NYC Adopts Criminal Background Check Restrictions for Rental Applications

New York City adopted The Fair Chance For Housing Act in early 2024, which is to take effect on Jan. 1, 2025, and which applies to all units in NYC multiple dwellings. The law creates a new category of exemption from rental discrimination, by enacting restrictions on the use of criminal background checks in renting residential property. The law prohibits a landlord from barring from a rental those individuals: (a) whose criminal cases didn't result in a conviction; (b) who have misdemeanor convictions that are older than three years; or (c) who have felony convictions that are older than five years. However, landlords may bar housing to those who are on sex offense registries or those who have received a pardon, a certificate of relief from disabilities, or some other vacatur or nullification of a conviction. 

The new law further provides that a landlord may not run a criminal background check at all until after having made a binding rental offer that can be revoked only based on a criminal background check conducted in accordance with the fair chance housing process set forth in the statute or based on an unrelated material omission, misrepresentation, or change in the qualifications for tenancy that were not known at the time of the conditional rental offer. 

NYC Admin. Code Section 8-102a, added by NYC L.L. 24/2024 § 1, eff. Jan. 1, 2025 [2-pg. document]