How Local Law 18 changed short-term rentals in NYC

Short-term rental. The term "short-term rental" means a rental for fewer than 30 consecutive days of a dwelling unit within a private dwelling or class A multiple dwelling, or in the case of a mixed use building, a rental of a class A dwelling unit therein for fewer than 30 consecutive days.

On January 9, 2022, New York City adopted Local Law 18, also known as the Short-Term Rental Registration Law. The law requires short-term rental hosts to register with the Mayor's Office of Special Enforcement (OSE), and prohibits booking service platforms (such as Airbnb, VRBO, Booking.com, and others) from processing transactions for unregistered short-term rentals.

Short-term rentals are only permitted if you are staying in the same unit or apartment as your guests, and you have no more than two paying guests at a time. You must also maintain a common household with the guests.

This carve-out, sharing your own home rather than renting a separate unit, is what the law was actually built around; it is the closest thing to the classic Airbnb spare-room listing that survives without a registration.

Yes, but not in people's homes. Short-term rentals in entire units are only permitted in "Class B" multiple dwellings, which have been approved by the City of New York for legal short-term occupancies.

A Class B multiple dwelling is a building already classified for transient occupancy, like a hotel, rooming house, or dormitory, not an apartment building whose tax class happens to start with the letter B. OSE keeps a searchable list; almost no ordinary apartment building is on it.

the check-in date is day zero and not day one. Therefore, a 29-night rental is a short-term rental, and a 30-night rental is permanent occupancy.

One extra night is the whole difference between a regulated short-term rental and an ordinary lease that this law does not touch at all.

The applicant is a natural person who is a permanent occupant of the dwelling unit and is either: (i) the owner of such dwelling unit, or (ii) a tenant of such dwelling unit who certifies in a form and manner to be specified by the administering agency that they are not prohibited by the terms of a lease or other agreement from applying for a short-term rental registration for such dwelling unit

The administering agency has verified that the building does not appear on the prohibited buildings list published pursuant to this section

A building owner can put their own building on that list voluntarily; where a lease already bars short-term rentals, this is how OSE enforces that private agreement too, not just its own rules.

No registration shall be issued for the short-term rental of a dwelling unit the rent of which is regulated in accordance with the emergency tenant protection act of 1974, the rent stabilization law of 1969, the local emergency housing rent control act of 1962

No short-term rental registration shall be issued for a dwelling unit in a New York city housing authority development.

No short-term rental registration shall be issued for a rooming unit.

Yes, the application fee for registration is $145, plus a small payment processing fee. Payment is required at the time the application is submitted, and the fee is non-refundable.

It shall be unlawful for a booking service to charge, collect or receive a fee from a person in connection with a short-term rental of a dwelling unit or housing accommodation unless such booking service has used the electronic verification system maintained by the administering agency

to verify that the dwelling unit or housing accommodation that is the subject of such short-term rental is associated with the short-term rental registration number submitted by such person to the booking service and such registration is currently valid, that the uniform resource locator or listing identifier being used to offer the short-term rental is associated with the short-term rental registration number, and that the host and physical address information provided by such person to the booking service match the information contained in the electronic verification system

The check is not just whether a registration number exists somewhere. The listing's own address, host name, and URL all have to match what OSE has on file for that number.

A booking service shall report to the administering agency on a monthly basis in a manner and form established by the administering agency for each transaction relating to a short-term rental

The Short-Term Rental Registration Law (Local Law 18 of 2022) contained significant new penalties for booking services and hosts, but the main ways that the law combats illegal short-term rentals are through prevention and education.

OSE estimated that as of early June 2025, approximately 20% of registered listings were offering illegal occupancy.

A registration is a snapshot at the time it was granted, not a permanent clean bill of health; OSE's own estimate is that a fifth of registered hosts had drifted out of compliance by mid-2025.

In late April 2025, OSE began issuing Notices of Intent to Revoke to registered hosts who OSE determined were in violation of short-term rental laws and rules.