What is the tenant blacklist? Can it prevent me from renting in NYC?
- Withholding rent to force your landlord to make repairs could land you on the tenant blacklist
- If you have a lawsuit pending, ask to be identified as John or Jane Doe instead of your real name
Landlords can’t refuse to rent to you because you had a case in housing court—but they may try to find another reason to reject you.
iStock
Searching for an apartment in New York City is always challenging, even more so if you've ever been involved in a housing court case and landed on the dreaded tenant "blacklist"—and was then shunned by prospective landlords.
With changes to New York's rent laws in 2019, however, landlords can no longer refuse to rent to someone solely based on housing court data. These changes are significant for many tenants who face eviction or seek a place they can afford.
Read on for more about how the tenant blacklist impacts NYC renters.
[Editor's note: An earlier version of this article was published in October 2023. We are presenting it again with updated information for October 2024.]
What is the tenant blacklist?
If you end up in NYC housing court for any reason, your name will typically come up in court data searched by tenant screening bureaus, known as TSBs. The collected data is often called the tenant blacklist, even though it isn’t actually a list. Instead, this public information is gathered by companies who provide the details, along with credit reports, to landlords when they screen tenants during the rental application process.
How can you end up on a tenant blacklist?
One lasting result of the pandemic is that it pushed thousands of tenants into legal disputes with their landlords, so more New Yorkers will likely have a housing court dispute in their rental history.
Another reason you could end up in housing court is for non-payment of rent or because you purposely withheld it to force your landlord to do repairs. Withholding rent to get your landlord to fix your apartment is an essential tenant right. What’s troubling about the data collected from courts is that it doesn’t point to who was in the right—it just indicates that you got into a legal tussle with a landlord.
How do you get off a rental blacklist?
Landlords can’t refuse to rent if they find out you have a complicated tenant-landlord history. When this law changed in 2019, the intention was to ensure renters would feel confident bringing legal action against a negligent landlord. Landlords who use housing court information to screen incoming tenants now face a fine of up to $1,000 if the attorney general decides to investigate.
Despite the legal protection, if you think your name will come up in a NYC housing court search—either erroneously or not—there are valid reasons to try to get your name removed.
Attorney James Fishman, a partner at Fishmanlaw Group, says it’s still possible a landlord will come up with another reason to reject you if they see your name in housing court data. He adds that the law preventing discrimination for involvement in housing court only applies in New York state, so if you move elsewhere, your record is available to an out-of-state landlord.
If you’re a tenant who has gone to housing court to formalize an agreement with your landlord about moving out of an apartment, you may be able to prevent your name from appearing in court documents.
According to now-retired tenant attorney Sam Himmelstein, a partner at Himmelstein McConnell Gribben & Joseph, if the relationship between the former landlord and tenant is cordial, the terms of the settlement can include the condition that the landlord provide a letter of recommendation and a positive reference. This letter can be attached to future rental applications.
How do you avoid the tenant blacklist?
If you have a lawsuit pending and an attorney lined up, you may be able to contact the landlord's attorney and request that they name you only as John or Jane Doe instead of your real name so the housing court information remains anonymous. According to Himmelstein, most landlords will agree to this.
In addition to having the above agreement, you might be able to get the other side to sign an out-of-court settlement agreement whereby the landlord would only file a court case if you breach the settlement agreement. "That way, there wouldn't even be a filing, which is the safest scenario," he says. It can be harder to get landlords to sign such an agreement, but most will still do it, he adds.
Instead of taking a case with a landlord to NYC housing court, another route is a tenant-initiated housing part action. This is where you sue your landlord for failing to comply with the law, particularly regarding building repairs. Housing part actions are pretty straightforward: A tenant fills out a form to request an apartment inspection for violations. The city sends out an inspector, and a landlord can face steep fines if there are violations. If the court finds in the tenant’s favor, the landlord will be forced to make the repairs by a specific time.
How long would housing court action stay on my record?
A search of NYC housing court data will not reveal any case older than seven years—a time limit set by the Federal Fair Credit Reporting Act. Fishman says it's possible to argue that a New York statute has a five-year rule, meaning some screening companies won’t use data older than that.
What are my rights as a renter?
Banning the use of publicly available data is problematic. For starters, this information is accessible to anyone. Landlords still want to screen their tenants, and some may think the penalty of weeding out troublemakers is worth the risk should they get caught.
In fact, Fishman says landlords will use pretexts other than a housing court case to deny an apartment to someone and avoid violating the law. “As a result, these tenants cannot show that they’ve been damaged by an inaccurate credit report and therefore cannot sue under the Federal Fair Credit Reporting Act,” he explains.
The law doesn’t allow a tenant to sue a landlord for using court data to deny an application, but the Attorney General has made moves to crack down on tenant blacklisting. A settlement against Clipper Equity, a real estate company that denied applicants with past housing court records, was a recent effort to eliminate the practice. If you think you have been discriminated against in this way, you can file a complaint with the Attorney General’s office.
What information can NY landlords ask for?
New York landlords and property managers have been forced to adjust their screening processes and should no longer request eviction or housing court information. It’s likely they are, instead, raising other standards, like minimum credit scores or income-to-rent ratios, to offset their risks.
Most NYC landlords require a photo ID, your last two pay stubs, three months of bank statements, and two years of tax returns, as well as a letter of employment on company letterhead stating your job title, length of employment, salary, and any expected bonus. If you are self-employed, you’ll need a letter from your accountant, proof of any other funds like stocks or bonds, a reference letter from a previous landlord if applicable, and contact information for prior landlords. You may also need personal or business reference letters. For more guidance, check out "Need to rent in NYC? Here's what to do before you even start looking at apartments"
