New York rent increases: how much notice a landlord needs, and the rules behind it

A landlord raising rent on a market-rate New York unit by 5% or more must give written notice of 30, 60, or 90 days: 30 days when the tenant has been there under a year, 60 days from one to two years, and 90 days past two years, measured by the longer of occupancy or lease term (Real Property Law 226-c). There is no cap on the amount for market-rate units. Rent-stabilized units follow a different regime entirely, and this guide covers where that boundary sits.

Here is the moment this rulebook actually bites. It is a Tuesday in late September, and the renewal file says unit 3F's lease ends December 31. The tenant has been in the building six years, and the planned increase is 6%. Six years of tenancy means 90 days of notice, so the notice has to be served by October 2, this week, not at Thanksgiving when the renewal conversation would naturally happen. The tenant one floor down, eight months in the building on the same December lease date, could still be noticed in late November. Same building, same lease date, two different clocks, and only the file knows which is which.

The market-neutral spine, cadence, notice, service, and the file, is covered in How and When to Raise Rent: Scheduling, Notice Periods, and Documentation. This guide is the New York layer: the 5% trigger and the tenure tiers, the remedy that enforces itself, the Good Cause presumption with its companion notice, and the stabilized boundary. It is operator education, not legal advice, and every rule is named to its official source.

The notice: what New York requires

New York's rent increase notice requirements come from Real Property Law 226-c, added by the Housing Stability and Tenant Protection Act of 2019 and amended alongside the Good Cause Eviction Law in 2024 (nysenate.gov, verified August 2026). The trigger is a renewal at 5% or more above the current rent, or a decision not to renew at all: either one requires written notice. An increase under 5% does not trigger the statute, though a month-to-month tenancy still needs the ordinary notice to change its terms, and a fixed-term lease cannot change mid-term unless the lease itself says so.

The statute prescribes no government form. The notice is a written document the landlord composes, and its discipline is content and timing: the new rent, the effective date, and service far enough ahead to clear the tenant's tier. New York does not require a specific service method for this notice, but proof matters, because the consequence of a late notice runs from the date notice was actually given. A record of what was served, to whom, and when is the asset the statute quietly assumes you keep.

The 30, 60, and 90 day tiers

The notice period scales with the tenancy, not the size of the increase. The table maps the tiers as section 226-c sets them.

Two details in that table decide real outcomes. First, the measure is the longer of cumulative occupancy or lease term: a tenant on a fresh one-year lease who has renewed for six years sits in the 90-day tier, because occupancy counts. Second, the tiers step up at the first two anniversaries and then stop, so every long tenancy eventually runs on the same 90-day clock. Across a portfolio this means the renewal calendar is not one date per unit; it is a per-tenant computation of tenure, lease end, and tier, and it is arithmetic a spreadsheet only gets right while every move-in date on it stays maintained.

The remedy for a short notice is the part most operators have never read. A late 226-c notice does not void the increase and does not invite a penalty; the statute simply continues the tenancy on its existing terms from the date written notice was actually given until the full period has run. The old rent keeps applying in the meantime. New York enforces its notice floor the way British Columbia does, by moving the money instead of raising an objection: BC Rent Increases: The Annual Limit, Form RTB-7, and the Twelve-Month Clock covers that sibling rule. A notice served 30 days short on a 6% increase costs one month of the difference, per unit, per miss.

The Good Cause layer: a presumption, not a cap

The Good Cause Eviction Law, Article 6-A of the Real Property Law, took effect in 2024 and runs until its scheduled repeal on June 15, 2034 (nysenate.gov, verified August 2026). It applies automatically in New York City and in localities elsewhere in the state that opt in, and it does not cap market-rate rent. What it changes is the consequence of a large increase: for a covered unit, an increase above the local rent standard is presumptively unreasonable if the landlord later sues for nonpayment, and the presumption is the tenant's defense unless the landlord rebuts it.

The local rent standard is a formula, not a fixed number: the lower of 10% or the inflation index, defined as 5% plus the annual change in the consumer price index. The CPI component moves every year, so this guide deliberately prints no current figure; the formula and the 10% ceiling are the durable facts, and the statute names the index. The presumption is rebuttable with documented economics: property tax increases, insurance, fuel and utilities, maintenance, and significant repairs that did not result from neglect. Cosmetic work alone does not qualify. For an operator, the practical translation is that an above-standard increase on a covered unit is a decision to be ready to justify with records, not a prohibition.

Coverage has real exemptions, small portfolios among them (a landlord holding no more than ten units statewide, unless local law sets a different number), along with categories set out in section 214. Deciding covered versus exempt is the owner's determination, and New York makes you put it in writing, the same paperwork-decides-the-regime rule California runs on under AB 1482 (California Rent Increases: The AB 1482 Cap, Exempt Properties, and Local Ordinances): since 2024, Real Property Law 231-c requires a prescribed notice, the Notice to Tenant of Applicability or Inapplicability of the New York State Good Cause Eviction Law, to be attached to or incorporated into every initial lease, every renewal, and every 226-c rent-increase notice. The statute sets the wording out verbatim, blanks included: which box applies, which exemption, and, for an above-standard increase, the justification claimed. A 5% increase notice in New York is therefore two documents traveling together, and the second one states your legal position on the first.

The stabilized boundary

Rent-stabilized and ETPA units are a different legal regime, not a stricter version of this one. Their annual increases are set by the Rent Guidelines Board, and renewals are offered on the DHCR renewal lease form, RTP-8, with its own timing windows and rider requirements (hcr.ny.gov, verified August 2026). Nothing in this guide's process applies to them: not the 5% trigger, not the tiers, and not the composed notice.

Scaalr's position on stabilized units is deliberately plain: they are not supported, permanently, and the product says so where it matters. The New York market profile serves market-rate notices only, and the acknowledgment step every market requires puts the exclusion in front of the operator in writing: stabilized and ETPA units are excluded, the engine cannot tell a stabilized unit from a market-rate one, and a schedule must not be enabled on one, because the notice served would be the wrong instrument. That honesty is the control. A platform that cannot verify a unit's legal classification should not pretend to, and the operator who knows their portfolio is the right party to make the call.

How Scaalr runs a New York increase

Rent increase software earns its keep in New York on the arithmetic and the paperwork, and the division of labor is explicit. The operator confirms the New York market once, reviewing its rules and the stabilized exclusion, before anything can send. Each increase is then scheduled on its lease with an explicit percentage, because New York has no cap for the engine to check against; the number is your call, informed by the Good Cause math where it applies.

Validation runs at scheduling and again before service. New York's profile enforces a conservative floor: 90 days of notice for any increase of 5% or more, whatever the tenancy length, and 30 days for anything smaller. The statute would allow less for shorter tenancies, and the engine deliberately does not cut it that fine; holding every 5% notice to the longest tier is the direction that can never make a notice late. Scaalr composes the written notice from the market's rules, since New York prescribes no form, and generates the Good Cause notice from the statute's verbatim text, filling the unit and property details and leaving what is yours to answer exactly as the statute leaves it: the covered-or-exempt boxes print unmarked for the operator to complete, and an above-standard increase's justification is a fill-in, not a guess the software makes on your behalf. The notice is signed with a real signature image or held for approval, service is recorded as a staff task (New York notices are not served by email in Scaalr), and the served record keeps the date the remedy clock would run from. Jurisdiction-aware rent-increase notices are part of Growth and up.

Key questions

Can I raise the rent on a market-rate apartment in New York City?

Yes. Market-rate units in New York have no statutory cap on the increase amount; what the law controls is notice and consequence. An increase of 5% or more requires 30, 60, or 90 days of written notice depending on how long the tenant has been there, and in New York City the Good Cause Eviction Law makes an increase above the local rent standard presumptively unreasonable if you later sue for nonpayment, unless the unit is exempt or you can justify the increase with documented costs.

How often can a landlord raise rent in New York?

For market-rate units, New York sets no statutory limit on how often rent can be raised; the lease controls. Rent cannot change during a fixed lease term unless the lease itself allows it, so in practice the increase lands at renewal, and each increase of 5% or more restarts the written-notice clock of 30, 60, or 90 days. A disciplined once-a-year cadence at renewal is what most operators run, and it is also what keeps the paper trail simple.

Does the Good Cause notice have to go with a rent increase notice?

Yes, when the increase triggers a 226-c notice. Real Property Law 231-c requires the Notice to Tenant of Applicability or Inapplicability of the New York State Good Cause Eviction Law to be attached to or incorporated into initial leases, renewal leases, and rent-increase notices served under section 226-c, in the exact wording the statute sets out. The notice is where you declare whether the unit is covered or exempt, and, for an above-standard increase, the justification you rely on.

What happens if I do not give enough notice of a rent increase in New York?

The increase is not void; it is delayed. Under Real Property Law 226-c, if the notice is late, the tenancy simply continues on its existing terms from the date you actually give written notice until the full notice period has run. The old rent keeps applying in the meantime, so a missed deadline quietly costs the difference for however many months the delay lasts. The remedy enforces itself; nobody has to object.

Can I use this process for a rent-stabilized apartment?

No. Rent-stabilized and ETPA units run on a different legal regime: their increases are set by the Rent Guidelines Board and offered on the DHCR renewal lease form, RTP-8, which Scaalr does not produce. Scaalr's New York profile serves market-rate notices only and states that exclusion in front of the operator at the moment the market is acknowledged. The engine cannot tell a stabilized unit from a market-rate one, so do not enable a rent-increase schedule on a stabilized or ETPA unit.

The September file, current

Back to the Tuesday and unit 3F. The schedule on the lease already knew the tenure, so the serve-by date has been sitting in the worklist since the increase was planned: notice composed, Good Cause notice generated with the unit's details filled and the coverage boxes waiting for your determination, signature in place, service recorded when your team completes the task. The eight-month tenant downstairs surfaces in November, on their own clock. Nothing about New York's rulebook got simpler. The file just stopped depending on anyone remembering it.