 3% on one-year renewals and 4.5% on two-year renewals commencing October 1, 2025 through September 30, 2026. Stabilized tenants also hold renewal rights, and post-HSTPA there is no practical path to deregulating a unit.

Since June 11, 2025, the FARE Act (Local Law 119 of 2024) bans passing your broker's fee to the tenant: whoever hires the broker pays the broker. It also requires a signed, itemized disclosure of every fee the tenant will pay before lease signing, and listings must show all tenant-paid fees conspicuously. Fines run $750 for a first violation and up to $2,000 for repeats, and tenants can sue to claw fees back.

The city also stacks extra paperwork: bedbug history disclosure, window guard notices, annual lead inquiries in pre-1978 buildings under Local Law 1, and a criminal unlawful-eviction statute. If you self-manage a city unit, treat NYC compliance as its own discipline, not a footnote to state law.

Deposits: one month, fourteen days, and automatic forfeiture

Since HSTPA in 2019, the security deposit on virtually every unit statewide is capped at one month's rent, and so is the total of any advance payments (GOL § 7-108). That killed the old first-plus-last-plus-security move-in: last month's rent collected up front is an advance that busts the cap. There is no pet-deposit workaround either; one month is the whole pot. Neighboring New Jersey allows a month and a half, and Pennsylvania allows two months in the first lease year. New York gives you one.

The money stays the tenant's: deposits are trust funds that cannot be commingled with your own accounts, and in buildings of six or more units they must sit in a New York interest-bearing account, with the interest going to the tenant minus a 1% annual administrative allowance, and the bank's name and address disclosed in writing (GOL § 7-103).

Move-out is choreographed. Once either side signals the tenancy is ending, you must notify the tenant in writing of their right to request a pre-vacatur inspection, held one to two weeks before move-out on 48 hours' written notice, and give them an itemized list of proposed deductions they may cure before leaving. Then, within 14 days after they vacate, you must send the itemized statement and refund the balance. Miss the 14 days and you forfeit the entire deposit automatically, damage or no damage; a willful violation adds punitive damages up to twice the deposit (GOL § 7-108). Rentari starts that 14-day countdown the day a New York tenancy ends, which is the kind of deadline that eats a deposit when a turnover gets busy.

Late fees, application fees, and the rent paper trail

Rent isn't late until it is five days late: no fee of any kind may be charged before then, and the fee itself is capped at $50 or 5% of the monthly rent, whichever is less (RPL § 238-a). On a $3,200 Manhattan one-bedroom that means $50, not $160. Lease clauses promising more are void.

Application fees are capped at $20 to cover the background and credit check, and you must waive even that if the applicant hands you their own report from the last 30 days (RPL § 238-a). And when rent hasn't arrived within five days of the due date, you're required to send the tenant a notice by certified mail (RPL § 235-e(d)); skipping it hands the tenant an argument in a later nonpayment case.

Eviction: the 14-day demand, then housing court patience

A nonpayment case starts with a written rent demand giving at least 14 days to pay or surrender (RPAPL § 711(2)), served under RPAPL § 735's rules (personal delivery, substituted service, or conspicuous-place service with the follow-up mailings), with the Good Cause notice attached. A tenant who pays the full arrears can keep the tenancy; nonpayment cases in New York are about collecting rent, not clearing the unit.

Holdover cases (ending the tenancy itself) lean on the 30/60/90 ladder for their termination notice. After judgment, the warrant still isn't instant: the marshal or sheriff must serve a 14-day notice before executing (RPAPL § 749). Budget months in New York City housing court, and weeks upstate. Self-help is never on the menu: a lockout, utility shutoff, or belongings-on-the-curb exposes you to treble damages statewide (RPAPL § 853) and criminal charges in the city. Compliant demand and termination notices are in our forms library.

Entry, habitability, and the disclosure stack

Entry is the rare topic where New York has no statute for market units: your lease's access clause and reasonableness govern, with 24 hours' notice the working custom (rent-stabilized units follow DHCR access rules). Enter abusively and you're litigating quiet enjoyment and harassment claims instead.

Every residential lease carries the non-waivable warranty of habitability (RPL § 235-b): fit for living, free of dangerous conditions. The classic tenant remedy is a rent abatement, raised as a defense or counterclaim in a nonpayment case; New York has no statutory repair-and-deduct, but courts routinely offset rent for documented conditions.

Statewide disclosures now include flood history and risk: since June 21, 2023, every residential lease must disclose known flood history, FEMA floodplain status, and include the standard flood-insurance advisory (RPL § 231-b). Add the sprinkler notice (RPL § 231-a), the Good Cause coverage rider (RPL § 231-c), and the federal lead-paint disclosure for pre-1978 buildings, plus the NYC extras above if you're in the city.

New York landlord FAQ

How much can I raise the rent in 2026?

On an unregulated unit outside a Good Cause locality: any amount, with 30/60/90-day notice under RPL § 226-c. In NYC and the opt-in cities, an increase above the lesser of 10% or 5% plus CPI is presumptively unreasonable for covered units. On a stabilized NYC unit, Order #57 sets 3% (one-year) or 4.5% (two-year) for renewals starting between October 1, 2025 and September 30, 2026.

Can I collect first month, last month, and a security deposit?

No. GOL § 7-108 caps deposits and advances at one month's rent total, statewide. First month's rent plus one month of security is the lawful maximum at signing.

What late fee is legal in New York?

The lesser of $50 or 5% of monthly rent, and only once rent is at least five days late (RPL § 238-a). A $40 fee on a $700 rent is illegal, for example: 5% of $700 is $35, and the lesser figure controls.

Do I ever have to renew a market-rate lease?

Outside Good Cause areas, no: serve the ladder notice and non-renew without stating a reason. Inside NYC or an opt-in city, a covered tenant can only be denied renewal or evicted for a listed good cause, and your lease must carry the RPL § 231-c notice saying which regime the unit is in.

This is general information for New York rental owners, not legal advice. New York layers state, city, and agency rules, and they move: confirm anything you rely on against the current statute text, DHCR guidance, or a New York landlord-tenant attorney before acting.