What is a rent-stabilized apartment?


Rent stabilization is a program that regulates the rents of certain privately-owned apartments in New York, and gives tenants other rights. If you are rent-stabilized, there are limits to how much your rent can be increased, and there are only certain reasons why your landlord can try to ask you to leave or try to evict you.

Rent-stabilization is not a subsidy and the rent may not be affordable to you, but the program does give you protections that tenants in unregulated apartments don’t have.


Your apartment is likely rent-stabilized if:

• It has six (6) units or more
• It was built before 1974 or under a tax abatement such as 421a or J51 
• The apartment was not legally deregulated before June 2019

How do I know I’m rent stabilized?


While it’s not a guarantee, a good signal that you are rent-stabilized is:

• Your building is privately-owned (not public housing or a non-profit organization)
• Your building has at least six apartments, and was built before 1974.
• Your rent is an unusual number – for example: $1187.59, rather than a round number like $1,200. Rent-stabilized apartments can only go up a certain percentage every year, causing the maximum legal rent to quickly become unusual.
• You sign a one-year or two-year lease renewal, and your rent goes up by a certain percentage. This year’s increases were 0% for a one-year lease and 0% for a two-year lease. This increase starts Oct 1 each year.
• People in your building pay different amounts of rent for apartments that are similar in size.

The only way to know if you are rent-stabilized is to get your Rent History.

Which apartments are covered by rent-stabilization?

There are approximately 900,000 rent stabilized apartments in New York City.

What rights and protections do I have as a rent stabilized tenant?

Some of the major protections and guarantees rent-stabilized tenants have include:

• Limited rent increases as set by the Rent Guidelines Board every June
• Guaranteed lease-renewal and the right to a “good cause” eviction–if you are rent-stabilized your landlord cannot simply decide they don’t want you as a tenant anymore, they are limited to certain reasons for evicting you (see below)
• Succession rights — if you are the immediate family member of a rent-stabilized tenant and have been living with them immediately prior to their moving or passing away, you might be entitled to take over the lease.

What determines a rent-stabilized apartment’s “legal regulated rent”?

Your apartment’s unique history determines the legal rent – not area market rents, nor your ability to pay. Tenants in identical apartments may pay very different rents, especially between newer tenants and long-term tenants.

You can obtain a printout of the registered rents for your apartment – called a ‘rent history’ – from the NYS Division of Housing & Community Renewal. You can have this mailed to you by get your Rent History.

How can my rent be raised in a rent-stabilized apartment?

Rent Guidelines Board increases.

The NYC Rent Guidelines Board (RGB) meets every spring to determine the renewal increase amounts for all of New York City’s rent-stabilized apartments. The RGB is a 9-member panel appointed by the mayor. They generally award landlords increases that steadily maintain or increase their profit level. The increases vary. For rent-stabilized leases being renewed between October 1, 2026 and September 30, 2027 the legal rent may be increased at the following levels: for a one-year renewal there is a 0% increase, or for a two-year renewal there is a 0% increase

A new guideline is voted on every June, and the increases take effect for leases coming up for renewal on October 1st of that year through September 30 of the following year. However, your landlord must offer you a renewal lease in order to collect a rent increase. If your landlord doesn’t offer you a valid lease renewal, you don’t need to pay the increase until a period of time after that offer.

To learn more about the Rent Guidelines Board, their meeting schedule, and see past adjustments, visit their website

Learn more about a rent-stabilized lease renewals.

Major Capital Improvements (MCIs)

When landlords replace major building systems like boilers, roofs, or plumbing, costs can be passed onto tenants as long-term rent increases. The cost is divided between all of the apartments in the building (calculated by room) and 1/144 or 1/150 of the total amount can be added to the monthly rent. Though 12 or 12.5 years later, your landlords will be fully reimbursed for the expense, your rent increase will last for 30 years. MCI increases for rent-stabilized tenants are capped at 2% per year and this amount is added to the base rent before the RGB adjustment. MCI increases are removed from the lease after 30 years.

Landlords must apply to DHCR to get MCI increases approved. Rent-stabilized tenants will receive notice that the landlord has applied for the increase and can challenge the application.

For more about challenging MCI applications, see our page on Major Capital Improvement rent increases.

Individual Apartment Improvements (IAIs)

When landlords make improvements to an individual unit, they can increase the legal rent. IAIs, which allow landlords to raise rent-stabilized rents mainly in between tenancies, are notoriously fraudulent and hard to fight. These improvements usually occur between tenants when the apartment is vacant. You may see IAIs listed on your apartment’s rent history.

The law about IAIs has changed several times recently, on June 14, 2019, for the better and now on April 20, 2024, for the worse.

• Two Tiers of IAI Caps:
  Tier 1: $30,000 for all apartments, amortized over 15 years, an increase of up to $179 a month
• Tier 2: apartments must have been vacant for 2022, 2023, and 2024, and apartments where the prior tenant has lived in the unit for 25 years or more. $50,000 amortized over 15 years, an increase of up to $347 a month

Tenants can investigate overcharges with DHCR – including if the unit was deregulated as a result – and seek rent adjustment and damages. (See our page on rent stabilization overcharges.)

Tenants can also be subject to IAI increases during their tenancy if the landlord provides a new appliance, or renovates the apartment at the request of the tenant. However, rents cannot be raised for apartment repairs, and when appliances break, the tenant can request a used appliance in good working order, rather than a new appliance, to avoid any rent increase. (See our page on when an appliance breaks.)

On what grounds can I be evicted from my rent-stabilized apartment?

Non-payment of rent

• Like any other tenant, as a rent-stabilized tenant, you can be sued for eviction in Housing Court if you owe back rent. 
• Violating a substantial obligation of your lease. Examples include:
• subletting without permission
• not using the apartment as your primary residence
• operating a business out of your apartment
• making alterations to your apartment without permission
• using appliances such as washing machines that are prohibited in your lease
• 
  

Being a nuisance. Examples include:

• selling drugs
• constant noise coming from the apartment
• violent behavior
• cluttering your apartment to the point that it is a hazard
• paying your rent late on a chronic basis

Limited landlord actions

• owner-use (the landlord is seeking the apartment for his/her personal use, or that of an immediate family member)
• whole-building demolition

What is the history of New York’s rent-stabilization program?

Established in 1969 to cover tenants in post-World War II buildings, the law was extended when the state legislature passed the Emergency Tenant Protection Act of 1974. The rent stabilization system is NYC’s largest affordable housing program (the median household income of the rent stabilized household is $40,600 per year; while those tenants in unregulated apartments earned a median of $58,000 per year in 2013). The system protects tenants from the housing market forces that drive displacement and steep rent increases while it permits landlords a fair return on their investment. Because the system limits landlords’ profits, it is under continuous attack from the real estate industry.

The rent laws are controlled from Albany thanks to changes made in the 1970’s when Governor Rockefeller enacted vacancy decontrol in an attempt to phase out rent regulations. The rent stabilization law was saved; however, the state retained the power over the enabling of the laws and tenants must go to Albany on a regular basis to get the laws renewed, in addition to getting the NY City Council to renew the laws every three years. In the 1990’s and most recently, in 2003, landlords have forced weakening amendments as the price of renewal. Landlords gave millions of dollars to elected officials in Albany (especially to the committees formerly controlled by Governor Pataki and Senate leader Joe Bruno). Thanks to these changes, we have lost tens of thousands of units of regulated housing. Without a fierce fight from the tenants in NYC, we will lose so many more units that the laws will be gutted in Albany. 

In 2019, a coalition of tenant groups from across the state fought for and won some of the strongest tenant protections in New York’s history. In addition to stronger protections for all tenants regardless of regulation status, the Housing Stability and Tenant Protection Act (HSTPA) ended the deregulation of rent-stabilized apartments, ended the 20% vacancy bonus that landlords were previously entitled to take between tenants, and brought new limits to MCI and IAI increases. We still have more to fight for! Tenants must continue to pressure lawmakers for better enforcement of existing laws, to end the unjust MCI system entirely, and to guarantee our neighbors in unregulated apartments the same rights to guaranteed renewal and limited rent increases. Join the fight today!

Rent Control

What is rent control?

Rent control is the older of the two rent regulation systems in place in New York City. Today it covers only those tenants who live in buildings built before February 1, 1947 and who have lived in their apartments since July 1, 1971 (if the building has fewer than three units, since April 1, 1953), or a person who succeeded an apartment who was in since then.

Rent control is widely misunderstood. Many times people refer to rent control but are actually referring to rent stabilization – the newer system of rent regulation. There are around a million rent stabilized apartments but fewer than 25,000 rent controlled apartments remain.

How many rent controlled apartments are there in New York City?

There are about 22,000 apartments covered by rent control in New York City today, down from over a million in the 1970’s.

Most rent-controlled tenants earn about $22,000 a year, and pay over 33% of their income for rent. After decades of organizing, the state legislature in 2019 made significant changes to to change the system to make it easier for the elderly tenants who live in rent-controlled apartments.

The Maximum Base Rent System

The Maximum Base Rent system that was used prior to June 2019 has been superseded by a new MBR increase system

How do Rent Control tenants get rent increases now?

As with the old system, landlords must apply once every two years, six months prior to the increase period. They now must use the MBR Application for 2020-2021. DHCR will allow qualifying landlords to raise the rent by the allowable increase.

As of June 2019, the rent increase will now be an average of the last 5 Rent Guidelines Board 1-year rent increases or 7.5%, whichever is less. Landlords will still need to apply for an increase. For 2020-2021, the average of the last 5 RGB increases is 00.85% .

Some landlords choose not to participate in the rent increase system for Rent Controlled tenants. And some landlords have so many violations, they are not eligible for rent increases. For tenants in these buildings, the landlord is not permitted to collect any increase. (See below for more information.)

What is the fuel pass along for rent controlled tenants?

As of June 14, 2019 – Landlords are no longer allowed to add fuel and labor pass along to rent controlled tenants.

Is there any way to stop the annual rent increases for my rent controlled apartment?

Rent increases are granted only if the owner files for it six months prior to the cycle and certifies that essential services are being maintained and that 100% of rent impairing violations and 80% of all other violations that were in place on January 1 of that year have been removed.

Rent-controlled tenants can challenge the increase if the violations were not removed. For example, if your apartment has an ongoing violation for lack of hot water or heat, the landlord’s application for the increase will be denied — and if that denial survives the owner’s appeal, the owner can not get it retroactively later. (Unlike rent stabilization where the landlord can get all lost increases once the violations are cleared.) To challenge the increase, you must file an RA-94 within 35 days of receiving the RN-26.

Rent-controlled tenants have two other challenges: tenants can use the RA-94 to say that the landlord failed to provide essential services (since the landlord swore that essential services were being provided when he filed for the MBR order), and, that the owner does not need the increase in order to run the building (the owner must certify that he paid, or promise to pay, at least 90% of the expense allowance for the operation and maintenance of the building).

In addition, like all rent-regulated tenants, rent-controlled tenants can get a rent freeze and rent reduction if the landlord is not providing services or making repairs and the tenant follows the proper procedures. To get the rent freeze and roll back, the tenant must write a letter to the landlord, mailed by certified mail, describing the problem. If, after 10 days, the owner doesn’t fix the issue, the tenant can file for a decrease with the DHCR. If the problem is lack of heat and hot water, tenants should call 311 until an inspector visits and records the violation, and then get a copy of the violation (from HPD’s website or in person) and send it to the DHCR with the proper form.

Tenants who qualify for the Senior Citizen Rent Increase Exemption or Disability Rent Increase Exemption programs should apply as soon as they qualify. Go to our SCRIE page for more information.

Rent Overcharges in Rent Control Apartments

If a landlord charges a rent-controlled tenant more than they are allowed or applied and was approved for an increase when they should not have been, rent controlled tenants can file and overcharge complaint with DHCR using the form RA-89C

History of Rent Control

The rent control law is descended from the broad rent and price controls that were in place at the end of World War II (of course, rent laws were also in effect in NYC in the 1920’s). During the late 1940’s the federal rent control system, which had been nationwide, was gradually lifted and states that wanted to preserve rent control were permitted to take on administration of the system. While New York City’s housing market suffered from both the lack of construction during the war as well as a large population influx, it also had a well organized labor and tenant movement. Thanks to agitation from the huge number of tenants in the city, Albany took over the rent control system in 1950. After that, the administration of rent control for New York City went from state to city to state, and a variety of decontrol provisions were passed. Today, rent control covers only about 22,000 apartments, down from well over one million in its heyday. The system is now under vacancy decontrol – once the tenant moves out, the apartment is decontrolled–it either becomes rent stabilized or can become unregulated entirely.

Who are rent-controlled tenants?

There are approximately 22,000 rent-controlled apartments in New York City. The median income of those households was $22,200. The median rent is $551 per apartment, and the median household pays over 33.5% of income for rent. The city’s rent-controlled tenants are mostly elderly – with most tenants having lived in their apartments since 1971 or before.

What are the special challenges?

Rent controlled tenants are elderly and living on fixed incomes. The city’s Senior Citizen Rent Increase Exemption program provides relief for some tenants. Tenants who are 62 or older, whose income is $50,000 or less, and who pay 1/3 of their income or more for rent can get their rent frozen. The program is great for those who qualify, assuming that they get the rent frozen right when they reach the qualifying marks. However, many tenants do not qualify in time to freeze the rent before it goes over the 1/3 level of income for rent. (The federal benchmark for an affordable rent is less than 30% of income.)

If you have neighbors who you think might be interested, let them know about the program. Information is available at senior centers and by calling the city at 311.

For more information about rent control:

The New York State Division of Housing & Community Renewal administers the rent control system. Fact sheets, complaint forms and other information can be found by calling 833-499-0343 or on the agency’s website. Go to the Rent Control section.