New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani has presented 23 proposals that could change how tenants find apartments, report unsafe conditions and pursue landlords who fail to make repairs.
The proposals are contained in the administration’s 67-page “Rental Ripoff Recap,” which followed a series of public hearings in all five boroughs. City officials recorded testimony from 2,419 participants, including 852 private listening sessions and 882 digital submissions.
Pests were the most frequently reported problem, appearing in 16% of the testimony. Mold, leaks and kitchen problems each appeared in 13%. Tenants also reported inadequate heat, broken elevators, harassment, hidden fees, high utility bills and misleading apartment listings.
Some of Mamdani’s proposals can be started by city agencies. Others need City Council approval, formal rulemaking, new funding or court action. They are not all taking effect immediately.
The 23 Proposals in Mamdani’s Rental Plan
Here is what the administration wants to change for people renting in New York.
- Inspect every apartment connected to a heat complaint. The Department of Housing Preservation and Development would stop treating complaints from separate apartments in the same building as duplicates. Inspectors would attempt to visit every apartment connected to a named heat or hot-water complaint.
- Allow tenants to schedule follow-up inspections. If an inspector cannot enter an apartment, the tenant could receive a text explaining how to arrange another visit. A later version of the system would allow appointments to be selected online.
- Investigate all buildings controlled by a problem landlord. The city would examine complete property portfolios instead of responding to each troubled building as a separate case.
- Target at least 10 of the worst housing portfolios. The “Fix the City” program would begin with landlords whose properties contain large concentrations of serious, long-standing violations. The investigations could combine inspections, emergency repairs and litigation.
- Modernize property-owner registration. The city wants to replace its paper-heavy registration process with a system that makes current ownership information easier to find.
- Identify the people behind property companies. Landlords can operate buildings through layers of limited liability companies. The proposed system would make it easier for tenants and city agencies to determine who controls a property and how that person can be contacted.
- Rework the Alternative Enforcement Program. HPD would review the program used to intervene in severely distressed buildings and consider stronger action when ordinary violation notices repeatedly fail.
- Move serious housing cases through court faster. The administration wants courts to give greater priority to cases involving dangerous and long-unresolved building conditions.
- Expand the city’s authority to place liens on buildings. The Department of Buildings would seek legislation allowing liens for any category of violation when unpaid penalties against a property reach at least $25,000.
- Create recurring penalties for dangerous violations. Owners could face annual penalties when immediately hazardous violations remain uncorrected. The current system can leave landlords with little additional financial pressure after an initial fine.
- Fine landlords who falsely certify repairs. HPD found that 32% of the repair certifications it checked during fiscal years 2024 and 2025 were false. Mamdani wants an automatic fee or fine when a reinspection confirms that a claimed repair was not completed.
- Change the deadlines used in serious pest cases. Landlords can currently receive 21 days to clear certain pest violations, even though eliminating a major infestation may require several months. HPD and the Health Department would review the deadline and the way those cases are monitored.
- Require repairs that address the source of recurring mold. The city wants to stop landlords from painting over mold or patching visible damage while leaving the underlying leak untouched.
- Conduct roof-to-cellar inspections in problem buildings. Buildings enrolled in the Underlying Conditions Program could receive periodic inspections of the entire property, not only the apartment where a complaint originated.
- Expand the list of rent-impairing violations. New York’s list of serious conditions that may support a tenant’s defense after withholding rent has not been updated since 1992. The administration wants to consider adding hazards such as lead, mold and other toxins.
- Test smaller elevators in old walk-up buildings. The city would examine whether compact elevators used in parts of Europe could be installed safely in older buildings that currently have no elevator.
- Increase the use of qualified outside elevator inspectors. The Department of Buildings would consider expanding third-party inspections to reduce long waits for elevator complaints and follow-up visits.
- Give tenant unions formal city recognition. New rules would define when a tenant organization officially represents a building, how much resident support it needs and when a landlord must communicate with it.
- Organize tenant-led enforcement days. Tenant groups would help the city identify buildings for coordinated inspections covering multiple apartments and common areas. The first enforcement days are expected to take place in the Bronx.
- Reconsider credit checks and the 40-times-rent standard. The city could prevent landlords from demanding both a credit check and proof that an applicant earns 40 times the monthly rent. One option would require the landlord to choose one screening method and pay for any credit report requested.
- Require warnings on digitally altered apartment photographs. Rental listings containing images changed with artificial intelligence or other editing software could be required to carry a clear disclosure.
- Act against false and misleading rental advertisements. The Department of Consumer and Worker Protection plans to work with StreetEasy, Zillow and other listing services to identify advertisements for nonexistent apartments and misleading bait-and-switch listings.
- Disclose utility costs and non-rent fees before a lease is signed. Landlords could be required to explain which utilities the tenant must pay, how services are metered, what shutoff rules apply and which additional charges are attached to the apartment.
Credit Checks Could Become a Major Fight at City Hall
The proposed changes to tenant screening could affect almost anyone searching for a New York apartment.
Many landlords require applicants to show annual income equal to at least 40 times the monthly rent. A person applying for an apartment costing $3,000 per month may therefore be expected to earn at least $120,000 a year. Applicants are commonly required to pass a credit check as well.
Mamdani has not proposed an outright ban on either requirement. The administration is considering legislation that would make landlords choose between a credit check and the income test rather than demanding both.
Another possibility would require the owner or broker to pay the cost of the credit report. The proposal is intended to help applicants with rental assistance, limited credit histories or lower incomes who can pay the rent but fail the standard screening process.
The details have not been settled. The administration has not said which buildings would be covered, whether small property owners would receive an exemption or whether the 40-times-rent standard could eventually be restricted.
Tenant Unions Could Receive an Official Place at the Table
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Tenants already have a legal right to organize. New York does not, however, have a general framework for deciding when a tenant association formally represents a building.
Mamdani wants HPD and the Mayor’s Office to Protect Tenants to create that framework.
The rules could determine how many residents must support an organization, when a landlord must meet with it and what subjects can be discussed. Maintenance, building services and affordability could all become part of those meetings.
The city is also considering whether tenant groups and owners could negotiate community benefit agreements. It has not decided whether those agreements would be voluntary or enforceable.
Heat Complaints Would Be Checked Apartment by Apartment
The change involving heat inspections is among the proposals closest to implementation.
HPD currently treats multiple heat or hot-water complaints from one building as related cases. Inspectors generally begin with the apartment connected to the first complaint. If that unit has adequate heat, complaints from other apartments can be closed with the same result.
That system does not always work in buildings with individual heating equipment. One apartment can be warm while the unit next door remains cold.
Under the proposed policy, inspectors would attempt to visit every apartment connected to a non-anonymous complaint. Multiple complaints from the same apartment could still be treated as duplicates until the original case is closed.
HPD received more than 300,000 heat and hot-water complaints in 2025. The agency will have to monitor whether the additional inspection attempts create longer waiting times.
False Repair Claims Could Bring Automatic Penalties
Landlords can certify to HPD that cited conditions have been corrected. The agency notifies affected tenants, who can challenge the certification, and audits some claims through reinspections.
According to the city’s findings, 32% of the certifications checked in fiscal years 2024 and 2025 were false.
HPD already operates a Certification Watchlist for owners who repeatedly claim that unresolved violations have been corrected. The new proposal would add an automatic fee or fine when a watchlist inspection confirms another false certification.
The City Council would have to amend the Housing Maintenance Code before the automatic penalty could take effect.
Old Walk-Ups Could Be Used for a Small-Elevator Test
One of the most unusual proposals involves compact elevators.
New York construction rules generally prevent smaller elevators from being installed in old walk-up buildings. Current size standards are intended partly to ensure that an elevator can accommodate a stretcher during an emergency.
Those standards can also make installation too difficult or expensive unless the building undergoes a major renovation.
The Department of Buildings would work with the Fire Department, disability advocates, the Mayor’s Office for People with Disabilities and elevator companies on a pilot program. The city hopes to find an HPD-financed preservation project that could host the first test.
The proposal would add an elevator to a building that does not have one. It would not replace a full-sized elevator already in operation.
No building, budget or construction timetable has been announced.
Edited Apartment Photos Could Require Warning Labels
The administration also wants to address deceptive rental advertising.
The Department of Consumer and Worker Protection would develop a rule requiring a clear disclosure when listing photographs have been digitally altered. The requirement would include images changed using artificial intelligence.
Edited photographs can make an apartment appear larger, brighter or better maintained than it is. Renters may spend money and time visiting a property that looks substantially different from the advertisement.
The department also reported encountering advertisements for apartments that did not exist. In some cases, a broker allegedly used a false listing to attract renters before offering to show them a different property and demanding a fee.
After the disclosure rule is completed, the department plans to work with StreetEasy, Zillow and other listing platforms on enforcement.
Utility Bills Would Have to Be Explained Clearly
Utility costs were among the more unexpected complaints raised during the hearings.
Some renters understood that electricity was individually metered but did not realize they would also be responsible for electric heat or hot water. That distinction can produce much larger winter bills.
The administration wants a standard disclosure covering:
- Which utilities are included in the rent
- Which utilities the tenant must pay
- Whether heating and hot water are electric
- How each service is metered
- What shutoff policies apply
- How unlawful charges can be reported
- Which additional fees appear in the lease
The administration plans to develop the disclosure with the City Council and the Mayor’s Office of Climate and Environmental Justice. The legislation has not yet been drafted.
Several Proposals Still Need City Council Approval
The 23 proposals do not have one shared starting date.
The heat-inspection policy and Bronx enforcement days could begin sooner because city agencies have more direct control over them. Credit-check reform, expanded liens and automatic penalties for false repair certifications require legislation.
Formal recognition of tenant unions will need a rulemaking process. The small-elevator plan must pass technical and safety reviews before a building can be selected.
Some measures may begin as limited pilots. Others may not be introduced until 2027.
The administration plans to convene a task force involving City Council members, tenant advocates, property managers and housing officials to work through the proposals requiring changes to local law.
Landlord Groups Have Criticized the Process
Landlord organizations objected to the Rental Ripoff Hearings before the first session was held. They argued that the events focused on complaints against property owners without giving responsible landlords an equal opportunity to describe rising costs, unpaid rent and regulatory problems.
City officials say they are briefing organizations representing both tenants and owners. They argue that faster inspections and clearer agency decisions could also help landlords by resolving complaints more efficiently.
The administration will still need support from the City Council, and some proposals could face legal challenges from property-owner groups.
What New York Renters Should Watch Next
The proposals grew from the city’s first Rental Ripoff Hearings, established by Mamdani through Executive Order 8 in January 2026.
For tenants, the first visible changes are likely to involve inspections, follow-up appointments and coordinated enforcement in badly maintained buildings. Proposals involving credit checks, tenant unions, utility disclosures and new financial penalties will take longer.
The measures are also connected to Mamdani’s broader Block by Block housing plan, which calls for building 200,000 affordable homes and preserving another 200,000 during the next decade.
Whether all 23 rental proposals survive the legislative and regulatory process remains uncertain. What is clear is that the administration is trying to change more than rent prices. Its plan reaches into nearly every part of renting, from the first apartment advertisement and credit check to repairs, inspections, utility bills and the legal consequences for an owner who refuses to fix a dangerous home.
