Free New York Roommate Agreement
New York is the state that actually legislated this. Real Property Law § 235-f, universally called the Roommate Law, makes it unlawful for a landlord to restrict occupancy to the named tenant alone — and subdivision 7 makes any waiver of it null and void.
A roommate agreement is a contract between the roommates. The landlord is not a party to it and it does not change the lease. New York is the one state in this family where a statute gives the tenant an affirmative right to share the apartment in the first place. RPL § 235-f makes it unlawful for a landlord to restrict occupancy to the tenant named in the lease, sets out what happens for a lease naming one tenant and for a lease naming two or more, imposes a notice duty, limits what the occupant acquires, and voids any attempt to waive it. Nine subdivisions in total, and it is worth getting their numbers right because they are widely misreported.
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What section 235-f actually provides, subdivision by subdivision
Subdivision 1 defines “tenant” and “occupant”. Subdivision 2 is the general prohibition on restricting occupancy. Subdivision 3 covers a lease naming one tenant: that tenant may share with immediate family, with one additional occupant and that occupant’s dependent children. Subdivision 4 covers a lease naming two or more tenants — and this is where the head-count proviso lives: the total of tenants and occupants together, not counting occupants’ dependent children, may not exceed the number of tenants named in the current lease. A two-name lease therefore supports two people in total, so a roommate can replace a departing co-tenant but named co-tenants cannot each add one. Both subdivisions also depend on the tenant, or the tenant’s spouse, occupying the premises as a primary residence. Subdivision 5 is the notice duty: the tenant informs the landlord of an additional occupant’s name within thirty days of moving in, or within thirty days of a landlord’s request. Subdivision 6 provides that the occupant acquires no right of continued occupancy and no tenancy rights. Subdivision 7 makes any waiver null and void as against public policy. Subdivision 8 is a savings clause preserving occupancy codes, and subdivision 9 provides a private right of action. Note: a great many summaries put the occupancy limit in subdivision 5 and the waiver rule in subdivision 6. They are one out.
Watch: Free New York Roommate Agreement explained
New York roommate agreement at a glance
The Roommate Law
RPL § 235-f, nine subdivisions
Waiver of it
Null and void (subd. 7)
Notice you owe the landlord
30 days (subd. 5)
What the occupant gets
No tenancy rights (subd. 6)
The occupant has the right to be there and no right to stay
Subdivision 6 is the part roommates most need to understand, because it cuts against the instinct that a legal right to move in must mean some security once you are there. It does not. An occupant under § 235-f acquires no right of continued occupancy and no tenancy rights — those belong to the tenant named on the lease. If the tenant leaves, the occupant’s position goes with them. Note: that asymmetry is the single strongest reason for a written roommate agreement in New York. The statute gives the occupant a right of entry and nothing else; whatever protection they have about notice, money and how much warning they get before they have to move is whatever the roommates agreed between themselves.
How to use a New York roommate agreement
Check whether the lease names one tenant or more
Subdivision 3 and subdivision 4 of RPL 235-f set out different rules, and the head-count proviso sits in subdivision 4.
Tell the landlord the occupant’s name within thirty days
Subdivision 5 requires it – within thirty days of the occupant moving in, or within thirty days of the landlord asking.
Do not sign anything waiving the section
Subdivision 7 makes a waiver null and void as against public policy, so a lease clause purporting to bar roommates does not work.
Write down what the occupant is entitled to from you
Subdivision 6 gives them no right of continued occupancy. Notice, money and a moving-out period are matters for this agreement, not for the statute.
Keep a signed copy each
The agreement is only useful as evidence if every roommate can produce the same version.
About the New York roommate agreement
A roommate agreement records what the people sharing an apartment have agreed between themselves: rooms, rent shares, the deposit, shared costs, guests and what happens when someone leaves. It binds them to each other, not the landlord. Everyone named on the lease remains liable to the landlord for the whole rent where the lease makes that liability joint and several — and no New York statute creates or displaces it: the phrase returns zero results across article 7 of the Real Property Law and article 7 title 1 of the General Obligations Law. In New York the agreement matters more than usual, because § 235-f gives an occupant a right to move in while expressly giving them nothing afterwards.
What a New York roommate agreement should record
- Whether the lease names one tenant or two or more
- Who is a tenant on the lease and who is an occupant under § 235-f
- That the landlord was told the occupant’s name within the thirty-day period
- Each roommate’s share of the rent, and who pays the landlord
- Who paid what towards the deposit — it remains the money of the person who paid it
- The notice an occupant is entitled to before having to leave
- What happens to the occupant if the named tenant gives up the lease
- Guests, quiet hours, smoking, pets and cleaning
- Who finds and approves a replacement, and what the landlord requires
- That the agreement binds the roommates only and does not bind the landlord
Common New York mistakes
- Citing the wrong subdivision. The head-count proviso is subdivision 4, the notice duty is subdivision 5, and the anti-waiver rule is subdivision 7. Many summaries are one out.
- Assuming an occupant gains security by living there. Subdivision 6 gives them no right of continued occupancy and no tenancy rights.
- Signing a lease clause barring roommates. Subdivision 7 makes a waiver null and void as against public policy.
- Skipping the thirty-day notice. Subdivision 5 requires the tenant to inform the landlord of the occupant’s name.
- Assuming a victim’s departure lowers everyone’s rent. RPL § 227-c releases the tenant terminating the lease; it does not reduce the co-tenants’ liability.
What the Roommate Law does
Real Property Law § 235-f begins from a prohibition. It is unlawful for a landlord to restrict occupancy of residential premises to the tenant or tenants named in the lease, or to those tenants and their immediate family. That is subdivision 2 — it bars both forms of restriction — and everything else in the section works out what follows from it.
Where the lease names one tenant, subdivision 3 permits that tenant to share the apartment with immediate family, with one additional occupant, and with the occupant’s dependent children. Where the lease names two or more tenants, subdivision 4 applies, and the proviso that limits the head count sits there. It is easy to misread, so read it slowly: the total of tenants and occupants together — excluding occupants’ dependent children — may not exceed the number of tenants specified in the current lease. That is a swap rather than an addition. A lease with two name