Free New York City Rent-Stabilized Lease Renewal Offer (RTP-8) — overview

A New York City Rent-Stabilized Lease Renewal Offer (RTP-8) is the mandatory landlord notice required by the NY Rent Stabilization Code (Section 2523.5) to renew a rent-stabilized lease. Landlord must offer renewal between 90 and 150 days before lease expiration, with RGB-approved rent increases.

Complete the Rent-Stabilized Lease Renewal Offer (RTP-8)

Complete the form below to generate a comprehensive New York City Rent-Stabilized Lease Renewal Offer (RTP-8). The form produces a multi-page PDF in legal-document format with all proposed renewal terms, statutory notice language, and tenant response section. The landlord signs and delivers to the tenant; the tenant responds within the specified window.

About the New York City Rent-Stabilized Lease Renewal Offer (RTP-8)

NYC rent-stabilized apartments are governed by the Emergency Tenant Protection Act (ETPA) and the Rent Stabilization Code (9 NYCRR Part 2520 et seq.). DHCR Form RTP-8 is the required format for renewal offers. Section 2523.5 of the Code requires the landlord to offer renewal between 90 and 150 days before the current lease expires, with rent increases limited to NYC Rent Guidelines Board (RGB) approved annual percentages. The offer must include BOTH a 1-year and a 2-year option, with the rent for each calculated using the RGB rates. Tenants have 60 days to accept either option. Failure to offer timely renewal subjects the landlord to DHCR penalties and may give tenants additional rights.

New York City Notice Framework

• Statute: NY Rent Stabilization Code Section 2523.5 (9 NYCRR)
• Form: DHCR Form RTP-8 (Renewal Lease Form)
• Notice timing: 90-150 days before current lease expiration
• Tenant response window: 60 days
• Rent increase: limited to NYC Rent Guidelines Board (RGB) approved percentages
• Must offer BOTH 1-year and 2-year options

What This Notice Does

• Identifies parties, apartment, and DHCR registration
• States current legal regulated rent
• Specifies applicable RGB increase percentages (1-year and 2-year)
• Offers BOTH 1-year and 2-year renewal options
• Specifies the 60-day tenant response window
• Addresses preferential rent if applicable

Tenant Response Process

NYC rent-stabilized tenants should review the RTP-8 renewal offer carefully. The tenant has 60 days to accept either the 1-year or 2-year option. Failure to respond does NOT terminate the rent-stabilized tenancy — the tenant retains the right to continue under the prior terms until accepting a renewal. Verify the proposed rent increases against the current RGB rates (published annually by the NYC Rent Guidelines Board). If the offer is improper or untimely (outside the 90-150 day window), contact DHCR or a tenant attorney.

Related Resources

• New york landlord tenant laws
• New york habitability laws
• New york security deposit laws
• New york eviction notice laws
• New york late fee laws
• Landlord forms

When must a NYC owner offer a rent-stabilized renewal lease, and how long does the tenant have to answer?

A New York City rent-stabilized owner must serve the renewal offer not more than 150 days and not less than 90 days before the existing lease term ends, and must give the tenant 60 days from the date of service to accept. That window comes from the Rent Stabilization Code at 9 NYCRR 2523.5(a), which also fixes the format and the delivery method: the offer must be made “on a form prescribed or a facsimile of such form approved by the DHCR,” it must be dated by the owner, and it must be delivered by mail or personal delivery. The DHCR renewal lease form is the RTP-8. A facsimile is permitted, but it must be a facsimile of the current prescribed form — a renewal letter of the owner’s own drafting is not compliant.

Two features of the offer trip owners up. First, the renewal must be at the legal regulated rent permitted for a renewal lease and otherwise on the same terms and conditions as the expiring lease — a renewal is not an opportunity to add clauses, change the deposit, or alter services. Second, the choice of term belongs to the tenant: under 9 NYCRR 2522.5(b)(1) the tenant “shall have the right of selecting at his or her option a renewal of his or her lease for a one- or two-year term,” so both terms must be priced on the form. Only two narrow exceptions remove the one-year option — a mortgage or mortgage commitment in existence as of 1 April 1969 that prohibits one-year leases, or a tenant receiving a Senior Citizen Rent Increase Exemption.

The clock does not stop when the tenant signs. Under 9 NYCRR 2523.5(a) and 2522.5(b)(1), the owner then has 30 days from receipt to furnish a copy of the fully executed renewal lease bearing both signatures and the term dates. Only on execution by the owner and delivery to the tenant does the form become a binding renewal lease.

The renewal sequence, in order

Step	Timing	Authority
Owner serves the DHCR renewal offer by mail or personal delivery	Not more than 150 and not less than 90 days before the lease term ends	9 NYCRR 2523.5(a)
Tenant accepts and returns the form, selecting a one- or two-year term	60 days from the date the notice was served	9 NYCRR 2523.5(a); 2522.5(b)(1)
Owner furnishes the fully executed copy back to the tenant	Within 30 days of receiving the tenant-signed form	9 NYCRR 2523.5(a); 2522.5(b)(1)
DHCR rider attached to the renewal lease as an addendum	At signing	9 NYCRR 2522.5(c)(1)

The rider is not optional paperwork. 9 NYCRR 2522.5(c)(1) requires a DHCR-promulgated rider, in larger type than the lease, attached as an addendum to every renewal. If it is not furnished, 9 NYCRR 2522.5(c)(3) provides that the owner “shall not be entitled to collect any adjustments in excess of the rent set forth in the prior lease” unless the rent collected was otherwise legal — a missing rider can wipe out the very guideline increase the renewal was written to capture, and supplying it late cures the penalty prospectively only.

What happens if the renewal offer is late, and does the tenant stay rent-stabilized?

A late offer does not end rent stabilization and does not end the tenancy — it costs the owner money and control of the start date. 9 NYCRR 2523.5(d) is explicit: except as provided in Part 2524, “the failure to offer a renewal lease pursuant to this section shall not deprive the tenant of any protections or rights provided by the RSL and this Code and the tenant shall continue to have the same rights as if the expiring lease were still in effect.” An owner who lets the window pass has not created a holdover.

The financial consequence sits in 9 NYCRR 2523.5(c)(1). Where the owner fails to offer on time, the term the tenant selects commences at the tenant’s option, either on the date a renewal would have commenced had the offer been timely, or on the first rent payment date occurring no less than 90 days after the owner actually offers. Two limits then bind the owner:

• The increased rent cannot take effect until the first rent payment date occurring no less than 90 days after the offer is made. A late offer buys the tenant at least three more months at the old rent.
• The guideline rate applied “shall be no greater than the rate in effect on the commencement date of the lease for which a timely offer should have been made.” Lateness cannot be cured by reaching for a newer order.

If instead the tenant lets the response window lapse and stays on, 9 NYCRR 2523.5(c)(2) allows the expiring lease to be deemed renewed on the same terms at the legal regulated rent, with the guideline adjustment that would have applied on a timely acceptance, where that treatment is appropriate under Real Property Law section 232-c. Where no deemed lease arises, 9 NYCRR 2523.5(c)(3) routes the owner to court under 9 NYCRR 2524.2(c)(1) and 2524.3(f).

A further failure mode is entirely self-inflicted: if the owner does not return the fully executed form within 30 days of receiving the tenant’s signature, 9 NYCRR 2523.5(a) provides that the tenant loses no rights and the owner is barred from commencing any action or proceeding against the tenant based on non-renewal of lease under 9 NYCRR 2524.3(f).

What renewal increase can a NYC owner put on the form right now?

For rent-stabilized apartment and loft leases commencing on or after 1 October 2026 and on or before 30 September 2027, the New York City Rent Guidelines Board has set the renewal adjustment at 0% for a one-year lease and 0% for a two-year lease. That is Apartment and Loft Order Number 58, adopted 25 June 2026. Terms that commenced in the prior guideline year — on or after 1 October 2025 and on or before 30 September 2026 — are governed by Order Number 57, which set 3% for one year and 4.5% for two years. Figures current as of 19 August 2026; the Board adopts a new order each June and the guideline year always runs 1 October to 30 September.

RGB order	Lease commencement dates covered	One-year	Two-year
Order Number 58 (adopted 25 June 2026)	1 Oct 2026 through 30 Sep 2027	0%	0%
Order Number 57	1 Oct 2025 through 30 Sep 2026	3%	4.5%

The governing date is the commencement date of the renewal term, not the date the offer is served — so an owner serving in May or June is routinely pricing a term that begins after 1 October and falls under the next order. Order 58 also fixes how odd terms are read: any term up to and including one year counts as a one-year lease, and any term over one year up to and including two years counts as a two-year lease. It further provides that rentals charged and paid above the levels it establishes “shall be fully credited against the next month’s rent.”

If the applicable rate has not yet been fixed when the offer goes out, 9 NYCRR 2522.5(d)(1) lets the lease provide that the increase, once filed, takes effect as of the commencement date of the term — unless the Board fixed a later effective date. That is what allows a compliant offer served before the June adoption to stand.

How does a preferential rent change a rent-stabilized renewal offer?

Since the 2019 rent law, a preferential rent is generally the base the owner renews from — the higher legal regulated rent can no longer be restored at renewal. 9 NYCRR 2521.2(a) defines a preferential rent as a rent charged to and paid by the tenant that is less than the legal regulated rent. Subdivision (d), added by the 2019 amendments, provides that for any tenant subject to a lease in effect on or after 14 June 2019, or entitled to a renewal or vacancy lease on or after that date, “upon renewal of such lease, the amount of rent … that may be charged and paid shall be no more than the rent charged to and paid by the tenant prior to that renewal, as adjusted by the most recent applicable guidelines increases and any other increases authorized by law.”

In practice the guideline percentage is applied to the preferential rent actually being paid, not to the legal regulated rent above it. The higher figure does not drop off the paperwork, though: 9 NYCRR 2521.2(b) requires the legal regulated rent to be set forth in the lease under which the preferential rent is charged, and 9 NYCRR 2521.2(c) requires the owner to maintain, and produce to DHCR on demand, the rental history preceding the preferential rent. Stating one figure and omitting the other is the standard defect on these renewals.

One qualification owners miss: 9 NYCRR 2521.2(a) still permits the higher legal regulated rent as the base upon vacancy. Subdivision (d) is a renewal rule, not a vacancy rule. A separate carve-out at 9 NYCRR 2521.2(e) covers buildings subject to the Code by regulatory agreement with a local government agency that also receive federal project-based rental assistance.

When may a tenant refuse, or an owner decline to renew?

A tenant’s refusal of a proper offer is a ground for a court proceeding; an owner’s refusal to offer is lawful only on a closed list of grounds, and two of them require DHCR authorization before court. If the tenant, after notice under 9 NYCRR 2523.5, refuses to renew “in the manner prescribed in such notice at the legal regulated rent authorized under this Code and the RSL, and otherwise upon the same terms and conditions as the expiring lease,” 9 NYCRR 2524.3(f) makes that a ground for recovering possession. The same subdivision bars commencing the proceeding before the existing lease term has expired, and 9 NYCRR 2524.2(c)(1) requires the predicate notice to be served at least 15 days before the surrender date it specifies.

Where the owner wants out, the grounds split into two routes:

• Court after notice, no DHCR application. 9 NYCRR 2524.4(a) covers occupancy by the owner or a member of the owner’s immediate family as a primary residence in New York City, on notice served at least 90 and not more than 150 days before the term expires (9 NYCRR 2524.2(c)(3)). Only one rent-stabilized or rent-controlled unit may be recovered, and only one of several individual owners of a building may use it. It does not reach a tenant, or a tenant’s spouse, who is 62 or older, who has occupied a unit in the building 15 years or more, or who has a qualifying permanent impairment, unless the owner provides an equivalent or superior accommodation at the same or lower regulated rent nearby.
• DHCR authorization required first. Under 9 NYCRR 2524.5(a), for withdrawal from the rental market and for demolition the owner “shall file on the prescribed form an application with the DHCR for authorization to commence an action or proceeding to recover possession.” Demolition means removal of the entire building including the foundation, and requires proof of financial ability plus approved plans; the tenant may remain in occupancy while the application is pending (9 NYCRR 2524.2(e)).

All of the above is specific to New York City rent-stabilized units. A free-market New York apartment runs on a different notice regime, has no Rent Guidelines Board ceiling on the renewal rent, and does not use the DHCR renewal form.