Field manual

New York rent law in hard numbers, sixteen scam tells, and the 26-point viewing checklist — free, no account, from the VERA apartment engine.

The money, by law

• Security deposit: capped at 1 month (HSTPA 2019), returned within 14 days of move-out, itemized.
• Screening fee: the actual cost or $20, whichever is less — waived with a qualifying credit or background report from the last 30 days.
• Extra fees: for a standard residential rental, a landlord cannot demand an extra holding, reservation, or key fee before or at the beginning of the tenancy. Lawful rent and up to one month of security may still be due under the lease.
• Broker fee: a broker representing the landlord, or publishing their listing with permission, cannot charge you; a broker you independently hire can (FARE Act, in effect since June 11, 2025).
• Income convention: 40× monthly rent annually; guarantors are asked for 80×.

Read the law itself

• NYS fee and screening rule — Application, screening, and pre-tenancy payment limits in Real Property Law §238-a.
• NYC broker-fee rule — DCWP’s current FARE Act guidance and complaint path.
• HCR rent-history access — Who can obtain a rent history and how HCR delivers it.
• HCR lease rider — The required rider/addendum for stabilized vacancy and renewal leases.
• NYC stabilization guide — Why building age and size are clues, not a complete status determination.

Scam School — the sixteen tells

The price is good but not absurd

The professional version never uses a $1,400 West Village one-bedroom. It shaves 15% off market — cheap enough to move fast, plausible enough to survive a gut check. Compare against the building’s own last-rented price, not your hopes.

Nobody has proven they own it

The most expensive scams in this city all collapse to one unanswered question: is this person the owner, the managing agent, or a stranger with a set of keys? A real tour and a real-looking lease prove neither. Look the owner up before you look at the apartment.

One phone number, thirty listings

Search the phone number and the email. Scaled operations reuse contact details across dozens of listings under different names in different neighborhoods. One search ends it.

A lease that looks completely legitimate

A DocuSign lease requires no verification of the sender. Renters have signed real-looking leases, wired real money, and arrived to find twenty other people with the same lease for the same unit.

"I am out of the country"

Missionary, oil rig, deployment, sick relative abroad. Same script for a decade, usually paired with "view it through the windows and we will mail the keys."

Extra money before the tenancy

For a standard residential rental, the landlord cannot demand an extra holding, good-faith, reservation, or key fee before or at the beginning of the tenancy. Lawful rent and up to one month of security may still be due under the lease. Get every amount itemized and reject off-the-books extras.

Zelle, Venmo, wire, gift cards

Irreversible by design — that is the entire reason they were requested. A real landlord takes a check or an ACH transfer against a signed lease.

"You hired me by emailing me"

The most common FARE Act dodge. It does not work: publishing a listing creates a legal presumption the landlord authorised the broker, and conditioning a rental on engaging an agent is barred outright.

A cheaper rent with a bigger fee

Offered a choice between $4,250 rent with a $3,600 fee, or $3,800 rent with a $6,840 fee? That is not a favour, it is fee laundering — and the owner often has no idea their rent is being quoted high.

An application fee over $20

Credit and background checks cost the actual cost or $20, whichever is less. Bring a qualifying credit or background report from the last 30 days and the fee must be waived. A "$500 processing fee" is not a red flag, it is illegal.

A tip for the super

Key money by another name. A demand for a few hundred dollars "for the super" before move-in is illegal, and brokers who ask for it know exactly what they are doing.

"Let us just talk on the phone"

Insisting on a call after you asked in writing is a paper-trail problem, not a friendliness problem. Keep every fee conversation in text or email.

Days on market reset to three

The same tired unit gets relisted — sometimes with the unit number flipped from #A1 to #1A — to wipe the counter. Four months of sitting reappears as brand new inventory.

The listing is already rented

Plenty of live listings are pure lead bait. "Oh, that one is gone, but I have something similar" is a sales funnel, not an accident.

A virtual doorman is not a doorman

Neither is a shared courtyard a "private outdoor space." Amenity checkboxes are filled in to win filters, not to describe the apartment.

Net effective rent

The advertised number is often after a free month. Judge the lease on gross rent — the net figure is mostly a promise to raise your rent at renewal.

The viewing checklist

Systems

• Run the shower AND the sink together — Pressure dies in old buildings when two fixtures compete.
• Time the hot water — Over a minute to warm up is a boiler that will fail you in February.
• Find the radiator valve — Steam heat with no working valve means a 85° apartment all winter with the windows open.
• Check for an AC sleeve or window that fits a unit — Some leases and some windows make a summer unit impossible.
• Count outlets in every room — Two outlets per room means extension cords forever.

Damage

• Look up — ceiling stains or fresh paint patches — A fresh white square on an old ceiling is a leak someone painted over.
• Open the cabinet under the sink — Roach traps, droppings, and water damage all live under there.
• Check corners and baseboards for gaps — Gaps are mouse highways. Steel wool is a tell someone already fought this.
• Set a pen on the floor — If it rolls, the building has settled — check the walls for cracks too.

Light + air

• What is actually outside each window — Airshaft and brick-wall views are legal and soul-crushing.
• Which way do the windows face — North-facing means no direct sun, ever.
• Open and lock every window — Painted-shut windows are both a comfort and a fire-safety problem.

Life

• Stand still and listen for 60 seconds — Bar, bus line, elevated train, upstairs dog — all invisible at 2pm on a Tuesday.
• Check phone bars in the back room — Thick pre-war walls kill signal. Ask if the wifi provider is a monopoly here.
• Ask where packages land — No mailroom and a street-level door means porch piracy every week.
• Laundry in the building? Where is the nearest one? — A five-block laundromat walk is a real weekly tax.
• Find the trash area and smell it — You will be walking past it every day.

People

• Knock on a neighbor door and ask about the landlord — Thirty seconds with a neighbor beats any listing description.
• Ask if there is a super and how fast they answer — The difference between a same-day fix and a three-week outage.

Paper

• Confirm this is THE unit, not "a similar one" — Bait-and-switch is the oldest move in the book.
• Is it a legal unit? (basement/cellar especially) — Illegal conversions have no protection and can be vacated by the city.
• If it may be stabilized, ask for the rent-stabilization rider — A stabilized vacancy or renewal lease must include the state rider. Missing it is a reason to verify the unit — not proof that the unit is unregulated.
• Ask the outgoing tenant for the rent history — HCR treats rent histories as confidential: it releases them to the legal tenant, owner, or an authorized representative. The history is mailed to the apartment, so an outgoing tenant can share theirs; once you are the legal tenant, request your own.
• Notice if the rent is an odd number — A rent like $1,187.59 rather than a round $1,200 is a classic sign of a regulated increase calculated off a legal rent.
• Read who pays the broker, in writing — Under the FARE Act, a landlord-hired broker cannot bill you a fee. Keep the fee conversation in text or email — a sudden insistence on a phone call is about the paper trail.

Verify it yourself

• Who Owns What — See every other building the same owner controls. Free, open source, and the tool New Yorkers recommend to each other most.
• HPD Online — Violations by class, complaints, and the registered owner. Class C means immediately hazardous.
• ACRIS — The deed and the mortgage. Confirms who actually owns the building — and whether the asking rent could plausibly carry it.
• DOB Building Information — Permits, complaints, and the Certificate of Occupancy that tells you whether the unit is even legal.
• NY licence check — Every real broker holds a licence. Search the name before you send anything.
• 311 complaint history — Heat and hot water outages by date. A building that lost heat five times last winter will do it again.

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