Late or unpaid rent in New York City: what should landlords do first?

Late-rent situations often aren't what they first appear to be. A payment posts a few days late because of a bank transfer delay, a roommate's portion gets applied to the wrong month, or a prior credit never made it into the ledger correctly. Before assuming a tenant is simply refusing to pay, pull the complete payment history, every date, every amount, every credit and partial payment, and check it against what the tenant believes they've paid.

This matters beyond basic fairness. A 14-day rent demand that states an inflated or incorrect amount is vulnerable to challenge on that basis, and an inaccurate notice is one of the more common ways a nonpayment case loses ground it didn't need to lose. Reconciling the number correctly the first time is faster than restarting the process after a defective notice gets dismissed.

This is where the reconciliation step above connects directly to a second, separate problem. New York caps late fees at the lesser of $50 or 5% of the monthly rent, and that cap applies in New York City with no local modification. On a $1,500 rent, that means a maximum $50 fee, since 5% would be $75, the higher figure doesn't apply. The fee can only be assessed after a mandatory 5-day grace period, has to be a single one-time charge per late payment rather than a daily or compounding fee, and has to actually be written into the lease to be enforceable at all.

A common and costly mistake is applying a fee based on a flat percentage without checking it against the dollar cap, or applying it before the 5-day grace period has actually run. If your ledger includes accumulated late fees calculated this way, that inflated figure is exactly the kind of error that can undermine an otherwise valid rent demand, since the demand has to state the actual amount owed, not a padded one.

Once the balance is confirmed accurate, the next step is a written rent demand giving the tenant at least 14 days' notice, offering the choice of paying the amount owed or surrendering possession. This has to be in writing; an oral demand, no matter how clearly communicated, doesn't satisfy the requirement and can't support a nonpayment filing later.

What's changed more recently is what this notice has to include. As of a 2024 amendment, the 14-day demand now has to disclose whether the unit is subject to Good Cause Eviction coverage under Article 6-A, the same disclosure that non-renewal notices carry under a related statute. This ties the non-payment process directly to the regime-identification work landlords need to do for any tenancy in this city: knowing whether a unit is Good Cause-covered isn't just relevant when a lease is ending; it's now a required element of a rent demand too.

A specific and often misunderstood rule: once a nonpayment proceeding has been properly commenced on a valid 14-day demand, accepting rent afterward does not automatically terminate the case. Landlords sometimes assume that any payment, even a late or partial one, resets the clock and requires starting over. It doesn't work that way once the case has actually been filed.

That said, before filing, the picture is more straightforward. If the tenant pays the full confirmed balance during the 14-day window, the situation resolves at that stage without further formal action; the notice exists specifically to give the tenant a real opportunity to cure before anything else happens. The distinction that trips landlords up is timing: what a payment does before filing is different from what it does after.

If the 14-day period passes without payment or resolution, the next step is filing a nonpayment proceeding in New York City housing court. This is a formal court filing, not something the landlord can shortcut by simply proceeding as though the case were already decided. The landlord has to file, serve the tenant with the petition and notice of petition, and the case proceeds on the court's own calendar from there.

This step also depends on the reconciliation work from earlier holding up. A court examining a contested nonpayment case will look directly at whether the rent demand stated an accurate figure, whether it included the required Good Cause disclosure, and whether it was properly served. All of the groundwork from the first three sections is exactly what gets tested here.

Whatever the frustration of an unresolved balance, several actions are flatly prohibited under RPAPL § 768 for any occupant who's lived in the unit 30 or more consecutive days or holds a lease: using or threatening force to get someone to leave, shutting off essential services like heat or water, changing the locks without providing a key, or removing the tenant's belongings or the unit's doors.

The exposure here is specific, not abstract. An intentional violation is a Class A misdemeanor, carrying real criminal risk on top of civil consequences. Civil penalties run $1,000 to $10,000 per violation, and if occupancy isn't restored once requested, up to $100 per day for as long as six months. A landlord who locks out a tenant over unpaid rent isn't shortcutting the process; they're trading a slower court process for a faster, far more expensive legal problem of their own.