The Office of Rent Administration provides assistance and services for tenants of rent regulated homes.
For more information on these services, please visit the page below:
The Office of Rent Administration provides assistance and services for owners and mangers of rent regulated homes.
For more information on these services, please visit the page below:
A number of communities in New York State have rent regulation programs known as rent control and rent stabilization. These Rent Regulation Programs administered by the Office of Rent Administration (ORA), position ORA as a leader in the preservation of affordable housing. Rent regulation is intended to protect tenants in privately-owned buildings from illegal rent increases and allow owners to maintain their buildings and realize a reasonable profit.
Rent control is the older of the two systems of rent regulation. It dates back to the housing shortage immediately following World War II and generally applies to buildings constructed before 1947. Rent stabilization generally covers buildings built after 1947 and before 1974, and apartments removed from rent control. Outside New York City rent stabilization is also known as ETPA, for the Emergency Tenant Protection Act. More details on these matters can be obtained by calling, writing, or visiting one of the DHCR Borough or District Rent Offices .
On June 14, 2019, the Housing Stability and Tenant Protection Act was enacted, which provided major reforms to the rent laws. For more information, visit:
DHCR filed the Notices of Adoption required under the New York State Administrative Procedure Act (SAPA) to amend various regulations in the Rent Stabilization Code, the Tenant Protection Regulations and the State and New York City Rent Control Regulations. These documents or their summaries, where applicable, were published in the New York State Register on November 8, 2023. For a list of documents that were updated to reflect the changes required by the new regulations, visit:
The rent control program applies to residential buildings constructed before February, 1947 in municipalities that have not declared an end to the postwar rental housing emergency. There are several municipalities that still have rent control, including New York City, Nassau and Westchester counties.
Rent control limits the rent an owner may charge for an apartment and restricts the right of any owner to evict tenants.
Rents charged in controlled apartments are set and adjusted on the basis of registrations filed by owners when Federal rent control was imposed in 1943. The rent control law allows DHCR to determine how much rents can be increased based on an assessment of what it costs owners to operate their buildings plus a reasonable profit.
In New York City, rent control operates under the Maximum Base Rent (MBR) system. A maximum base rent is established for each apartment and adjusted every two years to reflect changes in operating costs. Owners who certify that they are providing essential services and have removed violations, are entitled to raise rents annually. Tenants may challenge the proposed increase on the grounds that the building has violations or that the owner's expenses do not warrant an increase. Outside of New York City, owners can file for ORA approved rent increases once every two years.
In New York City, apartments are under rent stabilization if they are in buildings of six or more units built between February 1, 1947, and December 31, 1973. Tenants in buildings built before February 1, 1947, who moved in after June 30, 1971, are also covered by rent stabilization. A third category of rent stabilized apartments covers buildings with three or more apartments constructed or extensively renovated on or after January 1, 1974 with special tax benefits. Generally, those buildings are only subject to stabilization while the tax benefits continue or, in some cases, until the tenant vacates.
Like rent control, rent stabilization also provides other protections to tenants besides limitations on the amount of rent. Tenants are entitled to receive required services, to have their leases renewed, and may not be evicted except on grounds allowed by law. Leases may be renewed for a term of one or two years, at the tenant's choice based on guidelines established annually by the NYC Rent Guidelines Board.
Outside New York City, rent stabilization applies to non-rent controlled apartments in buildings of six or more units built before January 1, 1974, in the localities that have adopted ETPA, which include the Cities of Kingston and Poughkeepsie, and Westchester, Nassau, and Rockland counties. For information on previous vacancy and lease renewal guideline increases, please see the ETPA Historical Guidelines .
Owners are required to file initial registrations and subsequent annual registrations with ORA and are required to send a copy of the registration to the tenant.
Municipalities in Nassau, Rockland, Westchester, Ulster, and Dutchess Counties which have adopted the Emergency Tenant Protection Act of 1974:
*On March 27, 2023, the Village Board of Trustees voted to expand ETPA in Croton-on-Hudson to include all properties with six or more units built before 1974, an increase from the previously covered Croton-on-Hudson buildings with 50 or more units. To view the resolution, see Resolution #60-2023.
As a result, the Westchester Rent Guidelines Board (WRGB) issued separate lease guidelines for Croton-on-Hudson leases beginning March 27, 2023, to September 30, 2023. To view these lease guidelines, see Fact Sheet #26. In addition, the WRGB issued a fair market rent appeal guideline with a 1-year lookback period and a maximum rate of increase of 2% for tenants with leases and 4% for tenants without leases.
For Rent Guideline Board notices and public hearing information, please visit the page below.
For Maximum Base Rent notices and public hearing information, please visit the page below.
