Landlords who harass rent-regulated tenants across buildings face up to 7 years

If you rent a rent-stabilized or rent-controlled apartment in New York, the law now treats systematic harassment spanning an owner’s buildings as a more serious crime. Harassment here means intentionally creating an ongoing pattern—such as cutting off heat or hot water, making homes unlivable, or creating dangerous conditions—to push tenants out. If it targets three or more rent-regulated tenants in two or more buildings, an owner can be charged with a class D felony, which carries up to 7 years in prison. An owner who commits the class E first-degree offense after a conviction for that crime within the previous five years can face the class D felony too.

The same budget expanded the class E offense, which carries up to 4 years, to cover systematic harassment of two tenants in two separate buildings as well as two tenants in one building. A good-faith eviction case does not by itself count as a systematic ongoing course of conduct. You do not need to apply for protection; prosecutors bring these cases, often after tenants report what is happening.

Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg worked with state Sen. Brian Kavanagh and Assembly Member Micah Lasher to create the proposal in October 2025. Gov. Kathy Hochul included a version in her executive budget, and tenant groups pushed to keep it during budget negotiations. It became law as Part P of the education, labor and housing budget bill, which the Senate passed 58–3. Hochul signed it on May 28, 2026, and it took effect immediately.