NY HSTPA 2019: Key Changes Tenant and Landlord Must Know

The Housing Stability and Tenant Protection Act of 2019 (HSTPA, codified as L. 2019, c. 36) is the most significant tenant protection reform in New York history. Signed into law on 14 June 2019, it amended at least seven New York statutes simultaneously and rewrote the rules that every landlord and tenant — in NYC and statewide — has been operating under for nearly four decades. Six years later, many lease forms in circulation still reflect pre-HSTPA practice and quietly violate the law.

This article, written from a Gyoseishoshi (行政書士) document-preparation perspective, summarizes the ten changes that matter most when drafting, signing, or terminating a New York residential lease under the post-HSTPA regime.

Statutes amended by HSTPA

HSTPA simultaneously modified:

• NY Real Property Law (RPL) — statewide tenancy rules
• NY General Obligations Law (GOL) — security deposits
• NY Real Property Actions and Proceedings Law (RPAPL) — eviction procedure
• NYC Administrative Code §26-501 et seq. — Rent Stabilization Law (RSL)
• Emergency Tenant Protection Act of 1974 (ETPA) — extends rent stabilization beyond NYC
• NY Multiple Dwelling Law — selected provisions
• NY Real Property Tax Law — selected provisions

Primary source — NYS Senate, Chapter 36 of Laws of 2019: https://www.nysenate.gov/legislation/laws/2019/36

The changes apply both statewide (to free-market apartments via RPL/GOL) and specifically to rent-stabilized apartments in NYC and ETPA-covered municipalities.

Change 1 — Security deposit cap: 1 month maximum (statewide)

Before HSTPA, New York landlords routinely collected first month’s rent + last month’s rent + security deposit + pet deposit + key deposit, often totaling four months upfront.

After HSTPA, GOL §7-108(1-a) limits all residential security deposits and advances to a single month of rent — period. This rule applies statewide to free-market and stabilized apartments alike.

Failure to return the deposit within 14 days, properly itemized, forfeits the entire deposit and exposes the landlord to double damages under GOL §7-108(1-a)(g). This rule is enforced in Small Claims Court and is the single most common HSTPA violation seen in 2026.

Change 2 — Late fees capped at USD 50 or 5% (statewide)

Under post-HSTPA RPL §238-a, residential lease late fees are capped at the lesser of USD 50 or 5% of the monthly rent. A pre-2019 lease specifying a USD 100 late fee or 10% late fee is unenforceable to the extent it exceeds the cap. Charging the higher amount does not just void the excess — it can trigger an attorney-fee claim from the tenant and exposes the landlord to deceptive-acts allegations under General Business Law §349.

Change 3 — Application fees capped at USD 20 (statewide)

Under RPL §238-a, the application fee is capped at USD 20 total for credit and background checks combined, statewide. NYC brokers’ fees are a separate matter (and currently the subject of ongoing litigation), but the application fee charged by the landlord is capped at USD 20 with no exceptions.

Change 4 — 14-day notice for non-payment (statewide)

Pre-HSTPA, the demand for unpaid rent was 3 days. Post-HSTPA RPAPL §711(2) requires a 14-day demand for rent in writing before any non-payment proceeding may be filed. The 14 days are calendar days, served by personal delivery, conspicuous-place service after diligent attempts, or substituted service per RPAPL §735.

Filing the petition without first serving the 14-day demand is grounds for dismissal of the case — the tenant’s lawyer will move to dismiss before any merits hearing, and the landlord has to start the timeline again.

Change 5 — 30 / 60 / 90 day vacate notice (statewide)

Pre-HSTPA, the standard notice for non-renewal was 30 days. Post-HSTPA RPL §226-c ties notice length to tenancy length:

This change applies to all residential tenancies in New York (free-market and stabilized) and is one of the most frequently overlooked rules. A landlord serving a 30-day notice on a tenant who has been in occupancy for three years has served an invalid notice and must restart with the correct timeline.

Change 6 — Sheriff stay of warrant up to 1 year (statewide)

Under RPAPL §753, courts in any residential eviction proceeding (NYC Housing Court or local courts statewide) may stay the warrant of eviction for up to 1 year for good cause, considering the tenant’s health, ability to relocate, and other equitable factors. Combined with the 14-day demand and the 60-day average court calendar in NYC Housing Court, the realistic timeline from rent default to physical eviction in 2026 is 6 to 12 months in most cases.

This is not a defect — it is the deliberate policy choice of HSTPA. A landlord underwriting a NY rental on a 30-day eviction assumption is mispricing the risk by an order of magnitude.

Change 7 — All vacancy and high-income decontrol repealed (rent-stabilized)

The single largest structural change in HSTPA was the elimination of every mechanism by which rent-stabilized units could escape stabilization:

• Vacancy decontrol — repealed
• High-rent decontrol (legal regulated rent above threshold) — repealed
• High-income decontrol (tenant household income above threshold) — repealed
• Substantial rehab — narrowed, requires DHCR application

Under post-HSTPA RSL, once stabilized, always stabilized — until and unless the building is removed from the housing stock altogether. For tenants, this provides permanent protection. For landlords and investors, this changed the long-term valuation model for NYC rental buildings overnight.

Change 8 — Preferential rent locked for tenancy (rent-stabilized)

Under post-HSTPA NYC Admin Code §26-511(c)(14), where a rent-stabilized tenant has been paying a “preferential rent” — a rent below the legal regulated rent — that preferential rent is the base rent for all renewal calculations during the tenant’s continuous occupancy. The landlord cannot revoke the preferential rent at the next renewal and apply the percentage increase to the higher legal regulated rent. The lock continues until the tenancy ends.

This single change reset the economics of countless preferential-rent leases and is a heavily litigated area at DHCR.

Change 9 — MCI capped at 2% / 30 years (rent-stabilized)

Major Capital Improvement (MCI) recoveries — building-wide capital expenditures recoverable as permanent rent increases — were the largest rent-stabilization escalator pre-HSTPA. After HSTPA, NYC Admin Code §26-511(c)(6-a) caps MCI rent increases at 2% per year and the surcharge expires after 30 years. The change is retroactive to MCI orders issued after a stated cutoff in 2019, with substantial transitional rules.

Change 10 — IAI capped at USD 15,000 / 15 years (rent-stabilized)

Individual Apartment Improvements (IAI) — capital improvements to a single apartment recoverable on vacancy — were previously uncapped. Post-HSTPA NYC Admin Code §26-511(c)(13) limits recoverable IAI cost to USD 15,000 over any rolling 15-year period. The increase is calculated as 1/180th (in buildings under 35 units) or 1/180th (similar formula in larger buildings) of the recoverable cost.

A landlord who renovates a vacant rent-stabilized unit for USD 60,000 cannot recover that cost in rent post-HSTPA — only the first USD 15,000 of qualifying cost generates a permanent increase.

Practical compliance checklist

For landlords transitioning a pre-HSTPA lease portfolio to compliant post-HSTPA leases:

1. ☐ Reduce all security deposits to 1 month maximum (return excess within 14 days)
2. ☐ Replace late-fee clauses to USD 50 / 5% maximum
3. ☐ Replace application-fee clauses to USD 20 maximum
4. ☐ Replace 3-day notices with 14-day non-payment notices on all forms
5. ☐ Use 30 / 60 / 90 day vacate notices keyed to tenancy length
6. ☐ Confirm rent-stabilized renewal calculations use preferential rent base where applicable
7. ☐ Audit MCI and IAI surcharges against post-HSTPA caps
8. ☐ Update DHCR Rent Stabilized Lease Rider RA-LR1 to current version
9. ☐ Audit annual DHCR rent registration filings (mandatory)
10. ☐ Train property managers on prohibited self-help eviction (RPAPL §768)

For tenants, the same list functions in reverse — a violation of any of the above is a basis for an overcharge complaint at DHCR (rent-stabilized) or a Small Claims action (free-market) or a defense in a non-payment proceeding.

Why HSTPA still surprises operators in 2026

Six years post-enactment, HSTPA still surprises practitioners for three reasons:

1. Lease forms persist — pre-2019 commercial form leases continue to circulate in landlord-side real estate libraries
2. Multistate operators carry over rules — New York’s tenant-protective regime is materially stricter than most other states
3. Penalties stack — a single non-compliant lease can trigger excess deposit + double damages + attorney fees + DHCR overcharge + GBL §349 deceptive acts claim

A clean post-HSTPA lease, prepared with Scrib🐮 and attached to current DHCR forms (RA-LR1, RTP-8) for stabilized tenancies, eliminates all of the above exposure.

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Disclaimer

Legal information, not legal advice. MmowW Scrib🐮 is operated by a licensed Gyoseishoshi (行政書士) office in Japan. We are not US attorneys.

Sources

1. NYS Senate, Laws of 2019 c.36 (HSTPA) — https://www.nysenate.gov/legislation/laws/2019/36
2. NY General Obligations Law §7-108 — https://www.nysenate.gov/legislation/laws/GOB/7-108
3. NY Real Property Law §238-a — https://www.nysenate.gov/legislation/laws/RPP/238-A
4. NY Real Property Law §226-c — https://www.nysenate.gov/legislation/laws/RPP/226-C
5. NY RPAPL §711 — https://www.nysenate.gov/legislation/laws/RPA/711
6. DHCR (Homes and Community Renewal) main — https://hcr.ny.gov/
7. DHCR Forms — https://hcr.ny.gov/forms