The following sources are indexed for searching. The exact text comes from the linked sources, as of the date noted. Always check the official version before relying on it.
New York's main property statute, included in full. For renters, the key parts are Article 7 (landlord and tenant), including the warranty of habitability (§ 235-b), protection from retaliation (§ 223-b), subletting (§ 226-b), the roommate law (§ 235-f) and limits on fees (§ 238-a), and Article 6-A, the Good Cause Eviction Law.
The rules for eviction cases, included in full. Article 7 governs summary proceedings in housing court: who may be evicted and on what grounds (§§ 711, 713), required notices, tenant defenses, and stays and warrants of eviction (§§ 749, 753). Other articles cover foreclosure and other property disputes.
The housing parts of the city code: the Housing Maintenance Code (Title 27, Chapter 2), which covers heat, hot water, repairs, lead, mold and harassment; the Rent Stabilization Law (Title 26, Chapter 4); rent control (Title 26, Chapter 3); unlawful eviction (Title 26, Chapter 5); the right to counsel in eviction cases (Title 26, Chapter 13); the Human Rights Law's ban on housing discrimination (§ 8-107), including discrimination based on source of income; the J-51 tax benefit program (§ 11-243), which can make an apartment rent-stabilized; and personal guaranties in commercial leases (§ 22-1005).
Safety and maintenance rules for buildings with three or more apartments, included in full. It includes the Loft Law (Article 7-C) and the rule that an owner cannot collect rent for an apartment that lacks a legal certificate of occupancy (§ 302).
Only the sections about leases: security deposits (§§ 7-101 to 7-109), which cover how deposits must be held, interest, the one-month limit, and return within 14 days with an itemized statement; lease clauses exempting a landlord from liability for its negligence, which are void (§ 5-321); and the writing requirements for leases and their changes (§§ 5-703, 15-301).
The 1974 state law that lets localities with a housing emergency regulate rents. It is the basis for rent stabilization in many older NYC buildings and in the suburban towns that have opted in (in Nassau, Westchester and Rockland counties).
State rent control outside New York City. NYC's rent control law is in the NYC Administrative Code.
DHCR's regulations for rent-stabilized apartments in NYC, included in full. They cover lease renewals, legal rent and increases, overcharge complaints, required services, succession rights for family members, and exemptions.
DHCR's regulations for rent-controlled apartments in New York City: maximum rents and increases, services, evictions, succession by family members, and decontrol.
DHCR's regulations for rent-controlled apartments outside New York City, in the municipalities that still have rent control under the Emergency Housing Rent Control Law.
DHCR's regulations for rent-stabilized apartments outside New York City, in the suburban towns that have adopted the Emergency Tenant Protection Act (in Nassau, Westchester and Rockland counties).
DHCR's occupancy rules for state-supervised Mitchell-Lama housing: eligibility, income limits and surcharges, and succession rights for family members who lived with the tenant.
HPD's rules (Title 28 of the Rules of the City of New York), which fill in the Housing Maintenance Code: heat, hot water and temperature-reporting devices, lead-based paint, indoor allergens and mold, bedbug reports, smoke and carbon monoxide detectors, owners' access to apartments, certifications of no harassment, and tax-benefit programs such as J-51 and 421-a, which can make an apartment rent-stabilized. Four chapters unrelated to housing rights (commercial rent, campaign finance, community gardens, environmental review) are left out.
The Rent Guidelines Board's yearly orders, from #17 (1985) to the latest, setting the maximum increases for one- and two-year leases on rent-stabilized apartments and lofts. Orders before 2003 are scans converted to text by OCR, so check their figures against the original PDF.
Published by NYS Homes and Community Renewal (DHCR): Fact Sheets, which are plain-language guides for tenants and owners, plus Operational Bulletins and Policy Statements, which explain how DHCR interprets and applies the rent laws.
Decisions from New York courts since 1950 on housing matters: evictions, rent regulation, repairs and conditions, and leases. Courts covered are the Court of Appeals, Appellate Division, Appellate Term, Supreme Court, Civil Court (including Housing Court), and District and City Courts. Decisions are drawn from CourtListener's bulk data (Free Law Project) and selected automatically by subject, so a few may be off-topic and some housing decisions are missed. Also included are non-housing decisions that ten or more housing documents cite (for example on summary judgment or review of agency decisions); they rank below housing decisions. Many Housing Court decisions are never published, so trial-level coverage is partial.
DHCR's decisions on petitions for administrative review (PARs), the appeal an owner or tenant files against a Rent Administrator's order. They cover overcharges, lease renewals, major capital improvement (MCI) increases, decreases in services, rent restorations and other cases, from October 2021 on, as DHCR posts them in quarterly batches. The originals are scans converted to text by OCR, so the text may contain errors; each order links to its pages in DHCR's PDF.