Your rights as a tenant

Between 6am and 10pm, when it is below 55°F outside, the owner must heat your apartment to at least 68°F. HPD can only issue a violation for inadequate heat when it is below 55°F outside.

Between 10pm and 6am the apartment must be at least 62°F, whatever the temperature outside.

Hot water must run at a minimum of 120°F, 24 hours a day, every day of the year — not only in heat season.

No heat or hot water is a 311 complaint. Make it while the condition is happening.

Ask the owner, managing agent or superintendent first.

If nothing happens, write a letter describing the problems and setting a date. Send it by certified mail and keep a copy. Owners must file their contact details with HPD every year, so you can look the address up if you do not have it.

Then try in person or by phone, and keep a record of every attempt — it is useful in court.

If there is still no response, file a complaint with HPD, and you can bring an HP Action in Housing Court to get an order forcing the repairs. You start one at the Clerk’s Office, and you do not need a lawyer to do it.

In a rent controlled or rent stabilized apartment you can also complain to the State (DHCR, 718-739-6400), which can cut your rent if the complaint holds up.

In a multiple dwelling the owner must paint occupied apartments every three years. In smaller private dwellings they must be painted as necessary.

Report peeling paint to the owner. If it is not fixed, or if work is being done in a way that spreads dust, call 311 — particularly if a child under six lives there.

Any tenant can request window guards in writing for any reason, even with no resident child aged ten or under — grandchildren who visit, shared custody, childminding all count.

Call 311 if guards are not installed after being required or requested, look insecure or badly fitted, or leave more than four and a half inches of open unguarded space.

Generally no. In an emergency the owner may enter at any time without notice.

Otherwise they may enter at a reasonable time after appropriate notice, to make necessary or agreed repairs and services, in accordance with the lease, or to show the apartment to prospective tenants or purchasers.

Without a warrant of eviction it violates the Unlawful Eviction Law. It applies to a tenant or subtenant with a lease, anyone who has lawfully lived there more than thirty days with or without a lease, and a subtenant, roommate or relative who has lived there at least thirty days even if they are not on the lease and have never paid the landlord directly.

Report it at the nearest police station, and you can start an illegal lockout case in Housing Court.

Keep proof you live there — lease, rent receipts, utility bills, mail, ID — and leave copies with someone outside the apartment in case you cannot get back in.

If you change your own locks, the law requires you to give the owner a copy of the key.

Owners are prohibited from harassing tenants to force them out. Verbal or physical abuse, consistently withholding services, and persistent physical or mental intimidation are all examples.

Any tenant in a building with three or more units — rent regulated or not — who believes they are being harassed may have grounds to start an action in Housing Court. Free or low-cost legal help may be available.

Immigrant New Yorkers have the same rights and responsibilities in housing as every other tenant, regardless of documentation status.

An owner may not treat you differently because of immigration or citizenship status or national origin — including by refusing repairs, or by renting on different terms.

Threatening to call ICE, retaliating because you complained or organised, or otherwise intimidating you over your status is illegal and counts as harassment.

Report discrimination to the NYC Commission on Human Rights at (212) 416-0127.

In a rent controlled or rent stabilized apartment, DHCR and the Rent Guidelines Board set how much the owner may raise the rent. DHCR can tell you whether an increase is too high.

If you do not know whether your apartment is regulated, call DHCR on 718-739-6400 or request your apartment’s rental history — the history is the document that settles it.

If the apartment is not regulated and you have a lease, the legal rent is what the lease says and can only rise as the lease permits or when it expires. With no lease, the owner may raise it to any amount provided they tell you a month beforehand.

In public or subsidised housing, increases follow that programme’s rules and are usually tied to household income.

At the end of the tenancy you are entitled to your deposit back with interest. The owner may inspect for damage first.

If there is damage beyond normal wear, they must give you an itemised statement of what they kept and why, plus the balance, within fourteen days of you moving out. If they fail to do that they forfeit any right to the deposit.

They must also tell you in writing that you may request an inspection before you move out and be present at it. After that inspection you get an itemised list of proposed repairs and cleaning — which means you have the chance to fix things yourself before the tenancy ends.

Good Cause Eviction is a New York State law that took effect on 20 April 2024. It gives some tenants of unregulated — market rate — homes in New York City new protections.

Owners of covered homes cannot end a tenancy without a "good cause" reason, and tenants can raise the law as a defence in Housing Court.

It can also be used to challenge rent increases above a certain level where the tenant is being evicted for nonpayment.

It applies to eviction cases started on or after 20 April 2024 — meaning the date the owner first filed papers in court.

By law an owner may not deny you housing because of race, colour, religion, nationality, gender, sexual orientation, age, marital status, disability, immigrant status, source of income, or lawful occupation.

They also may not deny you housing because children live with you or will be living with you.

Source of income being protected means a voucher is not a lawful reason to turn you down.

Owners must keep buildings safe, clean and well maintained, in the common areas as well as inside apartments, and must provide and maintain security measures, heat, hot and cold water, and good lighting.

They must register the property with HPD annually. If the building is rent stabilized they must also register the rents annually with New York State Homes and Community Renewal.

A building whose registration is missing or stale is worth noticing: the owner is already out of compliance with the one obligation that makes them reachable.

Tenants must comply with the law and are responsible for violations caused by willful acts, gross negligence or abuse.

Unreasonably refusing the owner access to make repairs or improvements required by the Housing Maintenance Code and Multiple Dwelling Law may be grounds for eviction proceedings.

You are also responsible for responding to legally required notices, including the annual lead-based paint and window guard notices.