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Free New York NYC Rent-Stabilized Lease Agreement

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NYC Rent-Stabilized Lease Preparation Aid — organize a rent-stabilized vacancy or renewal lease. The tenancy is governed by the DHCR Rent Stabilization Code; the landlord must still use the official DHCR rider (RA-LR1) and renewal form (RTP-8).

NYC Rent-Stabilized 9 NYCRR Part 2520 DHCR Rider Required Free PDF

A NYC rent-stabilized lease governs an apartment protected by the New York City Rent Stabilization Law and the state Rent Stabilization Code (9 NYCRR Part 2520), administered by NYS Homes and Community Renewal (DHCR). A rent-stabilized tenancy is not an ordinary lease: rent increases are capped each year by the NYC Rent Guidelines Board (RGB), the tenant has a right to renew for a one-year or two-year term at their option, and the lease must be accompanied by the official DHCR Rent Stabilization Lease Rider (RA-LR1) on a vacancy or the RTP-8 renewal form on a renewal. Because those DHCR forms are mandatory, this fillable tool is a preparation aid that helps you organize the terms and understand the rules — it is not a substitute for the required DHCR rider and renewal forms, and it does not replace legal advice.

Complete the fields below to generate a rent-stabilized lease worksheet you can review with the tenant. This worksheet organizes the parties, the unit, the term and RGB increase, the preferential rent, the one-month deposit, and the required-rider acknowledgment. It does not replace the official DHCR rider (RA-LR1) or renewal form (RTP-8) — attach those to complete a valid rent-stabilized tenancy.

Rent stabilization is New York City’s largest tenant-protection system, covering roughly a million apartments. A stabilized tenancy limits how much the rent can rise, guarantees the right to a renewal lease, and layers on protections — succession, preferential-rent security, and overcharge remedies — that an ordinary market lease does not carry. Those rights come from the Rent Stabilization Law (part of the NYC Administrative Code) and the state Rent Stabilization Code at 9 NYCRR Part 2520, both administered by NYS Homes and Community Renewal (DHCR). The 2019 Housing Stability and Tenant Protection Act (HSTPA) strengthened many of these rules and made most of them permanent.

Because the protections are statutory, a rent-stabilized lease cannot be written like a standard lease. The rent must track the DHCR-registered legal regulated rent and the Rent Guidelines Board order in force; the lease must carry the official DHCR rider; and any clause that tries to waive a stabilization right is void. This page explains what the law requires so you can prepare the tenancy correctly — and it is honest about its own limits: the fillable worksheet organizes your terms, but the required DHCR rider (RA-LR1) and renewal form (RTP-8) are the documents that actually make the tenancy compliant.

Rent stabilization does three core things. First, it caps the rent increase: the amount the rent can rise on renewal is not negotiable but is set once a year by the NYC Rent Guidelines Board, and it applies uniformly to every stabilized apartment for leases starting in that guideline year. Second, it guarantees renewal: a stabilized tenant has a right to a renewal lease on the same terms, and the owner may refuse to renew only on specific grounds allowed by the Code. Third, it registers the rent: the owner must file an annual rent registration with DHCR stating the legal regulated rent, and that filed history is what a tenant or DHCR looks back on if an overcharge is ever questioned.

Those three mechanics interlock. The registered legal regulated rent is the baseline; the RGB order is the multiplier; and the required rider is the disclosure that tells the tenant what their rent, their increase, and their rights actually are. A landlord who charges more than the registered legal rent plus the current RGB order has overcharged, whatever the lease says — and, because stabilization rights cannot be waived, a lease clause purporting to set a higher rent or shorten the renewal right does not fix the problem. The broader New York landlord-tenant framework sits underneath stabilization; where the two touch, the stricter stabilized rule controls.

Not every NYC apartment is stabilized, and getting coverage wrong is the first and most expensive mistake. In general, an apartment is rent-stabilized if it is in a building of six or more units built between February 1, 1947 and January 1, 1974. Apartments in newer buildings, or in smaller buildings, can also be stabilized if the owner took a 421-a or J-51 tax benefit — in exchange for the tax break, those units are placed under stabilization, generally for the life of the benefit. Older apartments continuously occupied since before mid-1971 may instead be rent-controlled, a separate and older regime.

• Pre-1974, six-plus-unit buildings — the classic stabilized stock (built 1947–1974).
• 421-a and J-51 buildings — stabilized as a condition of the tax benefit, even if newer or smaller.
• Not automatically covered — owner-occupied two- to four-unit homes, most true co-ops and condos, and units never brought under the law.
• Confirm with DHCR — the only authoritative way to know a unit’s status and its registered legal rent is to ask NYS Homes and Community Renewal.

Do not rely on what a prior lease said or what the last tenant paid. Request the apartment’s DHCR rent registration history before you set a rent; that filed record, not the asking price, defines the legal ceiling.

The single most important thing that separates a valid rent-stabilized lease from a defective one is the official DHCR rider. On a new (vacancy) lease, the owner must attach the Rent Stabilization Lease Rider (form RA-LR1), and DHCR requires the rider to be printed in a type size larger than the lease it accompanies so the tenant cannot miss it. The rider explains the tenant’s rights, states the legal rent and any preferential rent, and itemizes how the rent was computed — the disclosures that let a tenant check the math.

On a renewal, the owner uses the DHCR renewal lease form RTP-8 (the ETPA version, RTP-8 ETPA, applies outside the five boroughs). The renewal process is a strict timeline:

• Offer window. The owner must offer the renewal by certified mail 90 to 120 days before the current lease expires.
• Tenant’s choice. The tenant picks a one-year or two-year term, each at the guidelines increase set by the RGB, and returns the signed form to the owner by certified mail within 60 days.
• Owner’s follow-through. The owner must return a fully executed copy of the renewal lease, together with the DHCR rider, within 30 days of receiving the tenant’s signed form.

Miss the offer window, use the wrong form, or drop the rider, and the renewal is exposed to challenge. The fillable worksheet on this page helps you assemble the numbers, but it is the RA-LR1 rider and the RTP-8 renewal that carry the legal weight — download the current versions directly from DHCR each time, because DHCR revises them.

The rent increase on a stabilized renewal is not something the parties negotiate. Each year the NYC Rent Guidelines Board adopts an order setting the maximum percentage for one-year and two-year renewal leases commencing during that guideline year (October 1 through September 30). The order is the ceiling — a landlord may charge less but never more. Because the number changes every cycle, you must look up the order that matches the lease start date, not the date you are signing. For leases commencing October 1, 2026 through September 30, 2027, the RGB’s Order #58, adopted June 25, 2026, set the increase at zero percent for a one-year renewal and zero percent for a two-year renewal. A prior or later cycle will have different figures, so always confirm the current order at the Rent Guidelines Board before renewing.

Preferential rent is a rent an owner agrees to charge below the apartment’s legal regulated rent. Before 2019, some owners revoked the preferential rate on renewal and jumped the tenant up to the full legal rent. The 2019 HSTPA ended that: a tenant who was paying a preferential rent keeps it for the life of the tenancy, and each RGB increase is applied to the preferential rent, not the higher legal rent. The owner can restore the higher legal regulated rent only after the tenant permanently vacates. If a preferential rent applies, it must be stated clearly — the worksheet has a field for exactly this — so both sides know which number the RGB percentage is taken on.

A stabilized tenancy carries a bundle of protections that survive whatever a lease tries to say, because the Rent Stabilization Code voids any waiver of a tenant’s stabilization rights.

• Security deposit — one month maximum. Under General Obligations Law § 7-108, as amended by the 2019 HSTPA, a landlord may not collect more than one month’s rent as a deposit and may not demand prepaid rent. After move-out the landlord must return the deposit with an itemized statement of any deductions within fourteen days, or forfeit the right to keep any of it.
• Succession rights. A family member who lived in the apartment as a primary residence with the tenant of record for at least two years before the tenant dies or leaves (one year for a senior citizen or a person with a disability) can claim the right to a renewal lease in their own name. See DHCR Fact Sheet #30.
• Overcharge remedies. A tenant charged more than the legal rent plus the applicable RGB increase can file an overcharge complaint with DHCR or in court. Under the HSTPA the recovery and treble-damages period is generally six years, and a willful overcharge exposes the owner to treble damages under Rent Stabilization Law § 26-516.
• Right to renew. The owner must offer a renewal on the same terms and may refuse only on the narrow grounds the Code allows — not simply to raise the rent or re-let at market.
• No waiver. A lease clause that purports to give up any of these protections is unenforceable; the statutory floor controls regardless of what the tenant signed.

• Skipping the DHCR rider. A vacancy lease without the RA-LR1 rider — or a renewal not on the RTP-8 — is defective and can undermine the increase and the tenancy.
• Guessing the legal rent. Setting rent from the last asking price instead of the DHCR-registered legal regulated rent is the classic overcharge, and it now carries a six-year exposure.
• Using the wrong RGB number. Applying last year’s order, or an amount above the current one, to the wrong lease-start year.
• Revoking a preferential rent. Jumping a tenant to the full legal rent on renewal violates the post-2019 rule that the preferential rent carries forward.
• Over-collecting the deposit. Demanding more than one month, or first-and-last, breaches GOL § 7-108.
• Missing the renewal timeline. Offering outside the 90-to-120-day window, or failing to return the executed copy within 30 days.
• Writing waivers. Inserting clauses that shorten the renewal right or waive succession — unenforceable and a red flag in any dispute.

• Confirm status and the registered rent with DHCR first — before you quote a rent to anyone.
• Download the current RA-LR1 and RTP-8 from DHCR for every lease; do not reuse an old copy, because DHCR revises them.
• Look up the RGB order by lease-start year and keep the printout with the file.
• State any preferential rent explicitly so the increase is taken on the correct number.
• Cap the deposit at one month and calendar the 14-day return deadline at move-out.
• Diary the renewal window — 90–120 days before expiration — and send by certified mail.
• Screen applicants before you sign — verify credit, rental history, evictions, and income first.
• Have counsel review anything unusual — a first stabilized rent, a deregulation question, or a succession claim.

New York recognizes electronic signatures under the state Electronic Signatures and Records Act, so a stabilized lease signed through a reputable e-signature service is binding when both parties agreed to sign electronically — but the DHCR rider and, on a renewal, the RTP-8 must still be part of the executed package. However it is signed, each party should receive a fully executed copy of the lease and the rider, and the owner should keep the signed original, the rider, the RGB-order printout, and the DHCR registration together for the life of the tenancy plus the overcharge limitations period.

The owner must also keep the annual DHCR rent registration current; a lapse in registration can freeze the legal rent and complicate any future increase. Do a documented move-in inspection with dated photos so the one-month deposit accounting is defensible, confirm working smoke and carbon-monoxide alarms before the tenant takes possession, and calendar the next renewal offer date the moment this lease is signed. Handling the paperwork this carefully is what keeps a stabilized tenancy out of an overcharge dispute years later — and it is far cheaper than defending one.

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