Free New York City Rent Increase Notice

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For an unregulated (market-rate) New York City unit, a rent increase of 5% or more triggers advance written notice under Real Property Law §226-c — 30, 60, or 90 days depending on how long the tenant has lived there. A rent-stabilized unit follows the Rent Guidelines Board instead. Generate the right notice below.

30 / 60 / 90-day (RPL 226-c) N.Y. Real Prop. Law §226-c New York City Free PDF

This New York City Rent Increase Notice is for an unregulated, market-rate apartment. Under Real Property Law Section 226-c (the Housing Stability and Tenant Protection Act of 2019), a landlord who raises the rent by 5% or more — or declines to renew — must give written notice 30, 60, or 90 days in advance, tiered by how long the tenant has occupied the unit. A rent-stabilized apartment is different: increases are set by the Rent Guidelines Board, not this notice. Our how to raise rent guide covers the timing, and the tenant screening laws by state hub helps you place reliable tenants in the first place.

Complete the fields below to generate a New York City rent increase notice. The new rent and effective date must give the tenant the full statutory notice period. Service should comply with applicable New York law; retain proof of service.

A New York City rent increase notice is the written notice a landlord gives to raise the rent on an unregulated, market-rate apartment. The controlling rule is Real Property Law Section 226-c, added by the Housing Stability and Tenant Protection Act of 2019. Under that section, whenever a landlord intends to raise the rent by five percent or more, or decides not to renew the tenancy, the landlord must give advance written notice. How much notice depends on how long the tenant has lived in the unit: thirty days if the tenant has occupied the apartment for less than a year and has no lease of at least a year, sixty days if the tenant has lived there for more than one year but less than two, and ninety days once the tenant has occupied the unit for two years or more. If the landlord gives less than the required notice, the tenant may stay at the existing rent until a full, proper notice period runs.

The threshold question is whether the apartment is regulated. This notice is built for a free-market unit. A rent-stabilized apartment — and roughly a million NYC apartments are stabilized — cannot be raised at the landlord’s discretion. Its increases are fixed each year by the New York City Rent Guidelines Board, whose 2025-26 order allows 3 percent on a one-year renewal and 4.5 percent on a two-year renewal, and they are offered to the tenant on a DHCR renewal-lease form rather than a free-market notice. A landlord who serves this market-rate notice on a stabilized tenant has used the wrong instrument; use the rent-stabilized rent increase notice instead. A small number of older units remain rent-controlled and follow the separate Maximum Base Rent system.

Since 2024, New York’s Good Cause Eviction law adds a layer for many unregulated NYC units. On a covered apartment, a rent increase above the annual local rent standard — the regional Consumer Price Index plus five percent, capped at ten percent — is presumed unreasonable and can be contested by the tenant in housing court, and a landlord proposing an increase over five percent must tell the tenant whether Good Cause applies. The law does not cap rent the way stabilization does, but it gives a covered tenant a defense against an outsized increase, so a market-rate landlord should know the current standard before setting a new rent.

Motive matters too. Real Property Law Section 223-b bars retaliation: if a landlord substantially alters the terms of a tenancy — including by offering an unreasonable rent increase — within one year after the tenant makes a good-faith complaint about conditions, reports a violation, or otherwise exercises a legal right, the law presumes the action is retaliatory and the landlord must prove a non-retaliatory reason. An increase that lands just after a repair complaint invites exactly that challenge. Federal, New York State, and New York City human rights law independently bar an increase aimed at a tenant because of a protected characteristic.

Because New York fixes no required method to serve a market-rate rent-increase notice, the practical standard is provable written delivery within the 226-c window. Personal delivery, delivery to a suitable person at the residence with a mailed copy, certified mail with a return receipt, or first-class mail all work; email or a tenant portal is fine only when the lease authorizes electronic notice. Whatever the method, the notice should state the current rent, the new rent, the percentage, and the effective date, and the landlord should keep a signed, dated copy with proof of delivery. Our how to raise rent guide walks through the timing, and screening applicants with verified reports keeps tenancies stable so the increases you serve actually stick.

Put together, a clean NYC market-rate increase is exact: confirm the unit is unregulated, match the notice period to the tenant’s occupancy (30, 60, or 90 days), check Good Cause Eviction on covered units, keep the timing outside the one-year retaliation window, deliver the notice in writing with proof, and never serve it on a stabilized tenant who should be getting an RGB renewal instead.

Since Good Cause Eviction took effect in New York City on April 20, 2024, many unregulated apartments carry a soft ceiling on the rent even though they have no stabilization cap. On a covered unit, an increase above the annual local rent standard is presumed unreasonable, and the tenant can raise that presumption as a defense if the landlord later tries to evict for nonpayment of the higher rent. The landlord is not barred from asking for more, but a court can find the increase unreasonable and decline to enforce it.

The local rent standard is set by a fixed formula: the regional rate of inflation plus five percent, capped at ten percent total. As of February 2025 the New York City inflation figure was 3.79%, which put the standard at 8.79% — so an increase above roughly 8.79% on a covered unit was presumptively unreasonable that year. Because the inflation input changes, NYS Homes and Community Renewal republishes the standard (and the luxury threshold below) every year before August 1. Confirm the current figure before you set a new rent; do not rely on last year’s number.

Good Cause Eviction reaches most market-rate NYC apartments, but several categories are exempt. On an exempt unit, only the Real Property Law Section 226-c notice rules apply and there is no local rent standard limiting the amount. A unit is not covered by Good Cause if it falls into one of these groups:

• Small-landlord units — the owner holds 10 or fewer units total in New York State. Where the owner is an LLC or similar company, each individual owner must hold 10 or fewer units for the exemption to apply, counting every building in which that person has an ownership stake.
• Newer construction — the building received a certificate of occupancy on or after January 1, 2009.
• High-rent (luxury) units — the rent is greater than 245% of the Fair Market Rent for the area; HCR publishes the dollar thresholds each year before August 1.
• Already-regulated units — rent-stabilized, rent-controlled, or units whose rent is set by another regulatory program (these follow their own rules, not Good Cause).
• Owner-occupied small buildings — a building of 10 units or fewer where the owner lives, plus certain subsidized, manufactured-home, seasonal, and institutional units.

The 2024 Good Cause law did more than limit increases — it changed what a rent-increase notice itself must say. Real Property Law Section 226-c now requires that the notice append or contain the statement required by Section 231-c. That rider must state:

• Whether the unit is or is not subject to the Good Cause Eviction law (Real Property Law Article 6-A);
• If the unit is exempt, the specific reason it is exempt (for example, small landlord, post-2009 construction, or rent above 245% of Fair Market Rent);
• If the unit is covered and the increase is above the local rent standard, the landlord’s justification for the increase; and
• For a non-renewal of a covered unit, the lawful Good Cause basis for not renewing.

This requirement applies to covered and exempt buildings alike — even an exempt landlord must affirmatively state the exemption. A market-rate increase served without the required Section 231-c language can be treated as defective, so include the coverage statement with the notice rather than as an afterthought.

Before serving this notice, confirm the apartment is genuinely market-rate. Roughly a million NYC apartments are rent-stabilized and about 16,000 older units remain rent-controlled — and neither is raised with a free-market 226-c notice.

Rent-stabilized units

A stabilized apartment — typically in a pre-1974 building of six or more units — is raised only within the NYC Rent Guidelines Board’s annual order. Under Order #57, for leases commencing between October 1, 2025 and September 30, 2026, the allowed increase is 3% on a one-year renewal and 4.5% on a two-year renewal (the prior order allowed 2.75% and 5.25%). The order applies by the lease-commencement date, not the calendar year, and the increase is offered on a DHCR renewal lease. A stabilized rent can also rise through a major capital improvement (MCI) or individual apartment improvement (IAI) increase, or under preferential-rent renewal rules — again through DHCR, never this notice.

Rent-controlled units

Rent control covers a small number of units in buildings built before 1947 with a tenant in continuous occupancy since 1971. Those rents follow the Maximum Base Rent system, recalculated roughly every two years — not the RGB order and not this notice.

Serve this market-rate form only after you have confirmed the unit’s status — check the rent-stabilized rent increase process or DHCR if you are unsure.

On a market-rate unit there is no set limit on how often the rent can change, but the timing is tied to the lease, not the landlord’s discretion:

• Fixed-term lease — the rent is locked for the term. An increase takes effect only at renewal or at the start of a new term, unless the lease expressly allows a mid-term change.
• Month-to-month tenancy — the landlord raises the rent by serving a 226-c notice: 30, 60, or 90 days ahead based on how long the tenant has occupied the unit. The new rent begins after that period runs.
• Rent-stabilized — once a year, at renewal, within the Rent Guidelines Board order.
• Rent-controlled — on the Maximum Base Rent cycle, about every two years.

The practical rule for a free-market landlord is simple: line the increase up with the end of the current term, give the full 226-c notice, and remember that a 5%-or-more jump always triggers the tiered notice period.

Even a properly timed increase can be illegal if the motive is retaliatory. Real Property Law Section 223-b bars a landlord from serving a notice to quit, bringing a possession case, or substantially altering the terms of the tenancy — a category the statute says expressly includes “offering a new lease with an unreasonable rent increase” — in retaliation for a tenant’s protected act. Protected acts include:

• A good-faith complaint to the landlord or a government agency about a health or safety violation or the warranty of habitability (Real Property Law Section 235-b);
• Good-faith steps to enforce lease or habitability rights under state, local, or federal law; and
• Participation in a tenants’ organization.

If the landlord raises the rent or moves to end the tenancy within one year after such an act, Section 223-b creates a rebuttable presumption of retaliation. The burden then shifts to the landlord to prove a non-retaliatory motive by a preponderance of the evidence; without that proof the tenant prevails and can recover damages, attorney’s fees, and costs. A separate provision voids any lease clause that charges a tenant a fee for making a complaint, with triple damages for trying to enforce it. Federal, New York State, and New York City human rights laws separately bar an increase aimed at a tenant because of a protected characteristic.

• Written notice for a 5%-or-more increase on an unregulated unit under Real Property Law Section 226-c — the same rule applies when the landlord declines to renew.
• Tiered notice period: 30 days if the tenant has occupied the unit under one year, 60 days for one to two years, and 90 days for two years or more.
• Rent-stabilized units are excluded — their increases are capped by the NYC Rent Guidelines Board’s annual order and offered on a DHCR renewal lease, not this notice.
• Good Cause Eviction can make an above-standard increase (local rent standard = CPI plus 5%, capped at 10%) challengeable as unreasonable on a covered unregulated unit, and the notice must disclose whether Good Cause applies.
• No retaliatory increase — Real Property Law Section 223-b presumes retaliation if the landlord substantially alters the tenancy within one year of a protected complaint.
• No discriminatory increase based on a protected class (federal, New York State, and NYC human rights law).

• New York sets no required method to serve a market-rate rent-increase notice — the goal is provable written delivery within the 226-c window.
• Personal delivery to the tenant, or delivery to a suitable person at the residence with a mailed copy.
• Certified mail with return receipt, or U.S. first-class mail, gives a dated paper trail of when the period began.
• Email or a tenant portal works only if the lease authorizes electronic notice; keep the send record either way.

• Using this notice on a rent-stabilized apartment — those increases are set by the Rent Guidelines Board and offered on a DHCR renewal lease.
• Giving 30 days when the tenant has lived there over a year — the 226-c tiers require 60 or 90 days.
• Forgetting that a 5%-or-more increase is what triggers the written-notice requirement in the first place.
• Ignoring Good Cause Eviction on a covered unit, or timing the increase within the one-year Section 223-b retaliation window.
• Relying on a verbal notice with no written record or proof of delivery.

• Confirm the unit is unregulated before serving — check the registration status with DHCR if you are unsure.
• Match the notice period to occupancy: 30, 60, or 90 days, counted from when the tenant receives the notice.
• State the current rent, the new rent, the percentage, and the effective date plainly, and note whether Good Cause applies.
• Deliver by a method you can prove, and avoid timing an increase right after a tenant complaint.

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