Tenant’s Rights in New York City (Moving, Breaking, Signing, and Showing) in 2026

With an apartment being one of (if not the) biggest expenses you will have to pay out each month, it’s important to know your rights. One of those areas for many will be around renting. What can and can’t you do with your lease if you want to change something, or if someone else does? So here are the essentials!

The first thing you should know about renting in NYC is that the law, in general, sides with the tenant and not the landlord. You have a lot of protections available to you. They’re there to make getting an apartment, living in one, and getting out of one as safe as possible.

Two of those protections changed significantly in the last couple of years, and they’re the two that will save you the most money. Broker’s fees and rent increases both work differently now, so if you last rented here a few years ago, read those sections carefully.

Contracted terms for leases in New York

You can contract in and out of almost anything. So, as I’ve talked about before, it’s important that you read and understand contracts comprehensively from top to bottom.

So if you have something written in your contract, and you read and signed that contract, those are the terms you’re stuck with. Everything in your bones might tell you your landlord is a good person who would see your way if something happened. Get it in writing anyway.

When push comes to shove, that piece of paper is what everyone will fall back to.

Your right to a safe, well-maintained building

There is one thing you can’t sign away, though. The core essentials of an apartment are guaranteed no matter what your lease says.

Your health, your heat, your hot water, your plumbing, your floors, your walls, your ceiling, your paint, and your (lack-of) mold are all guaranteed. So are your safety measures, like smoke detectors and window guards.

Do you have a pest issue, or any other problem that’s fundamental to the apartment? You have a right to request your landlord fix it at their cost. You are legally required to have hot water 365 days a year, 24 hours a day. Your heat must be on during the winter months, which run October 1 through May 31.

Different types of housing code violations have different deadlines for being fixed. That can be really simply found at tenant.net, here.

Know these!

Your rights around lease length and eviction

You sign a lease and it has a range of dates on it. You are legally allowed to reside in the apartment for that length of time.

The traditional grounds for a landlord to evict you are:

1. The written lease between landlord and tenant is over;
2. The tenant withholds rent from the landlord; or
3. The tenant has severely violated the lease.

That first one now comes with a big caveat. Under New York’s Good Cause Eviction law, which I’ll cover properly below, a landlord in a covered apartment needs a valid reason. They generally can’t refuse to renew your lease or push you out without one. “Your lease ended” is no longer enough on its own for most market-rate units.

And even then, a landlord must go to court to evict you with a “Warrant of Eviction.” So don’t listen when you are being threatened with getting kicked out. A letter from a landlord, or their lawyer, is not enough to evict you, ever ever ever.

Broker’s fees in New York City and the FARE Act

This is the section that has changed the most, and it’s worth reading properly, because it can save you thousands of dollars.

If you’re not familiar, brokers are the people who handle you getting a new apartment. Historically, their fees ran as high as 15% of the annual rent, and the incoming tenant paid. On a $4,000-a-month apartment, that’s several thousand dollars out of your pocket before you’ve even moved in.

Back in 2020 there was a brief moment where broker’s fees looked like they were about to disappear. That change was blocked in court, and everything went back to how it was. That’s no longer the situation.

Who pays the broker’s fee now?

Since June 11, 2025, New York City’s Fairness in Apartment Rental Expenses Act, known as the FARE Act, has been in effect. The rule is refreshingly simple: whoever hires the broker pays the broker.

In practice, that means:

• If a unit is listed online by the landlord or their agent, the landlord is presumed to have hired that broker. You should not be charged a fee.
• If you hire your own broker to search on your behalf, you pay them. That holds true even if the broker shows you a unit advertised as “no fee.”

The law also requires that any fee you do have to pay is disclosed upfront in the listing and in writing before you sign. A landlord can’t require you to use a specific broker as a condition of renting, either.

If someone tries to charge you a fee for a broker you didn’t hire, that’s a violation. You can report it to the Department of Consumer and Worker Protection by calling 311. Pinpointe has a helpful full explainer on the FARE Act if you want the detail.

Two things worth understanding about the market

First, a point of clarification that trips up a lot of new arrivals: StreetEasy is an advertising platform, not a multiple listing service. It’s where landlords and brokers choose to advertise, so it isn’t a complete picture of what’s available in the city.

Second, and this is the less cheerful part, landlords never had to carry this cost before. Rachel at Pinpointe, who works in this market daily, points out that many simply built it into the rent instead. Asking rents stepped up noticeably right after the law took effect. That’s now the baseline. She also notes a knock-on effect worth knowing. Rent-stabilized landlords are capped on what they can charge, so they can’t absorb a broker fee the same way. Some of those units have quietly moved off the public listings, and are only reachable through a broker.

How to protect yourself

Always ask upfront whether a fee applies, and get the answer in writing. If you do decide to hire a broker to represent you, sign an agreement with them. It should state clearly what the fee is, and if and when it’s due. Save your listings and your messages in case you need them later.

What’s allowed when it comes to rent increases

Here’s the other big correction to anything you read a few years ago. It used to be true that a landlord could raise the rent by whatever they liked at the end of your term. That hasn’t been the case since Good Cause Eviction became law in April 2024.

What Good Cause Eviction does

For covered apartments, a rent increase above a set threshold is presumed unreasonable, and you can challenge it. The threshold, called the local rent standard, is inflation plus 5%, capped at 10% in total.

That figure is updated annually. As of the most recent DHCR figures, New York City’s local rent standard sits at 8.38%, based on a CPI of 3.38%. Because it moves each year, check the current number before you assume anything about your own renewal.

A landlord can still go above the standard, but only with a genuine justification, such as significant repairs or a real increase in their costs. If you’re taken to court for nonpayment, you can raise an unreasonable increase as a defense, and the court decides.

Good Cause also means a landlord generally can’t evict you or refuse to renew your lease without a valid reason.

Which apartments are covered?

Good Cause covers most unregulated, market-rate apartments, which is where a lot of us live. It does not cover:

• Public housing, including NYCHA
• Rent-stabilized and rent-controlled apartments, which have their own separate protections
• Co-ops and condos
• Sublets
• Some newer construction
• Small owner-occupied buildings

If you’re not sure whether your apartment is rent-stabilized, you can check here. If you’re not sure whether Good Cause covers you, 311 is the place to start.

Notice you’re entitled to

Separately from all of the above, you’re entitled to advance notice before a rent increase of 5% or more. The same applies if your landlord doesn’t plan to offer you a new lease. How much notice depends on how long you’ve lived there:

1. Less than 1 year: 30 days;
2. Between 1 and 2 years: 60 days; and
3. More than 2 years: 90 days.

New York security deposits

For a long time, security deposits were a painful part of getting a new apartment, because they ranged so wildly in cost.

Landlords are now only allowed to collect one month of rent as a security deposit. That cap covers everything upfront, by any name.

At the end of your lease, landlords must return your security deposit within 14 days, less any amount required for repairs. If you do get charged for repairs, they must provide an itemized list of what was repaired and the cost of each. Miss that 14-day deadline and a landlord can forfeit their claim to it entirely.

The landlord can’t spend this money during your lease. It’s always yours until the end.

One useful side effect of that same one-month cap: a separate pet deposit isn’t allowed, because it would push you over the limit. What you’ll see instead is monthly pet rent, charged as an ongoing line item rather than upfront. Note that service animals and assistance animals are protected, and you can’t be charged extra for them at all.

Inspections and rights of access to your apartment

It’s important to know first that landlords do not have the right to enter your apartment whenever they want. They do have the right to enter if they follow certain steps.

First, you must be given “reasonable notice.” They have to tell you before they enter to make repairs, inspect, or show your place to prospective tenants or buyers.

“Reasonable” in this case means one week’s notice for repairs and 24 hours’ notice for inspections, and it must be made in writing. It has also been held that “reasonable” means between 9am and 5pm, Monday to Friday, excluding holidays. So you are able to say no to your landlord entering at all hours. You also have the power to negotiate with them if you’d like to.

That all being said, you’re allowed to let your landlord in outside those times if you want them to come and help you with something. This is just what the landlord is required to do if they want to enter without your offering.

There is also an exception for emergencies, which can include a fire or a water leak.

Your rights regarding utilities

Your landlord is not allowed to cut off utilities such as electricity, water, or heat without a court instructing them to do so.

Breaking a lease early in New York

If you have issues about safety or security, then sure, you might have cause to break a lease. It’s worth calling 311 to discuss your options if you get to that point.

As a really simple, sweeping statement though: you don’t have a right to break a lease.

Your contract will normally have clauses about how and when a lease ends, outside of just waiting it out. So again, read the contract.

The best thing you can do is talk to your landlord, because essentially they hold all the cards. It is up to them.

Some things you can raise as options:

1. Find another tenant;
2. Sublet your place;
3. Pay out some or all of the lease;
4. Ask what they’d accept.

You should not just skip out on your lease. It impacts you personally. It will be attached to your credit and record, and could massively affect your chances of getting a lease in the future. It also impacts the wider expat community. A landlord burned by someone leaving the country is less likely to rent to an expat next time.

Something to remember: be nice!

“You catch more flies with honey than vinegar.”

While I’ve never understood why you want flies, it’s an important proverb to remember.

You have lots of rights, yes, but that doesn’t mean you should abuse them. If your landlord is bothering you, talk to them in writing. If you want to raise an issue, send them an email. Document everything, be polite, and try to come to a reasonable conclusion.

Not all landlords are reasonable, just like not all tenants are. Even so, it’s important to start from the position that you’re working toward an agreement between all parties. That will make everyone’s lives easier.

If you have questions about your particular situation, then you should definitely call 311 to discuss your options.

A watch on housing and eviction in America

America Josh reader Todd pointed out an awesome video Hasan Minhaj did about (not) being evicted, as part of his show Patriot Act. It’s a few years old now. Even so, the underlying housing issues he digs into haven’t gone anywhere. You can watch it below.

This article was refreshed and updated with Rachel at Pinpointe, who works in the New York rental market every day. Thank you, Rachel.

This is general information, not legal advice. Rules change and individual situations differ, so call 311 or speak with a qualified attorney about your specific circumstances.

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