What must a New York landlord disclose to a tenant, and what must the lease say?

No statute requires a residential lease to be in writing beyond the statute of frauds, so an oral tenancy is lawful. No statute requires the landlord to give the tenant a copy of the lease.

No New York statute requires a residential lease to be in writing, and none requires the landlord to give the tenant a copy of one: the only lease-copy duties in the state are the Rent Stabilization Code's, for stabilized units, and New York City's lease packet, neither of which is a statewide rule. A lease for longer than one year must be written and signed to be enforceable. Where a lease is written, it must be in plain language, and a landlord who breaks that rule owes the tenant actual damages plus a penalty of fifty dollars, with a ten thousand dollar ceiling on the penalty across any class action or series of class actions; a good faith attempt to comply carries no penalty, and no action lies once both parties have fully performed. A plain-language breach does not make the lease void or voidable and is not a defense to an action to enforce it or for breach of it; the attorney general may also proceed under the executive law's general business-fraud power. No statute requires a lease or any notice in a language other than English.

Statute of frauds: A contract for the leasing of real property for a longer period than one year is void unless the contract, or some note or memorandum of it expressing the consideration, is in writing and subscribed by the party to be charged (General Obligations Law section 5-703, subdivision 2). The companion subdivision 1 carries the same one-year line for creating an estate or interest in land, expressly excepting a lease for a term not exceeding one year.

Format and plain-language rules: New York has a plain-language statute that names residential leases. Every written agreement entered into after November 1, 1978 for the lease of space to be occupied for residential purposes must be written in a clear and coherent manner using words with common and every day meanings, and must be appropriately divided and captioned by its various sections (General Obligations Law section 5-702, subdivision a). The section does not apply to agreements involving amounts in excess of two hundred fifty thousand dollars, a ceiling raised from fifty thousand dollars for contracts entered into after April 8, 2020. There is no general type-size rule; two duties on this page carry their own typography, the sprinkler statement and the certificate-of-occupancy statement, each of which must be conspicuous and in bold face type.

Electronic leases and signatures: State Technology Law section 304, subdivision 2 provides that unless a law specifically says otherwise an electronic signature may be used in place of a signature affixed by hand, and has the same validity and effect. Nothing in article 7 of the Real Property Law displaces that for residential leases, and no writing required by this page needs a handwritten signature.

No disclosure to the tenant is required; the state has a landlord or agent registration statute instead.

No New York statute requires a landlord to tell a tenant who owns the building or who manages it. What the state has instead is a pair of filing duties that between them cover every multiple dwelling in the state, and neither produces a tenant-facing document. Under the Multiple Dwelling Law, every owner of a multiple dwelling, every lessee of a whole dwelling and every agent or other person having control of one must file with the department a notice giving the name, address and a description of the premises, the number of apartments and rooms in each apartment on each story, and the number of families in occupation; a corporate owner must also file the names and residence addresses of its officers, and a fresh notice within thirty days of electing a new officer or of a change of an officer's address. Successors in title, ownership or control must file the particulars within thirty days of the succession, and where the premises has been declared a public nuisance a corporate owner must file within ten days the name of each director and stockholder and of each person known to have a beneficial interest. The Multiple Residence Law does the same job everywhere the Multiple Dwelling Law does not, requiring every owner of a multiple dwelling to file a statement in duplicate, on a form the department prepares, giving the owner of record, the street number or other identifying description, the type of construction, the height, the number of stories, the number of rooms or apartments for which the building was designed and the number of persons in occupancy. The address filed is how the department serves its own notices. No telephone number is required, nothing must appear in the lease, there is no posting alternative, and there is no agency by operation of law, no rent-withholding right and no bar on an eviction; failing to file is a matter for departmental enforcement under each chapter. New York City layers its own housing registration and lease-packet duties on top of these.

Threshold: Both registries reach only a multiple dwelling, which is a building occupied as the residence of three or more families living independently of each other. One- and two-family rentals are outside both. The Multiple Dwelling Law applies in cities with a population of three hundred twenty-five thousand or more, and in any other city, town or village that adopts it; the Multiple Residence Law applies in every city under that population and in all towns and villages.

No — no state document or statement of tenant rights must be handed over; what the state prescribes is text the lease itself must carry.

New York's mandatory rights statement is written into the statute rather than published by an agency: there is no state form to obtain and nothing an agency revises. Every landlord in the state must give the tenant the good cause eviction notice, whose full text the Real Property Law prints, at the start of a tenancy, at renewal, and again with a rent-increase or non-renewal notice, a rent demand or an eviction petition. Three other statements must appear in the lease itself and are described in their own rows: the sprinkler statement and the flood statement, and, for an owner of three or fewer units, the certificate-of-occupancy statement. The lead rental registry fact sheet that the state health department publishes is a hazard document and belongs to the lead row, not here.

Required item:

Notice to tenant of applicability or inapplicability of the New York State good cause eviction law — words or content the lease itself must carry. A landlord must append to or incorporate into any initial lease, any renewal lease, any rent-increase or non-renewal notice under section 226-c, any rent demand under section 711 of the real property actions and proceedings law and any petition under section 741 of that law, a notice whose whole text the statute writes out. The notice is headed as a notice of applicability or inapplicability of the New York State good cause eviction law. It tells the tenant that its purpose is to say whether the unit is covered by article 6-A of the Real Property Law and, if the lease is not being renewed, the permitted reason; that a tenant outside article 6-A may still have rights under other local, state or federal law; that the landlord must fill it out and give it to the tenant; and that it is not legal advice. The landlord then fills in the unit's street, number, city or town or village, state and postal code and answers four questions: whether the unit is subject to article 6-A; if it is exempt, which of fifteen listed exemptions applies, including a locality that has not adopted good cause, a small landlord, an owner-occupied building of no more than ten units, a unit already subject to rent regulation, an income-restricted unit, a condominium or cooperative or a unit in a building with an offering plan before the attorney general, a building given a certificate of occupancy within the past thirty years on or after January 1, 2009, a seasonal unit, a hospital, continuing care, assisted living, adult care, senior or not-for-profit retirement residence, a manufactured home in a park, a hotel room or other transient use, a dormitory, a religious facility, and a unit whose rent exceeds the applicable percentage of fair market rent; if the unit is covered and the rent is going up past the presumptively unreasonable threshold, the landlord's justification; and if the unit is covered and the lease is not being renewed, which of the statutory good-cause grounds applies. The duty binds every residential landlord in the state, because the definition it uses reaches any owner, lessor, sublessor, assignor, receiver or other person or entity receiving or entitled to receive rent for a housing accommodation, or an agent of one; the form's own function is to record which side of article 6-A the unit falls on. No typography is prescribed and the section states no penalty, but for a unit that is covered, no action may be maintained and no judgment of possession entered on a good-cause ground unless the landlord has complied with every applicable law governing notice to tenants, including the contents of the notice. Article 6-A and this section are repealed on June 15, 2034. Given at signing and on renewal, attached to the lease. The statute fixes the words. (Real Prop. Law § 231-c(1); § 211(2); § 217)

Lease contents the statutes or rules address, each in the circumstance it names:

• A conspicuous statement in bold face type of the existence or non-existence of a maintained and operative sprinkler system, and, where one exists, of the last date of maintenance and inspection (Real Property Law section 231-a).

• Notice of the property's flood risk and flood history in four parts, plus the renter's flood-insurance paragraph the statute writes out word for word (Real Property Law section 231-b).

• The good cause eviction notice, appended to or incorporated into the lease (Real Property Law section 231-c).

• For an owner of three or fewer rental units, a conspicuous statement in bold face type, given before the lease is executed, of whether a certificate of occupancy, where one is required by law, is currently valid for the unit; giving the tenant an actual copy of the valid certificate satisfies the duty (Real Property Law section 235-bb).

• Clear and coherent drafting in words with common and every day meanings, appropriately divided and captioned, for any residential lease involving an amount of two hundred fifty thousand dollars or less (General Obligations Law section 5-702).

• Any fee for a dishonored rent check, which may be demanded only if the lease or contract provides for it (Real Property Law section 238-a, subdivision 2-a).

The landlord must offer a walk-through or checklist, and the document follows only on the tenant's request.

The offer is mandatory, the report is not. After the lease is signed and before the tenant moves in, the landlord must offer the tenant the chance to inspect the premises with the landlord or the landlord's agent to determine the condition of the property. Only if the tenant asks does a writing follow: the parties then execute a written agreement before occupancy begins, attesting to the condition of the property and specifically noting any existing defects or damages. Nothing prescribes the form of that agreement and no agency publishes one. Two consequences attach. Any condition, defect or damage noted in the agreement may not later be charged against the deposit, and the agreement is admissible as evidence of the condition of the premises at the start of occupancy, but only in proceedings about the return or amount of the deposit. And a landlord who violates the subdivision, which includes failing to make the offer, is liable for actual damages, with punitive damages of up to twice the amount of the deposit or advance where the violation was willful. The duty reaches all dwelling units in residential premises other than those covered by the older rent-control statute, and the subdivision excludes units under the city rent and rehabilitation law or the emergency housing rent control law, continuing care retirement communities, licensed assisted living residences, adult care facilities, senior residential communities with an offering plan filed with the attorney general, and not-for-profit independent retirement communities offering personal emergency response, housekeeping, transportation and meals. There is no right to see a prior tenant's damage list.

When and who signs: The offer must be made after the initial lease signing and before the tenant begins occupancy; if the tenant asks for the inspection, the written agreement must be executed before the tenant begins occupancy, and both parties sign it (General Obligations Law section 7-108, subdivision 1-a, paragraph (c)). If it is not done: the tenant may recover damages.

Deposit notice at signing: Where the deposit is placed in a banking organization, the landlord must notify each person who made the deposit in writing, giving the name and address of the banking organization and the amount deposited (General Obligations Law section 7-103, subdivision 2). The caps, the fourteen-day itemized statement and the pre-move-out inspection notice are on the security-deposits page.

Two in-force state hazard disclosures: written notification to tenants in a community of concern (when the information changes, when the event the section names occurs, and within a stated period); and sprinkler system statement in the lease (at signing). Also on the books: lead rental registry and three-year certification — a registry or certificate owed to the state, with no disclosure to the tenant; and bed bugs — a notice fired by an event during the tenancy, not a signing disclosure; no state duty exists for mold, radon, methamphetamine, or asbestos.

Every state duty and every stated absence, hazard by hazard:

Lead rental registry and three-year certification (owed to the state) — a registry or certificate owed to the state, with no disclosure to the tenant, annually, when the information changes, and on a transfer of the property (a statute and an administrative rule). New York runs a state lead regime beyond the federal disclosure rule, but its core is a duty owed to the state rather than to the tenant. Owners of covered dwellings had to register their units in the state rental registry, or confirm the accuracy of information already there, no later than May 1, 2026, must keep their contact details current within thirty days of any change, and must register a change of ownership within thirty days; registrations are not transferable. Covered units must be certified as free of lead paint hazards, on inspections no less frequent than every three years, and the certifications go to the local health department or its designee for recording in the registry by October 1 of the year the certification is due. Nothing in this limb reaches the lease: no attachment, no acknowledgment and no signing-time document. The tenant-facing notification that the rules build on top of the registry is described in the row beside this one. The statute creating the registry is repealed on November 3, 2028 unless it is re-enacted. Threshold: Residential dwellings built before 1980 with two or more units located in a community of concern, an area the health department has designated as having a disproportionately high prevalence of children with elevated blood lead levels. Twenty-five communities were designated as of November 3, 2025: Albany, Amsterdam, Auburn, Binghamton, Buffalo, Cheektowaga, Elmira, Gloversville, Jamestown, Kingston, Middletown, Mount Vernon, New Rochelle, Newburgh, Niagara Falls, Poughkeepsie, Rochester, Rome, Schenectady, Spring Valley, Syracuse, Troy, Utica, Watertown and Yonkers. Cities with a population of one million or more are expressly outside the regime, as are temporary residences, correctional, medical and custodial facilities and academic dormitories. If the registration is not made: A failure to file, or the filing of a false certificate, is subject to the civil penalties of section 12 of the Public Health Law, in addition to any other penalty that may apply. The department enforces the rules through formal hearings, may take discretionary administrative action over fraudulent registry entries, and may bar a third-party inspector from future submissions.

Written notification to tenants in a community of concern — in force — a state duty, when the information changes, when the event the section names occurs, and within a stated period, on an agency document (an administrative rule). In a community of concern the owner of a covered dwelling must give tenants written notification that their rental unit is recorded in the state lead rental registry, information on the status of that unit, and education about lead safety for tenants. The department publishes the fact sheet for that purpose and instructs owners to notify tenants by distributing it; it is issued in English and fourteen other languages, among them Spanish, Traditional and Simplified Chinese, Haitian Creole, Russian, Polish, Burmese, French, Arabic, Bengali, Italian, Korean, Urdu and Yiddish. Separately, when a lead-based paint hazard or a visual lead soil hazard is found in a rental unit during a lead hazard inspection, the owner must give the tenants of the affected units a copy of the inspection results within twenty-four hours of receiving them, and the notification extends by presumption to un-inspected units in the same dwelling. Once hazards are identified and a unit becomes vacant, it may not be reoccupied until a lead safety certification is issued. None of this is a signing-time attachment to a lease: it is a standing duty that recurs as the registry status changes and as each three-year inspection cycle comes round. The rules rest on a statute repealed on November 3, 2028 unless it is re-enacted. Threshold: Only in the designated communities of concern, and only for dwellings built before 1980 with two or more units; cities of one million or more, temporary residences, correctional, medical and custodial facilities and academic dormitories are outside the regime. Document: New York State Lead Rental Registry — Removes lead paint hazard in older rental homes, issued by the New York State Department of Health. Revision: 2626 11/25, as printed in the footer of the fact sheet; the file carries a file date of November 17, 2025, which matches. Agency page. In force since April 8, 2026. If the duty is not met: Departmental enforcement, including formal hearings under the Public Health Law and the registry sections; the rules also bar retaliation against a tenant, naming rent increases, fines and non-renewals during remediation.

Mold — no state duty. No New York statute or rule requires a landlord to disclose mold to a tenant. The state's mold law is a licensing regime for the contractors who assess and remediate it, with its own definitions, licensing duties and minimum work standards, and it exempts a residential property owner who assesses mold on their own property. The only mold question New York law puts to an owner is in the seller's property condition disclosure statement, which is a sale instrument. New York City has its own indoor-allergen lease notice.

Bed bugs — a notice fired by an event during the tenancy, not a signing disclosure, within a stated period and by posting, in writing (a statute). New York's bed-bug duty is a notice to neighbors during a tenancy, not a disclosure to an incoming tenant. Once the landlord knows of an infestation in a unit, written notice must go within seventy-two hours to the tenants of the units immediately above, immediately below and immediately adjacent to the infested one. Where the infestation is in a common area, a notice must be placed within seventy-two hours in a conspicuous location accessible to all tenants. The notice may not identify the infested unit or carry any personally identifying information about its tenants. The duty does not apply to a landlord already bound by notice and remediation obligations under a court order, a legal settlement or a binding agreement with a federal, state or local regulator while that is in effect. There is no unit threshold, no history disclosure to a prospective tenant, and no penalty: the section states none and neither act that created or rewrote it adds one. The section took effect on December 22, 2024 in a form that required notice to all tenants within twenty-four hours, and was replaced by the present text on February 21, 2025. New York City does require bed-bug history before a vacancy lease. Knowledge standard: Upon having knowledge of a bed bug infestation in a unit of a residential rental premises.

Radon — no state duty. New York has no radon disclosure for rentals. Radon appears in only two places in the state's consolidated laws: a green-building tax credit that pays for air-quality testing, and the question on the seller's property condition disclosure statement, which asks whether a radon test has been done and is part of a sale, not a lease. The health department's ionizing radiation rules license radioactive materials and radiation equipment and carry no rental provision.

Methamphetamine — no state duty. New York neither requires a landlord to disclose a former methamphetamine laboratory nor bars renting one. The state's whole regime is a reporting chain between agencies: a law enforcement agency that discovers or recognizes an unlawful methamphetamine laboratory must notify the state police as soon as reasonably practicable, and the state police must then notify the department of environmental conservation. Nothing at either end reaches a landlord or a tenant. A separate and much older provision voids a lease where the premises are used for an unlawful trade or business, but that is about current conduct, not about contamination history.

Asbestos — no state duty. No New York statute requires an asbestos disclosure to a tenant. The only asbestos question the law puts to an owner is on the seller's property condition disclosure statement, which asks whether there is asbestos in the structure and belongs to a sale. New York's asbestos regime is a licensing and work-practice one for the people who handle it.

Sprinkler system statement in the lease — in force — a state duty, at signing, in the lease itself (a statute). Every residential lease in New York must carry a conspicuous statement, in bold face type, of whether a maintained and operative sprinkler system exists in the leased premises, and, where one does, a further statement of the last date of maintenance and inspection. The term takes its meaning from the executive law's fire-service definition. There is no unit threshold and no owner exemption. The section states no consequence, and the drafting record shows that was deliberate: the bill as first introduced would have deemed a non-complying lease void and let the tenant recover the consideration paid, and that sentence was taken out before the version the Governor signed. The duty reaches leases entered into on or after December 3, 2014.

Yes — a statute requires the landlord to disclose both the property's flood-zone status and its flood history to a prospective or current tenant, in the lease itself.

Every residential lease in New York must carry a flood notice, and every part of it must be answered whether the answer is yes or no. The lease must state whether any or all of the premises lies wholly or partly in a federally designated floodplain; whether any or all of it lies wholly or partly in the Special Flood Hazard Area, the hundred-year floodplain, according to the current federal flood insurance rate maps for the area; whether any or all of it lies wholly or partly in a moderate risk flood hazard area, the five-hundred-year floodplain, on those same maps; and any prior flood damage to the premises from a natural flood event such as heavy rainfall, coastal storm surge, tidal inundation or river overflow that the landlord knows or reasonably should know has occurred, together with the nature of that damage. The lease must also carry, word for word, a notice telling the tenant that flood insurance is available to renters through the federal flood insurance program to cover personal property and contents in a flood, that a standard renter's policy does not typically cover flood damage, and that the tenant is encouraged to examine the policy. The first three parts are map lookups; the fourth turns on the landlord's knowledge, which is why the duty covers both flood zone and flood history. The notice goes in the lease itself: there is no separate rider, no prescribed type size and no agency form. There is no threshold of any kind, and neither the section nor either act that created it states a remedy. The duty reaches leases from June 21, 2023; the knowledge wording was substituted for an absolute history test before the section ever took effect, so any description of New York's notice as a flat history disclosure describes text that never came into force.

The section states no penalty for a failure.

Yes — the statute lists the lease provisions that are void or prohibited.

New York's roster of prohibited lease clauses is not gathered in one section: the provisions are spread across the General Obligations Law and the Real Property Law, and each voids a particular kind of clause: the exculpatory clause, the pledge of exempt personal property, and a series of waivers of protections the statutes give tenants. Every one of them runs against clauses that cut down a tenant's rights; none reaches a clause burdening the landlord. Behind them sits a general backstop: if a court finds as a matter of law that a lease or any clause of it was unconscionable when it was made, the court may refuse to enforce the lease, enforce the rest of it without the unconscionable clause, or limit the clause's application to avoid an unconscionable result, and the parties must be given a reasonable chance to present evidence of the clause's setting, purpose and effect (Real Property Law section 235-c).

Sanction as the statute states it: The clause simply does not bind. No New York statute imposes damages for including a prohibited clause in a lease: there is no figure for deliberate use, no multiple of rent and no cure window. The fifty dollar penalty in the plain-language statute is for unclear drafting rather than for a prohibited clause, and that statute expressly leaves the agreement enforceable.

The listed provisions:

• Any covenant, agreement or understanding in, in connection with, or collateral to a lease of real property that exempts the lessor from liability for damages for injury to person or property caused by or resulting from the negligence of the lessor, its agents, servants or employees in the operation or maintenance of the demised premises, which is void as against public policy and wholly unenforceable (General Obligations Law section 5-321).

• A provision in a residential lease pledging personal property that is exempt by law from levy and sale as security for rent due or to become due, which is void as to that provision (Real Property Law section 231, subdivision 4).

• Any waiver of the attorney-fee reciprocity covenant, void as against public policy (Real Property Law section 234, subdivision 1).

• Any agreement or assessment charging a tenant a fee, surcharge or other charge for legal services without a court order, void as contrary to public policy (Real Property Law section 234-a).

• Any waiver of the certificate-of-occupancy notice by a tenant of premises for dwelling purposes, void as contrary to public policy (Real Property Law section 235-bb, subdivision 2).

• Any waiver or modification of the rule that a landlord may not require electronic billing or payment as the only method of paying rent and may not charge a tenant who declines it, void as contrary to public policy (Real Property Law section 235-g, subdivision 2).

• Any lease or contract provision waiving or limiting the fee section, which covers application and background-check fees, late fees and the dishonored-check fee, void as against public policy (Real Property Law section 238-a, subdivision 3).

• Any waiver of the rights the good cause eviction article gives a tenant (Real Property Law section 218; the article is repealed on June 15, 2034).

• Any waiver of the security-deposit rules (General Obligations Law sections 7-103 and 7-108; the deposits page carries them).

By statute a one-way landlord attorney-fee clause is read as reciprocal, so the tenant has the same right on prevailing.

Where a residential lease provides that the landlord may recover attorney fees or expenses in an action or summary proceeding because the tenant failed to perform a covenant of the lease, or that amounts the landlord pays for them are payable by the tenant as additional rent, the lease is read as containing a covenant by the landlord to pay the tenant the reasonable attorney fees and expenses the tenant incurs because the landlord failed to perform, or in successfully defending an action or summary proceeding the landlord brought arising out of the lease. A landlord may not recover attorney fees on a default judgment, a bar added in 2019; a narrow 2021 exception restores default-judgment fees to either party where the tenant is the owner of a dwelling unit or a shareholder in a cooperative housing corporation outside the named public-housing programs. Any waiver of the section is void as against public policy. New York goes further than reciprocity in one respect that has no parallel elsewhere: an owner, lessor or agent may not charge a tenant any fee, surcharge or other charge for legal services in connection with the operation or rental of a residential unit unless a court order gives the authority to do so, and legal services is defined to include court fees, legal representation, attorney fees, notary public charges and administrative fees incurred in managing the building, including in court proceedings; an agreement or assessment contrary to that is void as contrary to public policy. The state's highest court has held that the reciprocity covenant reaches a lease that lets the landlord cancel on default, repossess and then collect the fees of retaking possession, so the clause cannot be drafted around.

Yes — state law authorizes local governments to add rules of their own, as stated here.

New York does not preempt local lease-disclosure or lease-content rules — neither article 7 of the Real Property Law, nor the good cause eviction article, nor the Multiple Dwelling Law, nor the Multiple Residence Law carries a preemption clause — and three mechanisms expressly let localities add rules of their own. The good cause eviction article applies only in a village, town or city outside New York City that adopts it by local law, and a locality that opts in may set its own ceiling on how many units a small landlord may own and its own fair-market-rent percentage, which is why two of the exemptions on the state's prescribed notice are written as local variables. The Multiple Dwelling Law applies of its own force only in cities of three hundred twenty-five thousand or more, and the legislative body of any other city, town or village may adopt it. And the same chapter contains a one-way ratchet: any city, town or village may make local laws, ordinances, resolutions or regulations not less restrictive than the chapter provides, and may provide for their enforcement. New York City layers the densest lease-disclosure packet in the country on top of state law, with lead-paint inquiries and notices at lease-up, at renewal and every January, an indoor-allergen notice, a gas-leak notice delivered with the lease, an annual stove-knob-cover notice, bed-bug history before a vacancy lease with an annual filing, and rent-stabilization riders, all under the city's own administrative code and rules; none of them is a state duty and none is carried on this page.