Landlord Atlas

Yonkers, New York: Rent Stabilization (Emergency Tenant Protection Act)

Verified September 16, 2026 All New York topics →

Yonkers has rent stabilization: apartments in buildings of six or more units built before January 1, 1974 are covered, and for leases commencing October 1, 2026 through September 30, 2027 the increase limits are 3.5% for a one-year lease and 4.5% for a two-year lease.

Cited to Emergency Tenant Protection Act of 1974 § 3 (local determination of emergency; end of emergency) and 14 more sources · Verified September 16, 2026

Those limits come from the Westchester County Rent Guidelines Board, which sets one figure a year for the whole county, and the system itself runs on state law — the Emergency Tenant Protection Act of 1974, administered by the New York State Division of Housing and Community Renewal. A stabilized tenant is entitled to a renewal lease at their own option and can be removed only on grounds the act allows, and an apartment stays stabilized when a tenant moves out. Owners register every covered apartment with the state each year, and Yonkers separately requires an annual income and expense statement that asks how many apartments in the building are covered. Yonkers has not adopted New York's Good Cause Eviction law, so that law's protections do not reach unregulated apartments in the city.

Current published figures

Figure Value Applies to Source
Westchester County Rent Guidelines Board — one-year / two-year lease increases 3.5% / 4.5% Leases commencing October 1, 2026 – September 30, 2027 Official source
Westchester County Rent Guidelines Board — one-year / two-year lease increases (prior year) 2% / 3% Leases commencing October 1, 2025 – September 30, 2026 Official source

These figures change on a published cycle; each row states the window it applies to and links the source that published it. Confirm the current figure at the source before acting on it.

What is in force

In force today. Yonkers is one of the Westchester County municipalities that have adopted New York's Emergency Tenant Protection Act of 1974, the law that puts rent stabilization in place outside New York City. The system is state law: the New York State Division of Housing and Community Renewal administers it, and the Westchester County Rent Guidelines Board sets the annual lease increase limits for the whole county. Yonkers has no rent board of its own and no rent stabilization chapter in the city code. The Board's current limits were adopted June 22, 2026 and apply to leases commencing October 1, 2026 through September 30, 2027. The state housing agency's November 2024 listing of participating municipalities names the City of Yonkers.

The rent increase limit

The Westchester County Rent Guidelines Board sets one percentage a year for one-year leases and another for two-year leases, and those limits govern rent increases on stabilized apartments in Yonkers. For leases commencing October 1, 2026 through September 30, 2027 the limits are 3.5% for a one-year lease and 4.5% for a two-year lease. For leases commencing October 1, 2025 through September 30, 2026 they were 2% and 3%. There is no formula behind the figures: the act directs the Board to weigh taxes, operating and maintenance costs, financing, housing supply and vacancy rates, and cost-of-living indices. The Board votes each June after public hearings, and a limit may be set only once a year and cannot be topped up by a surcharge inside that year. Increases for building-wide and individual apartment improvements are separate, need state approval, and building-wide improvement increases are capped at 2% a year.

What housing is covered

Rent stabilization reaches apartments in buildings of six or more units built before January 1, 1974 that are not under the older rent control system. Westchester County's housing department lists Yonkers with a six-unit minimum, the same threshold the state law uses, while several smaller Westchester municipalities set higher minimums. The act leaves out buildings with fewer than six dwelling units; buildings completed or substantially rehabilitated as family units on or after January 1, 1974; housing owned or operated by the federal government, the state, a county, a municipality or a public housing authority; buildings whose rents are already supervised by the state housing agency under other law; hotel rooms, motor courts, trailers and tourist homes; certain housing owned by hospitals, religious houses, schools and charitable nonprofits; and apartments the tenant does not occupy as a primary residence.

What happens on vacancy

A stabilized apartment stays stabilized when the tenant moves out. On a vacancy the owner may charge the previously established legal regulated rent adjusted by the most recent applicable guideline increase and any other increase allowed by law. The 2019 state housing law ended vacancy deregulation and the separate vacancy bonus, and the same board percentage now applies to a vacancy lease as to a renewal.

Eviction and termination rules

A stabilized tenant has the right to a new one-year or two-year lease at the tenant's own option, and can be removed only on grounds the act allows. An owner who wants the apartment for personal or immediate family use may recover only one apartment, must show an immediate and compelling need, and cannot use that ground against a household member who is 62 or older, has lived in the building 15 years or more, or has a qualifying long-term impairment; a tenant who loses the apartment to a false statement about the intended use may sue for actual damages and attorney fees. The state housing agency is also directed to bar practices that keep a tenant from asserting a right under the act, including retaliatory termination. Yonkers has not opted into New York's separate Good Cause Eviction law: the state housing agency's current notice lists 19 municipalities outside New York City that have adopted it, and Yonkers is not among them.

Registration and filings

An owner registers each stabilized apartment with the New York State Division of Housing and Community Renewal and files a rent statement every year, giving each tenant the part that covers their apartment. An owner who does not file on time cannot collect more than the rent shown on the last statement filed until the filing is made, and a late filing carries a fine of $500 for each unregistered apartment for each month it is late. The state housing agency charges each participating municipality $20 per regulated apartment per year for running the system, and the act lets the municipality pass a charge of up to the same amount on to owners.

Other requirements

Yonkers adds duties of its own. Owners of income-producing property file an annual income and expense statement with the City Assessor, and an owner of a building with stabilized apartments must state how many of the apartments are covered by the act; the city charter sets a May 1 deadline while the Assessment Department's 2026 instructions give June 1, 2026. Missing the filing bars a complaint to the Board of Assessment Review and can carry a penalty of up to 3% of the property's assessed value. City taxes are abated on the part of a rent increase that pushes a qualifying senior or disabled head of household's rent above one third of combined household income, with a $50,000 household income ceiling; the application goes to the state Office of Rent Administration before January 29 each year, and an owner who collects the abated increase anyway is treated as having taken a rent overcharge. Owners of residential buildings other than one- and two-family homes also pay an annual fire and building safety inspection fee, set by a 2014 local law at $250 for three units, $750 for four to 10 units, $1,000 for 11 to 20 units and $1,250 for more than 20 units, billed for a July 1 to June 30 year.

Notes and caveats

Cite this page: "Landlord Atlas, Yonkers, New York: Rent Stabilization (Emergency Tenant Protection Act) (verified September 16, 2026), landlordatlas.com/laws/new-york/yonkers/" — free to cite and quote with a link (how these records are verified).

Citations

This page records local law. Statewide laws — deposits, notice periods, late fees, entry, evictions — live on the New York hub, and the state-level position on local rent regulation appears there with its own citations and verification date.