Free New York 14-Day Notice to Pay Rent or Quit

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The 14-day notice to pay rent or quit is the written rent demand a New York landlord must serve before commencing a nonpayment proceeding. Under RPAPL § 711(2), as amended by the 2019 HSTPA, the tenant gets at least 14 days to pay the rent due or surrender possession. The written 14-day demand replaced the old 3-day and oral demands. Generate a compliant demand below.

14-Day Demand RPAPL § 711(2) HSTPA-Updated Free PDF

A New York 14-Day Notice to Pay Rent or Quit is the statutory written rent demand a landlord must serve before commencing a summary nonpayment proceeding for unpaid rent. It is governed by RPAPL § 711(2), as amended by the 2019 Housing Stability and Tenant Protection Act (HSTPA), with service rules at RPAPL § 735 and the Good Cause Eviction disclosure at RPL § 231-c. The HSTPA replaced the former 3-day and oral rent demands with a written demand giving at least 14 days to pay or surrender possession. The form below produces a compliant 14-day demand; our New York eviction notice laws guide covers the full nonpayment process, and the tenant screening laws by state hub helps you place reliable renters in the first place.

The 14-Day Notice to Pay Rent or Quit is the statutory written rent demand a New York landlord must serve on a tenant who has defaulted in the payment of rent. It is the procedural prerequisite to filing a summary nonpayment proceeding under RPAPL § 711(2). Without a properly-drafted, properly-served 14-day demand, a New York housing court has no jurisdictional basis to hear a nonpayment case.

The notice does three things in one document. First, it demands the past-due rent. The amount must be the actual rent owed. Late fees, attorney fees, utility charges, and other non-rent items should not be bundled into the sum demanded. A demand that overstates what is owed by including non-rent charges can be attacked as a defective predicate notice – and a defective predicate notice can end the entire proceeding.

Second, it gives the tenant a 14-day cure window. The tenant has at least 14 days to either pay the full rent demanded or surrender possession of the premises. This is a curable notice: if the tenant pays in full within the 14 days, the default is cured and no nonpayment proceeding follows. The 14-day written demand is the statutory cure opportunity that the HSTPA expanded from the old 3-day period.

Third, it carries the required disclosures. Under RPL § 231-c, the 14-day demand must append or contain a notice stating whether the premises are subject to the Good Cause Eviction law (RPL Article 6-A), and if the unit is exempt, the reason for the exemption. The form on this page includes the demand mechanics and the Good Cause disclosure so the served notice is complete.

The 14-day rent demand sits inside a layered statutory framework that the 2019 HSTPA substantially rewrote. The core statute is RPAPL § 711(2), which requires that, before a nonpayment proceeding, a written demand of the rent be made with at least 14 days’ notice requiring, in the alternative, payment of the rent or possession of the premises.

The HSTPA rewrite. Before June 2019, New York permitted an oral rent demand or a written 3-day demand as the predicate to a nonpayment case. The Housing Stability and Tenant Protection Act of 2019 abolished the oral demand entirely and replaced the 3-day written demand with the written 14-day demand now codified in RPAPL § 711(2). Any landlord relying on old 3-day-demand boilerplate or a verbal demand is using a defective predicate under current law.

Service rules are at RPAPL § 735, which authorizes personal delivery, substituted service on a person of suitable age and discretion at the premises, and conspicuous-place (nail-and-mail) service. Substituted and conspicuous service each require mailing a copy by both certified or registered mail and regular first-class mail within one day of the delivery or affixing – a dual-mailing requirement unique to the New York framework.

The Good Cause disclosure at RPL § 231-c requires the 14-day demand to append or contain a notice stating whether the premises are subject to the Good Cause Eviction law (RPL Article 6-A) and, where exempt, the basis for the exemption. Pay-and-stay rights run through RPAPL § 731(4) (payment of the full rent due before the hearing moots the proceeding) and RPAPL § 751 (the tenant may pay the full amount due to stop execution of the warrant). One operational rule binds all of this together: the demand must precisely match the statute. Defects that might be excused elsewhere – a short notice period, an overstated sum, defective service, a missing disclosure – can void the demand and end the case.

The 2019 HSTPA changed the single most-used predicate notice in New York landlord practice. Understanding exactly what changed keeps a nonpayment case from failing on a technicality that did not exist before June 2019.

What the HSTPA changed. The Act made three changes that bear directly on this demand. It abolished the oral rent demand, so a landlord can no longer satisfy the predicate by verbally telling the tenant to pay. It replaced the written 3-day demand with a written 14-day demand, more than quadrupling the cure window. And it later folded in the Good Cause disclosure obligation, so the demand must now tell the tenant whether the tenancy is protected by RPL Article 6-A.

What a compliant 14-day demand states. A compliant New York 14-day demand should expressly state:

1. That rent is due and unpaid, identifying the amount of rent owed and the period or periods for which it is owed.
2. That the tenant has at least 14 days to pay the full rent demanded or surrender possession of the premises – in the alternative, as RPAPL § 711(2) requires.
3. The deadline date by which payment must be received, computed as at least 14 days after service of the demand.
4. The Good Cause Eviction disclosure under RPL § 231-c, stating whether the premises are subject to RPL Article 6-A or the reason for exemption, and the consequences of nonpayment – the commencement of a summary nonpayment proceeding.

What this means in practice. Pre-HSTPA boilerplate that demands payment within 3 days, relies on a verbal demand, or omits the Good Cause disclosure is now defective. Every New York 14-day demand should be drafted as of the date of service with the deadline computed as at least 14 days out and the disclosure appended. The form on this page does this: enter the service date, and the form computes the pay-by deadline and includes the required statements. A defective demand simply restarts the process – and the delay is far more costly than getting the demand right the first time.

The 14-day period under RPAPL § 711(2) is a minimum: the demand must give the tenant at least 14 days to pay or surrender possession. Unlike some short-notice states, New York counts calendar days for the demand period, and the safest practice is to count generously so the tenant unquestionably receives the full 14 days.

How to count. The demand must give the tenant no fewer than 14 days from service to comply. Because service by mail-dependent methods (substituted service and conspicuous-place service) is complete only after the required mailings and any statutory period for the tenant to receive them, many New York practitioners build in extra days beyond the bare 14 to eliminate any argument that the tenant did not have the full period. A demand that gives more than 14 days is enforceable; a demand that gives fewer than 14 is defective.

Worked example – personal delivery. A 14-day demand personally delivered to the tenant on the 1st of the month gives the tenant through at least the 15th to pay or surrender possession. The landlord should not commence the nonpayment proceeding until the full 14 days have run.

Worked example – conspicuous-place service. A demand served by affixing to the door and mailing on the 1st is not complete until the mailings are made within one day of the affixing. To be safe, count the 14 days from the later of the affixing and the mailing, and add a cushion of a few days so the tenant indisputably had the full statutory window before any petition is filed.

Why the cushion matters. A demand that is even one day short is a defective predicate notice, and a defective predicate notice can be raised as a defense that ends the nonpayment case. Because computing the exact day of completed service can be contested – especially for the mail-dependent methods – counting a few extra days protects the demand at essentially no cost. The generator on this page computes the pay-by date as at least 14 days after the service date you enter; if you serve by a mail-dependent method, extend the deadline further before you rely on it.

Complete the form below to generate a compliant New York 14-Day Notice to Pay Rent or Quit. The form computes the pay-by deadline (at least 14 days after service), includes the RPL § 231-c Good Cause disclosure, and states the consequences of nonpayment. Serve in accordance with RPAPL § 735, and for substituted or conspicuous-place service, complete the required certified/registered and first-class mailings within one day.

RPAPL § 735 governs how the 14-day demand (and later the notice of petition and petition) must be served. Email, text message, social media, and a purely verbal demand are not authorized methods and do not satisfy the statute. The dual-mailing requirement for the substituted and conspicuous methods is a defining feature of New York service.

The dual-mailing rule

For both substituted service and conspicuous-place service, RPAPL § 735 requires mailing a copy of the demand by both certified or registered mail and regular first-class mail, and the mailings must be made within one day of the delivery or affixing. Sending only one class of mail, or mailing late, is a service defect. Keep the certified-mail receipt and the certificate of mailing for the first-class copy.

Affidavit of service

The person who serves the demand should complete an affidavit of service stating the date, time, location, method, and recipient (or substituted recipient), and the date and manner of the required mailings. If a nonpayment proceeding follows, the affidavit is filed with the notice of petition and petition. Retain the signed original demand and the affidavit in the property file.

New York gives tenants unusually strong rights to cure a nonpayment default by paying late. A landlord who understands these rights avoids commencing a proceeding that the tenant can moot, and manages expectations about when possession can actually be recovered.

Cure during the 14-day period. The most basic right is the cure built into the demand itself: if the tenant pays the full rent demanded within the 14 days, the default is cured and no nonpayment proceeding follows. This is the entire point of a curable pay-or-quit demand.

Payment before the hearing moots the case. Under RPAPL § 731(4), if the tenant pays the full amount of rent due before the hearing of the petition, the payment must be accepted by the landlord and renders moot the grounds on which the nonpayment proceeding was commenced. A landlord who has already filed cannot refuse a full pre-hearing payment and press ahead on the same grounds.

Payment before the warrant executes stops the eviction. Under RPAPL § 751, the tenant may pay the full rent due, with interest and costs, to stop execution of the warrant of eviction. The right to pay and stay runs deep into the proceeding – even after judgment, the tenant can generally halt the eviction by paying the full amount due before the warrant is actually executed.

The 14-day post-judgment warrant delay and hardship stays. Under the HSTPA, a warrant of eviction in a residential nonpayment proceeding is not issued until the rent has remained unpaid for 14 days following the final judgment. On top of that, RPAPL § 753(1) gives the court discretion to stay the issuance of the warrant or execution for up to one year, weighing factors such as ill health, a child’s school enrollment, and the availability of similar housing. Together these rules mean a New York nonpayment case can take considerable time even after the landlord wins, which is one more reason to place a reliable tenant at the outset.

New York’s Good Cause Eviction law (RPL Article 6-A) and its rent-regulation systems add layers on top of the statewide 14-day demand, and the demand itself must disclose the Good Cause status of the tenancy.

The Good Cause disclosure. RPL § 231-c requires the 14-day demand to append or contain a notice stating whether the premises are subject to the Good Cause Eviction law. If the unit is covered, the tenant enjoys additional protections against removal and certain rent increases. If the unit is exempt – for example, an owner-occupied one-to-two-family home, a small-landlord exemption, a high-rent unit above the local threshold, or an already-regulated unit – the notice must state the basis for the exemption. The form on this page lets you select covered or exempt and record the exemption reason.

Local adoption. Good Cause Eviction applies statewide in the sense that the disclosure obligation attaches to the demand, but the substantive protections apply in New York City and in municipalities that have opted in. Verify whether the locality where the property sits has adopted Good Cause and what local thresholds apply before relying on an exemption.

Rent-stabilized and rent-controlled units. Rent-stabilized and rent-controlled tenancies carry their own body of protections administered by the state Division of Housing and Community Renewal and, in New York City, by local agencies. The 14-day demand is still the predicate for a nonpayment case in these units, but the permissible rent, the notices, and the defenses differ. Confirm the regulatory status of the unit before serving, and consult counsel for rent-regulated nonpayment cases.

• Using an oral or 3-day demand. The HSTPA abolished the oral demand and replaced the 3-day written demand with a 14-day written demand. A verbal demand or a 3-day notice is a defective predicate under current RPAPL § 711(2).
• Giving fewer than 14 days. The demand must give the tenant at least 14 days. A demand that is even one day short is defective and exposes the case to dismissal.
• Overstating the sum demanded. Bundling late fees, attorney fees, or utility charges into the rent demanded can void the demand as a predicate notice. Demand the rent owed only.
• Botching RPAPL § 735 service. Skipping the required certified/registered and first-class mailings for substituted or conspicuous service, or mailing late, is a service defect that can end the case.
• Omitting the Good Cause disclosure. RPL § 231-c requires the demand to state the Good Cause status of the tenancy. Leaving it out where required weakens the demand as a predicate.
• Refusing a curing payment. Refusing full payment during the 14 days, before the hearing, or before the warrant executes ignores the tenant’s pay-and-stay rights under RPAPL §§ 731(4) and 751.
• Filing the petition too early. Commencing the nonpayment proceeding before the full 14 days have run is premature and defeats the case.
• Inconsistent landlord/tenant identification. Name all tenants on the lease and identify the landlord or agent consistently with the lease and the eventual petition caption.

Rent-stabilized, rent-controlled, and Good-Cause-covered tenancies layer additional requirements on top of the statewide rule. Always confirm the regulatory status of the unit and the local Good Cause posture before relying on state law alone, and see our guide to New York eviction procedure for the full process.

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