New York City, New York: pet and assistance-animal laws

The rule is section 27-2009.1 of the Administrative Code, the pet law: where a tenant in a multiple dwelling keeps a household pet openly and notoriously for three months or more after moving in, and the owner knows and does not start a proceeding within that time, the clause against pets is deemed waived. A lease term restricting the tenant's rights under the section is void as against public policy, and cooperatives are covered, no-waiver clause or not. The waiver does not apply where the pet damages the premises, creates a nuisance or substantially interferes with other occupants' health, safety or welfare, and the owner has to prove it; the city's appellate court held in 2025 that a dog's breed is not relevant to whether that dog is a nuisance. Buildings with fewer than three units are outside the section, and the New York City Housing Authority is exempt from it. The city sets no pet deposit, pet rent or pet fee rule at all: New York State caps a deposit at one month's rent however it is labeled and bars a non-refundable fee, and those state rules are what limit the money.

New York City pet law at a glance

Cite this page: "Landlord Atlas, New York City, New York: pet and assistance-animal laws (verified September 21, 2026), landlordatlas.com/laws/pets/new-york/new-york-city/" — free to cite and quote with a link (how these records are verified and what the topic covers). Everything above is cited in the citations section below.

The instrument

Section 27-2009.1 of the Administrative Code of the City of New York, Rights and responsibilities of owners and tenants in relation to pets, part of the Housing Maintenance Code and known everywhere, including in the decisions applying it, as the pet law. It carries a legislative declaration, the three-month waiver, an anti-waiver clause, an exception for damage and nuisance and an exclusion for the New York City Housing Authority. The local law that enacted it, its adoption date and its effective date are not printed on the published section and are not stated here. Courts applied the section as current law as recently as January 2025.

Where a change in this status would appear: N.Y.C. Administrative Code § 27-2009.1 (Housing Maintenance Code) — subdivisions a to e.

Who it binds

Every owner of a multiple dwelling in the city, with two carve-outs. A multiple dwelling is a building with three or more independent families under state law, so a two-family house is outside the section. Cooperatives are inside it: the courts have long held the pet law applies to all leases, including cooperative proprietary leases, and to house rules made under them. The New York City Housing Authority is exempt outright by the section's own final subdivision.

Pet deposit

The city sets no pet deposit rule; the section carries no money term of any kind. New York State answers: a deposit is capped at one month's rent, whatever the charge is called, with a handful of excluded housing classes. The New York page carries the cap and the classes it leaves out.

Pet rent

The city sets no rule on monthly pet rent, and neither the section nor any other city rule caps it. The state answer is on the New York page: what state law controls is money taken at the start of a tenancy, and a charge that is not returnable is barred.

Non-refundable pet fee

The city bars nothing of its own. New York State bars a landlord from demanding a non-refundable fee at the start of a tenancy, so a non-refundable pet fee is unlawful throughout the state, including in the city. The New York page carries that rule.

Breed, size and weight

The section says nothing about breed, size or weight, and the state page carries the state answer. What the city's courts have added matters more than the silence: once the three-month waiver has run, an owner may not revive a breed ban by calling the breed itself a nuisance. The First Department held in 2025 that a dog's breed is not relevant to whether that particular dog is a nuisance, rejecting a cooperative's pet-friendly policy that banned the breeds it called most aggressive; the owner has to prove what this animal actually did.

What the lease must, or may not, say

Where a tenant in a multiple dwelling openly and notoriously keeps a household pet for three months or more after taking possession, the keeping of which no other law forbids, and the owner or the owner's agent knows about it and does not begin a summary proceeding or action within that three-month period to enforce a lease clause against pets, that clause is deemed waived. Both limbs have to be met: open and notorious keeping, and the owner's knowledge of it. The clock is about what the owner knew and when; in the 2025 case the period ran from the cooperative's discovery of the animal. The waiver is not a time limit on a lawsuit but a substantive qualification on the right to sue, so the cause of action for breach of the no-pets clause simply ceases to exist, and the usual statutory savings for a dismissed case do not revive it. An owner cannot contract around any of it: a lease term restricting the tenant's rights under the section, by express words or otherwise, is unenforceable and void as against public policy, and a no-waiver clause in a cooperative's proprietary lease does not survive. The waiver does not apply where keeping the pet damages the premises, creates a nuisance or substantially interferes with the health, safety or welfare of other tenants or occupants of the same or an adjacent building, and the owner carries the burden of showing it.

Assistance animals

The section writes no assistance-animal rule and needs none, because it imposes no charge and no limit; it is a waiver rule about lease clauses. A tenant who needs a service, assistance or support animal is answered by New York's human rights and civil rights laws and by the federal rules, which are on the New York page and the federal section of the 50-state page, and those rights do not depend on three months passing.

Who enforces it and how

The remedy is the waiver itself, raised as a defense when the owner brings a summary proceeding: once it operates, the claim for breach of the no-pets clause no longer exists. The anti-waiver subdivision voids any lease term restricting the tenant's rights under the section. To enforce a no-pets rule after three months the owner must show the damage, nuisance or substantial interference the exception names. The section itself carries no fine, no penalty and no damages award. Whether the Housing Maintenance Code's general penalty and enforcement provisions reach a violation of the section was not read, so nothing is claimed about them.

How this fits with New York law

New York neither preempts nor authorizes local pet-in-housing rules; the state statutes on landlord and tenant, on multiple dwellings and on summary proceedings carry no preemption clause and no pet-specific grant. The city's pet law rests on the general home-rule power to make local laws for the government, protection, order, conduct, safety, health and well-being of persons and property in the city. Where the state does occupy the field is money: state law caps a deposit at one month's rent however the charge is labeled and bars a non-refundable fee, which is exactly why the city's rule carries no figure. A landlord in the city therefore faces a state answer on what may be charged and a city answer on whether a no-pets clause still bites.

Leading court decisions

• 360 E. 72nd St. Owners Inc. v Wolkoff, 234 AD3d 565, 2025 NY Slip Op 00284 (Appellate Division, First Department, 2025) — A cooperative that wanted to enforce a house rule after the three-month period had to prove the exception, that keeping the pet damaged the premises, created a nuisance or substantially interfered with other occupants' health, safety or welfare. The court rejected the argument that the dog's breed was relevant to whether this dog was a nuisance, and held that the pet law applies to cooperative proprietary leases even where the lease contains a no-waiver clause. Read the opinion.
• Bray Realty, LLC v Pilaj, 54 Misc 3d 7 (Appellate Term, Second Department, 2016) — Where an owner knows a tenant is keeping a pet openly and notoriously for three months or more and does not begin a summary proceeding, the no-pets lease clause is waived. The waiver is not a statute of limitations but a substantive qualification on the right of action, so the claim for breach of the clause ceases to exist and the statutory savings provision for a dismissed action does not revive it. Read the opinion.
• Aponte v New York City Housing Authority, 54 Misc 3d 220 (Supreme Court, Richmond County, 2016) — Read for the housing authority exclusion: where the Housing Maintenance Code means to put the New York City Housing Authority outside a provision it says so expressly, and the pet law is one of the provisions that does. The exclusion in the pet law's final subdivision is deliberate rather than an oversight. Read the opinion.

Notes and caveats

• Both limbs of the three-month rule matter — The tenant must have kept the pet openly and notoriously, and the owner or the owner's agent must have known. Hiding a pet does not start the clock, and neither does an owner's ignorance.
• The waiver is permanent, not a deadline — Courts treat it as ending the landlord's right rather than as a time limit on suing, so the claim for breach of the no-pets clause ceases to exist. A proceeding started and then discontinued does not buy more time.
• Cooperatives are covered — The pet law applies to all leases, including cooperative proprietary leases and the house rules under them, and a no-waiver clause in the proprietary lease does not defeat it.
• Breed is not a shortcut to nuisance — After the waiver has run, an owner must prove what this animal did. The First Department rejected a cooperative's policy banning the breeds it considered most aggressive as a ground for removal.
• Two buildings the section does not reach — A building with fewer than three independent families is not a multiple dwelling, so the section does not apply to it, and the New York City Housing Authority is expressly exempt.
• Pet money is a state question here — The city rule carries no figure. New York caps a deposit at one month's rent whatever the charge is called and bars a non-refundable fee; the security-deposits page carries the cap, the excluded housing classes and the return rules.
• Assistance animals — The waiver rule is not the route for a service, assistance or support animal. The New York page and the federal section of the 50-state page carry what a landlord must allow and may ask, and those rights do not wait three months.
• Federal rules — The Fair Housing Act, the housing regulations under it, the rules for assisted and public housing and the status of the federal assistance-animal guidance are on the federal section of the 50-state page.
• What is not on this page — The local law that enacted the section and its dates are not printed on the published section and are not stated here. The Council's legislation system shows no local law enacted in 2025 or 2026 that amends the section or adds another pet rule; two bills introduced on January 29, 2026 would add pet protections and are listed as pending.

Citations

• N.Y.C. Administrative Code § 27-2009.1 (Rights and responsibilities of owners and tenants in relation to pets) · a, b, c, d, e (verified 2026) Official source
• N.Y.C. Administrative Code § 27-2009.1 (Rights and responsibilities of owners and tenants in relation to pets): Department of Buildings printing of title 27, chapter 2, section 27-2009.1 · a, b, c, d, e (verified 2026) Official source

How this record was verified: Section 27-2009.1 of the New York City Administrative Code was read in full, subdivisions a through e, on the city's contracted code publisher's own site on September 21, 2026, and matched word for word against the same section as read there the day before. The operative language was also read in the courts' own texts on the same day: the First Department's 2025 decision on the official state law reporter, which quotes subdivision d in full and states the burden, and an Appellate Term memorandum of 2016 and a Richmond County Supreme Court decision of the same year, both read in an opinion archive, which quote subdivision b's operative clause and the housing authority exclusion. The publisher's own page carries a notice that the codes there may not yet reflect the most recent legislation or rules, and the section page exposes no edition line, so no currency date is stated. The enacting local law and its dates could not be read: the credit line is not on the section page, the city's publications portal and the Council's legislation system would not serve the record, and the Council's own search would not run without a working form. New York's own answers on deposits and fees were taken from the state reading.

What was read to state each absence on this page: Section 27-2009.1 was read in full, subdivisions a through e, and contains no deposit, fee, rent, charge, breed, size, weight, number, service animal, assistance animal or emotional support term; its subject is the waiver of a lease clause and its exception. The terms looked for were pet, pets, household pet, animal, dog, service animal, assistance animal, support animal, emotional support, breed, weight, size, number, deposit, fee, rent, nonrefundable and registration. No citywide reading of recent local laws was possible on September 21, 2026, because the city's publications portal, the Council's legislation system and the Council's own search all refused to serve records, so the statement that the city has no other pet rule rests on the section itself and on the earlier city-by-city reading rather than on a reading of the local laws, and is stated as partial.

This page records New York City's own law on pets and assistance animals in rentals. The statewide position — New York has no pet-deposit, pet-fee or pet-rent statute, so a pet deposit is an ordinary security deposit and counts inside the one-month cap rather than on top of it — lives on the New York pets and assistance-animals page with its own citations and verification date.