9 Things New York Landlords Can’t Do, No Matter What Your Lease Says

New York capped security deposits at one month’s rent back in 2019.

Many landlords still ask for more anyway.

That’s just one of several rules a lease can’t sign away, whatever the fine print claims.

These are the things a New York landlord legally can’t do, no matter what you signed.

Note: This is general information, not legal advice. Rental rules and notice periods are subject to change, so confirm the current requirements with the New York State Attorney General’s office.

1. Locking You Out Without a Court Order

Under New York law, a landlord who wants a tenant gone has exactly one legal path: Housing court.

Changing the locks isn’t it.

Neither is shutting off your heat, pulling your refrigerator’s plug, hauling your belongings to the curb, or blocking the door until you leave.

State law treats this as an unlawful eviction, a crime on top of civil penalties that run $1,000 to $10,000 per violation.

New York City adds its own layer, with the Department of Housing Preservation and Development able to fine landlords who use these tactics to push out rent-stabilized tenants.

Even a landlord who owns the building outright has to ask a judge first.

2. Charging More Than One Month’s Rent as a Deposit

New York’s security deposit rules used to let landlords ask for two or three months of rent upfront, plus a deposit on top of that.

Not anymore.

General Obligations Law caps a security deposit at one month’s rent, whatever the apartment costs, and a lease clause demanding more doesn’t hold up.

Landlords also can’t collect a deposit plus advance last month’s rent as if they’re two separate pots of money, when together they add up to more than one month’s worth.

3. Making You Waive Your Right to a Livable Home

New York holds every landlord to an implied promise that your rental is fit to live in, whether the lease says so or not.

Landlords can’t sign that promise away with a lease clause, no matter how it’s worded.

State law calls it what it is: Any lease waiving that right is void because it works against public policy.

No exceptions.

That promise comes with numbers attached, not just a vague standard.

During heating season, October 1 through May 31, landlords have to keep New York apartments at 68 degrees in the daytime whenever it’s colder than 55 outside, and 62 degrees overnight no matter what it’s doing outside.

New York City tenants get extra enforcement tools many communities upstate don’t, including 311 complaints and inspections from the Department of Housing Preservation and Development, but the underlying promise covers the entire state.

4. Charging a Late Fee Over the Legal Cap

Your rent isn’t legally late in New York until it’s five days overdue.

Five days, not one.

After that, a late fee tops out at $50 or 5% of the monthly rent, whichever number is smaller, no matter what a lease’s fine print tries to charge instead.

A $2,000 apartment caps out at $50.

A $600 room upstate caps out at $30.

Landlords also can’t disguise a bigger charge as an “administrative fee” or a “processing fee” and call it legal just because the label isn’t “late fee.”

5. Charging More Than $20 to Screen You

New York’s $20 cap on screening fees holds no matter what a rental application or a lease’s fine print tries to charge instead.

The number doesn’t move.

State law voids any lease provision that waives or raises that limit, so a landlord can’t write around it just by putting a bigger number on the paperwork.

The fee also can’t run higher than the actual cost of the credit or background check.

Landlords also have to hand over a copy of whatever report they pull, plus an itemized receipt for the actual cost, or they forfeit the fee entirely.

An applicant with their own report from the last 30 days can hand that over instead and skip the fee altogether.

Some New York landlords still quote $50 or $75 “processing fees” on the application itself, betting nobody checks the actual limit.

6. Retaliating After You File a Complaint

File a complaint about your New York apartment.

A lease clause spelling out a landlord’s broad discretion not to renew doesn’t buy them a free pass for what happens next.

State law treats a rent hike, an eviction notice, a sudden new lease violation, or a refusal to renew as retaliation when it follows within a year.

It doesn’t just ban the practice.

It assumes it.

Join a tenant association, report a violation, or take a landlord to housing court, and any landlord move against you within the next year gets a legal presumption that it was payback.

The landlord has to prove otherwise, discretion clause or not.

That flips the burden tenants would otherwise carry into housing court alone.

7. Skipping Your 30, 60, or 90-Day Notice

New York landlords have to give advance written notice before ending a tenancy or raising the rent by 5% or more, and how much notice you get depends on how long you’ve lived there.

Under a year, it’s 30 days.

One to two years, 60.

Past two years, 90 days, whether there’s a lease at all or you’ve been paying month to month the whole time.

A landlord can’t shave any of that down by writing a smaller number into the lease.

8. Enforcing a One-Sided Attorney Fees Clause

A New York lease can give a landlord the right to collect attorney’s fees after winning in court.

What it can’t do is keep that right one-sided.

State law makes it automatic.

The moment a lease lets a landlord collect legal fees after winning a case, it reads as though the tenant can collect the same fees after winning theirs, whether the lease mentions that or not.

Many leases still spell out only the landlord’s side, and many tenants never learn the right runs both ways.

9. Refusing Your Service or Support Animal

Even a strict “no pets” policy at a New York rental has to bend for a documented assistance animal.

That includes a psychiatric service dog or a documented emotional support animal, not just a guide dog.

State and federal fair housing law both require the accommodation, and a landlord can’t charge the extra pet deposit, pet rent, or pet fee they’d charge for an actual pet.

None of it.

A “no pets” clause, however it’s worded, doesn’t apply to an animal a tenant needs because of a disability.

Where New York’s Good Cause Eviction Law Goes Further

New York’s Good Cause Eviction law adds a layer none of the rules above cover on their own: In the places where it applies, a landlord needs an actual legal reason to not renew a lease, not just proper notice.

It became law in 2024.

It works automatically in New York City.

Everywhere else, a city or town has to opt in, and more than a dozen had by 2025, including Albany, Kingston, Poughkeepsie, and Rochester.

A rent increase above roughly 5% plus inflation, capped at 10%, counts as presumptively unreasonable in a covered building, and a tenant can fight it in court.

Buildings with 10 or fewer units are exempt in a lot of places, so this protection skips many smaller landlords entirely.