Renting in New York: what you can be charged

Broker fees and the FARE Act

New York City's Fairness in Apartment Rental Expenses (FARE) Act took effect on 11 June 2025. It stops a landlord's agent from charging fees to people applying to rent, and that includes a listing agent who advertises the apartment with the landlord's permission. If the landlord's agent or a listing agent charges you, the landlord can be liable (NYC Department of Consumer and Worker Protection).

In practice: if you answer a listing and the broker works for the landlord, you shouldn't pay that broker anything. Nobody, including a broker who says they act for both sides, may make renting an apartment depend on you hiring a broker.

You can still choose to hire your own broker to search for you, and then you pay them under your agreement. A tenant's broker may advertise, but may not offer particular apartments only to people who hire them (DCWP).

The law also requires openness about money. Listings must show every fee a tenant has to pay to rent the apartment, clearly. Before you sign a lease, the landlord or agent must give you an itemised written list of every fee you must pay the landlord, with a description of each; you sign it, they keep a copy for three years and give you one. DCWP notes that a fee you agreed in a contract before 11 June 2025 may not be covered, depending on the circumstances.

If you are charged a fee you think is illegal, you can complain to DCWP online, with as much evidence as you have and the broker's name and contact details, or sue in civil court (DCWP).

Application and background-check fees

This is state law, so it applies across New York, the Hamptons included. Since 2019 a landlord may not charge for processing, reviewing or accepting an application, or ask for any other payment before or at the start of a tenancy, apart from a few exceptions (Real Property Law §238-a).

The main exception is a background and credit check. The fee for both together may be no more than their actual cost or $20, whichever is less. The landlord must give you a copy of the report and the receipt or invoice from the company that ran it, or they can't charge the fee. And if you bring your own background or credit check done in the past 30 days, they must waive it (RPL §238-a; NY Attorney General).

The same section limits late fees once you live there: none until the rent is more than five days late, and then no more than $50 or 5% of the monthly rent, whichever is less.

Security deposits

A security deposit can be no more than one month's rent. New York's housing agency says the Housing Stability and Tenant Protection Act of 2019 limits the deposit for any apartment to one month's rent (NYS Homes and Community Renewal, Fact Sheet 9), and the Attorney General adds that a landlord can't also ask for last month's rent on top (NY Attorney General). The statute has narrow exceptions, including registered seasonal rentals of no more than 120 days a year, which matters if you rent a summer house in the Hamptons (General Obligations Law §7-108).

If your rent goes up at renewal, the landlord can ask for more to bring the deposit up to the new month's rent. In a building with six or more apartments, the deposit must sit in an interest-bearing New York bank account; the landlord may keep 1% a year for administration and the rest of the interest is yours (NY Attorney General).

When you move out, the landlord has 14 days to return the deposit, with an itemised statement of anything kept for unpaid rent or damage beyond normal wear and tear. A landlord who misses the 14 days loses the right to keep any of it (GOL §7-108). You can ask for an inspection before you leave, and be there for it (NY Attorney General).

Net effective rent and gross rent

Many listings, especially in new rental buildings, quote a "net effective" rent: the rent you'd pay if a concession, usually one or more free months, were spread evenly over the lease. The gross rent is what the lease says you owe each month.

Take a gross rent of $4,000 on a 12-month lease with 1 month free. You pay $44,000 over the year, which averages $3,667 a month. That $3,667 is the net effective rent. It is useful for comparing apartments, and it is how our rental tracker compares them, but it is not the rent you pay in most months.

The lease, the deposit and the first month's payment are normally set from the gross rent, and so is the income test below. When the lease ends, the concession usually ends with it, so a renewal is priced from the gross rent too, and your monthly payment over the second year can be the full $4,000, or more. Before you sign, ask how the free month is given (taken off the first month, the last month or spread out), whether the deposit is one month of the gross rent, and what the renewal will be based on. Work out net effective rent for any listing.

The 40 times rule and guarantors

Many New York landlords ask that your yearly income be at least 40 times the monthly rent: $160,000 a year for a $4,000 apartment. This is landlord practice, not law. No statute sets it, and landlords vary: some will also look at savings, and many will accept a guarantor instead. What a landlord can't do is take a bigger deposit to make up the difference, because the one-month cap still applies.

A guarantor signs to pay if you don't. Landlords commonly ask a guarantor to show a higher income than a tenant. No law sets the multiple; each landlord has its own rule, so ask. Our tracker uses 80 times the monthly rent as a working figure. The rental tracker shows the income and guarantor income each apartment would need at 40 and 80 times.

What to ask before you sign

• Who does the broker work for? If it's the landlord, you shouldn't be paying them.
• Can I have the written list of every fee before I sign the lease? (In New York City the FARE Act requires it.)
• What is the gross rent on the lease, and how is any free month given?
• Is the deposit no more than one month's gross rent, and where will it be held?
• What does the screening fee cover, and will I get the report and the invoice? Can I use my own check from the past 30 days?
• Which costs are mine each month: electricity, gas, heat, internet, amenity or storage charges? Add them to the rent before comparing.
• When can the rent change, and how much notice comes before a renewal?

To see what you'd really pay for each apartment you're considering, including free months, fees, utilities and the cash to move in, log them in the rental tracker.