Free New York Rent Increase Notice

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This is the statewide New York notice for a market-rate tenancy. New York has no statewide rent cap, but RPL §226-c sets a graduated notice: to raise the rent by 5% or more (or not renew) you must give 30, 60, or 90 days’ written notice based on how long the tenant has lived there. In New York City and opt-in localities the 2024 Good Cause Eviction law adds a rent-increase standard on top. Rent-stabilized units are separate. Generate a clean notice below.

30 / 60 / 90-day (RPL 226-c) RPL 226-c / 223-b New York Free PDF

This New York Rent Increase Notice is the statewide notice for a market-rate (non-regulated) residential tenancy – distinct from a rent-stabilized or rent-controlled unit, where the Rent Guidelines Board sets the increase. New York sets no statewide cap on a market-rate increase, but RPL §226-c requires graduated written notice – 30, 60, or 90 days depending on the tenant’s length of occupancy – whenever you raise the rent by 5% or more or decline to renew. In New York City and the localities that have opted in, the 2024 Good Cause Eviction law adds a rent-increase standard, and RPL §223-b bars a retaliatory increase. 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 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 rent increase notice is the written notice a landlord gives to raise the rent on a residential tenancy. This is the statewide notice for a market-rate, non-regulated unit, and it is important to start by drawing two lines. First, a rent-stabilized or rent-controlled apartment is not covered here: those units take their increases from the local Rent Guidelines Board, on a separate track this market-rate notice does not touch. Second, New York City has its own dense layer of rules; this page is the statewide market-rate notice, and a landlord in the five boroughs should read it alongside the city-specific guidance. With those lines drawn, the headline for market-rate units is simple: New York has no statewide cap on how much the rent can go up. What the law regulates is the notice you must give before a meaningful increase takes effect, and, in some places, whether an unusually large increase can be challenged.

The statewide rule is Real Property Law §226-c, the graduated-notice statute added by the 2019 Housing Stability and Tenant Protection Act. Whenever a landlord intends to renew a tenancy with a rent increase equal to or greater than five percent above the current rent, or does not intend to renew the tenancy at all, the landlord must give advance written notice, and the length of that notice scales with how long the tenant has lived in the unit. If the tenant has occupied the unit for less than one year and has no lease term of at least a year, the notice is at least thirty days. If the tenant has occupied the unit for more than one year but less than two years, or has a lease of at least one but less than two years, the notice is at least sixty days. If the tenant has occupied the unit for two years or more, or has a lease of two years or more, the notice is at least ninety days. The statute has teeth: if the landlord fails to give timely notice, the tenant’s lawful tenancy continues on the existing terms from the date actual written notice is finally given until the notice period has run, regardless of what a lease says. An increase of less than five percent on a market-rate unit does not trigger the §226-c notice, but the lease or month-to-month terms still govern when and how the change takes effect.

On top of the notice rule sits the 2024 Good Cause Eviction law (Real Property Law Article 6-A), and it is essential not to mistake it for a statewide cap. Good Cause is an opt-in overlay. It applies automatically in New York City, and elsewhere only in the cities, towns, and villages that adopt it by local law – among them Albany, Ithaca, Kingston, Poughkeepsie, Beacon, Newburgh, Nyack, Hudson, New Paltz, Catskill, Croton-on-Hudson, and Binghamton. Where it applies, the law sets a local rent standard equal to the lesser of the inflation index, defined as the regional Consumer Price Index plus five percent, or ten percent. An increase above that standard is presumptively unreasonable: it does not forbid the increase outright, but it gives the tenant the right to contest a non-renewal or eviction premised on the unpaid excess, and it puts the burden on the landlord to justify the increase as reasonable. Many units are exempt. The law does not reach a landlord who owns ten or fewer units, an owner-occupied building of ten or fewer units, new construction with a certificate of occupancy issued on or after January 1, 2009 (exempt for a rolling thirty years), units already regulated or subsidized under any local, state, or federal program, co-op and condominium units, or high-rent units renting for more than 245 percent of the applicable fair market rent. So even inside a Good Cause locality, a landlord must check coverage before assuming the standard applies, and outside those localities the only constraint on the amount is the marketplace.

Two further limits apply everywhere in the state. An increase cannot be retaliatory: Real Property Law §223-b bars a landlord from substantially altering the terms of a tenancy – including by an unreasonable increase or a refusal to renew – in response to a tenant’s good-faith complaint about habitability or a code violation, the tenant’s enforcement of a legal right, or the tenant’s participation in a tenants’ organization, and it creates a rebuttable presumption of retaliation when the landlord’s action comes within one year of the protected act. And an increase cannot be discriminatory under the federal Fair Housing Act or the New York State Human Rights Law. Because New York fixes no special method to serve a market-rate increase notice, the practical standard is provable written delivery within the §226-c period – personal delivery, delivery at the premises, certified mail with a return receipt, or first-class mail all work, and email or text only where the lease or tenant authorizes it. Where Good Cause applies, the landlord must also include the Division of Housing and Community Renewal’s Good Cause notice with the increase. Whatever the method, the notice should state the current rent, the new rent, the percentage increase, and the effective date, and the landlord should keep a signed, dated copy with proof of service. 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 New York market-rate increase is exact rather than capped: confirm the unit is market-rate and not rent-stabilized, treat any increase of five percent or more (or a non-renewal) as a §226-c event and give the matching 30-, 60-, or 90-day written notice, check the Good Cause standard if the unit sits in New York City or an opt-in locality, keep the timing and motive outside the §223-b retaliation bar, deliver the notice in writing with proof, and follow any longer period the lease sets. None of this replaces the screening you do at move-in – a tenant chosen for steady income and a clean payment history is the one most likely to absorb a lawful increase without a dispute.

• No statewide cap on a market-rate increase — New York has no statewide rent control; rent-stabilized and rent-controlled units are a separate Rent Guidelines Board regime.
• Graduated notice (RPL 226-c) — for an increase of 5% or more, or a non-renewal, give at least 30 days’ written notice (occupancy under 1 year), 60 days (1 to 2 years), or 90 days (2 years or more).
• Late notice is tolled — if the landlord gives the §226-c notice late, the tenancy continues on existing terms until the notice period runs out.
• Good Cause overlay — in New York City and opt-in localities, an increase above the local rent standard (the lesser of CPI + 5% or 10%) is presumptively unreasonable and a tenant can contest a non-renewal, unless the unit is exempt.
• Good Cause exemptions — small or owner-occupied buildings of 10 or fewer units, new construction with a certificate of occupancy on or after Jan 1, 2009 (for 30 years), high-rent units over 245% of fair market rent, co-ops/condos, and already-regulated units.
• No retaliatory increase (RPL 223-b) — a rebuttable presumption of retaliation arises if the increase or non-renewal follows a protected tenant act within one year.
• No discriminatory increase based on a protected class (federal Fair Housing Act and the New York State Human Rights Law).

• New York sets no special method to serve a market-rate rent-increase notice, but the RPL 226-c notice must be written — a verbal increase does not satisfy it.
• Personal delivery to the tenant, or delivery left at the rental premises if the tenant is absent.
• Certified mail with a return receipt, or U.S. first-class mail, gives a dated paper trail; allow added days for receipt when you mail.
• Email or text works only if the lease or tenant authorizes electronic notice and you document it; where Good Cause applies, include the required DHCR Good Cause notice with the increase.

• Giving less than the RPL 226-c period — 30, 60, or 90 days by occupancy length — for an increase of 5% or more or a non-renewal.
• Treating Good Cause as a statewide cap, or ignoring it where it applies — it covers New York City automatically and only the localities that opt in.
• Using this market-rate notice on a rent-stabilized or rent-controlled unit, where the Rent Guidelines Board sets the increase.
• Raising the rent above the local rent standard (CPI + 5% or 10%, whichever is lower) on a Good Cause-covered unit without confirming an exemption.
• Raising the rent or refusing to renew within a year of a tenant’s protected complaint or tenants’-union activity — RPL 223-b presumes that retaliatory.

• Confirm the unit is market-rate, not rent-stabilized, before using this notice.
• Match the notice period to occupancy under RPL 226-c — 30, 60, or 90 days — and follow any longer period the lease sets.
• If the unit is in New York City or an opt-in locality, check the increase against the local rent standard and include the DHCR Good Cause notice.
• State the current rent, the new rent, the percentage, and the effective date plainly, and serve by a method you can prove.

Direct answer: a rent-stabilized apartment does not use this market-rate notice at all — its increase is set once a year by a rent guidelines board, not by the landlord. In New York City the Rent Guidelines Board issues one order each June that fixes the maximum renewal increase for leases beginning in the following twelve months. Under the current Apartment & Loft Order #57, a rent-stabilized renewal lease commencing on or after October 1, 2025 and on or before September 30, 2026 may rise by 3% on a one-year lease or 4.5% on a two-year lease. Those are ceilings, not automatic amounts, and the tenant — not the landlord — chooses the one- or two-year term at renewal.

Stabilized rent can be raised only once per lease term, on a proper DHCR renewal-lease form offered 90 to 150 days before the current lease ends, and only by the guideline percentage (plus any lawful, separately documented adjustment such as an approved Individual Apartment Improvement). A stabilized landlord cannot serve the free-market §226-c notice on this page to reach a higher number; doing so is a common and expensive mistake. If you are not sure whether a unit is stabilized, a tenant can request the rent history from the New York State Division of Housing and Community Renewal (DHCR), and an improper overcharge can be challenged there.

Outside New York City the same idea appears in two other regimes. In parts of Nassau, Rockland, and Westchester counties that adopted the Emergency Tenant Protection Act (ETPA), rent-stabilized increases are set by a county rent guidelines board rather than the landlord. And a shrinking number of pre-1974 apartments remain under old rent control, where DHCR calculates a Maximum Base Rent. None of these regulated units are governed by the market-rate rule below — confirm the unit is genuinely market-rate before you use the generator above.

The 2024 Good Cause Eviction law (Real Property Law Article 6-A) is the closest thing New York has to a cap on a market-rate unit — but it is a rebuttable presumption, not a hard ceiling, and it only applies in New York City and in the towns and villages that opt in. Where it applies, an annual increase above the local rent standard is presumptively unreasonable. The standard is the lesser of 10% or the regional Consumer Price Index plus 5%, and the state Division of Housing and Community Renewal publishes the CPI figure each year. For 2025, DHCR’s CPI of 3.79% put the New York City local rent standard at 8.79% (3.79% + 5%, which is below the 10% ceiling). Because the CPI changes annually, confirm the current figure with DHCR before you price a renewal.

“Presumptively unreasonable” does not mean forbidden. A landlord may still charge more, but if the tenant contests a non-renewal or eviction built on the unpaid excess, the landlord carries the burden of showing the increase was reasonable — typically by pointing to increased property taxes, higher operating or maintenance costs, or the cost of significant repairs and improvements to the unit or building. Real Property Law §226-c now requires the increase notice on a covered unit to append the DHCR Good Cause notice (RPL §231-c), which must state whether the unit is subject to or exempt from Good Cause, the reason for any exemption, and — where the increase exceeds the local standard — the landlord’s justification. Skipping that rider on a covered unit is a defect in the notice itself.

Coverage is narrower than many tenants assume. Municipalities that had opted in by 2025 include Albany, Ithaca, Kingston, Poughkeepsie, Beacon, Newburgh, Nyack, Hudson, New Paltz, Catskill, Croton-on-Hudson, and Binghamton, with others following — so check the current local law where the property sits. And even inside a covered locality the statute exempts a landlord who owns ten or fewer units, an owner-occupied building of ten or fewer units, new construction with a certificate of occupancy issued on or after January 1, 2009 (exempt for a rolling 30 years), high-rent units renting above 245% of the applicable fair market rent, co-op and condo units, and units already regulated or subsidized under another program. Check coverage before assuming the standard binds you.

Short answer: on a market-rate unit New York sets no numeric limit on how often the rent can change, but the timing of a tenancy controls when an increase can land. Rent cannot be raised in the middle of a fixed-term lease unless the lease contains an escalation clause, so a one-year lease locks the rent for that year and the next increase takes effect at renewal. A month-to-month market-rate tenancy can be raised prospectively, but any increase of 5% or more still triggers the graduated §226-c notice — 30, 60, or 90 days by how long the tenant has lived there — so in practice you cannot stack back-to-back increases faster than that notice period allows.

For regulated units the frequency is fixed by law: a rent-stabilized apartment can be increased once per renewal term at the guideline rate, and a Good Cause-covered unit is measured against the local rent standard on an annual basis. Across the board, the honest answer to “how often” in New York is usually once per lease term or once a year, set by the tenancy or the applicable regulation rather than by a separate frequency statute.

Raising the rent often means resetting the deposit and the fee schedule, and here New York is strict statewide — these limits apply to market-rate and regulated units alike. The 2019 Housing Stability and Tenant Protection Act capped several charges that used to move with the rent:

• Security deposit — one month maximum. Under General Obligations Law §7-108, no deposit or advance may exceed one month’s rent. When a higher rent takes effect on renewal you may collect additional deposit only up to that one-month ceiling, and the deposit must be returned within 14 days of the tenant moving out with an itemized statement of any deductions.
• Late fee — capped and grace-period gated. Real Property Law §238-a bars any late fee unless the rent is more than five days late, and caps the fee at $50 or 5% of the monthly rent, whichever is less. A higher rent does not lift that cap — for any rent of $1,000 or more the late fee is fixed at $50.
• Application / background-check fee — $20 maximum. Real Property Law §238-a limits an application or tenant-screening fee to the actual cost of the background and credit check or $20, whichever is less, and the fee must be waived if the applicant supplies a recent report of their own.

None of these caps is negotiable by lease language, and charging above them does not void the rent increase but exposes the landlord to a tenant claim. Because you can no longer paper over a shaky applicant with a large deposit, the screening you do up front matters more than ever — our verified screening reports help you place a renter who can absorb a lawful increase without a dispute.

New York routes both tenancy types through the same §226-c clock, but the trigger differs. On a fixed-term lease the rent is locked until the term ends; the increase rides on the renewal, and for a jump of 5% or more (or a decision not to renew) the landlord must give the matching 30-, 60-, or 90-day §226-c notice before the term expires. There is no mid-term increase unless the signed lease expressly allows one.

On a month-to-month tenancy the increase is prospective. In New York City, Real Property Law §232-a now ties the termination-and-change notice to the §226-c period rather than a flat 30 days, so a long-term month-to-month tenant still gets 60 or 90 days for a 5%-or-more increase. Outside the city, §232-b governs the ordinary month-to-month tenancy, and the §226-c notice periods still apply to a qualifying increase. Either way, an increase under 5% on a market-rate unit does not trip the §226-c notice, but the lease or the one-month rental-period default still controls when the change can take effect — and any longer period the lease sets always wins.

Knowing the tenant’s angles keeps your increase clean. A New York tenant who believes an increase is unlawful has several distinct paths, and a landlord who can rule each one out before serving is far less likely to end up in housing court:

• Defective or late notice. If the landlord gave less than the §226-c period, the tenancy simply continues on the existing terms — at the old rent — from the day actual written notice is finally given until the full 30, 60, or 90 days run out, no matter what the lease says.
• Good Cause challenge. In a covered unit, a tenant can contest a non-renewal or an eviction built on an increase above the local rent standard as presumptively unreasonable, forcing the landlord to justify the number.
• Retaliation. Real Property Law §223-b creates a rebuttable presumption that an increase or non-renewal within one year of a good-faith habitability complaint, a code report, or tenants’-organization activity is retaliatory.
• Overcharge (regulated units). A rent-stabilized tenant charged above the guideline can file an overcharge complaint with DHCR, which can order a refund and, for a willful overcharge, treble damages.
• Discrimination. An increase aimed at a protected class violates the federal Fair Housing Act and the New York State Human Rights Law.

The takeaway for a landlord is procedural discipline: confirm the unit’s status, match the §226-c period to occupancy, respect any Good Cause standard, keep the timing and motive clean, and serve in writing with proof. A moderate, well-documented, correctly noticed increase is the one that holds up.

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