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In New York City, is it legal for a landlord (or any other party) to require a minimum number of tenants in an apartment? I am searching (with three other people) for a four bedroom apartment, and we were recently told that an apartment we were interested in was restricted to groups of 6 or more (even though the salesperson confirmed in the same communication that it was correctly listed as a four bedroom unit).

I know the law prevents landlords from setting an artificially low cap on the number of tenants, so I'm wondering if there any restrictions on requiring an artificially high number of tenants?

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    There is certainly no such law at the state level in New York State, or at the federal level. New York City's landlord-tenant laws are arcane, but I doubt that the limitation is imposed by law as opposed to a policy of the landlord.
    – ohwilleke
    Commented Jul 15, 2022 at 23:22
  • Is it a minimum number of occupants, or minimum number of people on the lease? Apart from the law, I don't see how they can practically require a minimum number of occupants. If someone signs the lease but doesn't show up, how would they know, let alone do anything about it? And it makes more sense that they would care about people on the lease than occupants. Would having people cosign satisfy them?
    – Acccumulation
    Commented Jul 16, 2022 at 1:14
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    @Acccumulation I see it similarly. However, expecting 6 people on the lease is a lot. That wouldn't even work for a large family, since children can't sign the lease contract.
    – PMF
    Commented Jul 16, 2022 at 14:59
  • Is it not true that providing no law is broken - as, eg, setting too low a cap on numbers, the letting must be governed by contract, which however "unfair" to the tenant(s) is nevertheless legally at the landlord's discretion, however undesirable it might be socially?
    – Robbie Goodwin
    Commented Aug 24, 2022 at 16:48

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In new York they can ask of a minimum amount of occupancy if there enough rooms in the rental property if they are saying no children then they have to specify it as senior living. Now the laws have changed a bit to adher to some of the nation homelessness and due this a lot of states have implied minum amount of occupancy if being rented in response to homelessnes crisis

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  • Citation please
    – Trish
    Commented Mar 25, 2024 at 11:20

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