Is it Legal To Rent Out Your Apartment in NYC for a Few Days or Weeks?
Let’s say you are going to Paris for two weeks and you want to rent out your apartment while you are away. You think: Hey, I will rent out out my NYC rental while I am away and make some money! Please reconsider. In almost all instances like this it would NOT be legal to rent out your apartment, and the fines can be steep.
NOTE: To search for NYC apartments, go to frele.com (free service). Or, click for more rental tips.
Two Reasons Why it is Not Legal To Rent Out Your Apartment For Under 30 Days.
In fact, there are TWO reasons why this may not be allowed in NYC:
1. Violates NYC Law (The Multiple Dwelling Law)
First, renting out your apartment for under 30 days violates New York City law. There is a law called the Multiple Dwelling Law which bans this practice in most instances. (https://www1.nyc.gov/assets/buildings/pdf/MultipleDwellingLaw.pdf ) This law makes it not legal to rent out your apartment for less than 30 days if you are in a building of 3 or more units and you are not present.
2. Violates the Lease Agreement Between You and Your Landlord.
Not only would you mostly be violating New York City law as explained above, but almost all lease agreements (between a landlord and a tenant) would also ban the practice. Here is how landlords look at it: Before you signed the lease with the landlord, he or she has vetted YOU, not a stranger whom you do not know who will reside in your apartment for a few nights or weeks. Therefore based on the terms of the lease, it is usually not legal to rent out your apartment for a very short period of time.
But to be clear, there are a couple of situations where it IS legal to rent out your apartment for less than 30 days:
A. Building Less Than 3 Units
Assuming you have the landlord’s permission and the building has less than 3 units, you should be allowed to find a sublessee for under 30 days. So, you should be okay to find someone to sublet during your 2 week Paris stay as mentioned above. In practice, a building of less than 3 units usually means a townhouse or brownstone. There are very few of these in New York City but they do exist. Therefore, in this situation it should be legal to rent out your apartment for two weeks.
B. You Must Play “Host
Assuming you have the landlord’s permission and you are looking for someone to occupy another room while you are still present in the apartment, then it should be legal to rent out your apartment for a few days or weeks. In practice, this would mean you are probably playing “host” to this person and just looking to make some extra money on the side.
Don’t Be Fooled by Airbnb Ads
Because of the multi million dollar marketing budgets for some of the platforms out there (like Airbnb) you may be under the false impression that it is always legal to rent out your apartment in NYC for under 30 days. Unfortunately, it is quite the opposite. Steer clear of doing so unless your situation falls into the two infrequent cases described above. The fines can be huge and even eviction is possible.
For more NYC rental tips, please go to frele.com/learn.
This article was written by:
Phil Horigan, NYC Real Estate Veteran
Founder, Frēlē, the free and honest NYC rental marketplace
Producer, Phil’s NYC Rental Tips [YouTube Channel]
Blogger: flowfreely.com
Instagram: @philiphorigan
Phil has been a licensed NYC real estate agent since 2004 working for some of the top real estate brokerage firms in the industry. He founded Leasebreak.com in 2013, and Frēlē in 2017. Frēlē and Leasebreak are free and transparent rental marketplaces to search for or post apartments for rent in NYC
Phil shot the video in the blog post with real estate broker and CEO of Lander Real Estate Lidia Lander. Lidia can be reached here on her website.
Go to frele.com to search for NYC apartments (free service).