Moving from Boston to New York? What Renters Should Know Before Signing a Lease

Plenty of people make this move every year: a job offer in Midtown, a graduate program, a partner who is already there. If you have rented in Boston, you already know how an expensive, competitive market works. That experience helps, but it can also mislead you, because several things you take for granted in Massachusetts work differently in New York City.

Here are five differences worth understanding before you sign anything.

1. Broker fees: both cities changed the rules in 2025

Boston renters spent decades paying a broker fee, often a full month's rent, to an agent the landlord had chosen. New York renters did the same, and often paid more.

Both places changed course within weeks of each other. In New York City, the FARE Act took effect on June 11, 2025. In Massachusetts, a new state law took effect on August 1, 2025. The laws differ in their details, but the basic principle is similar in both: the party who hires the broker pays the broker. If the landlord brought in the agent, the landlord cannot pass that fee to you.

You can still owe a fee in either city if you hired an agent yourself to run your search. So the question to ask is simple: who does this broker work for? If a listing in New York asks you to pay a fee for the landlord's agent, that is a red flag, and the city takes complaints about it.

2. Move-in money: New York asks for less up front

This one usually surprises Boston renters in a good way. In Massachusetts, a landlord may collect first month's rent, last month's rent, a security deposit of up to one month, and the cost of a new lock. That can mean close to three months of rent before you get the keys.

In New York, the security deposit is capped at one month's rent, and that cap covers any advance payment too. In most rentals, a landlord cannot ask for last month's rent on top of it. The fee for a background or credit check is limited to the actual cost of the check or $20, whichever is less, and a landlord cannot charge a separate application fee.

The harder part in New York is qualifying. Many landlords expect annual income of roughly 40 times the monthly rent, and if you fall short they will ask for a guarantor who earns considerably more. Find out the requirement before you apply, not after.

3. Rent stabilization: a system Boston does not have

Massachusetts has no rent control. New York City has roughly a million rent-stabilized apartments, most commonly in buildings with six or more apartments built before 1974, although some newer buildings that receive certain tax benefits also contain stabilized units. In a stabilized apartment, annual increases are limited to percentages set each year by the city's Rent Guidelines Board, and you have the right to renew your lease.

That makes a real difference over several years, so ask directly whether the unit is stabilized. A stabilized lease should come with a rider that states the apartment's status and explains your rights. Once you are the tenant, you can also request the apartment's registered rent history from New York State Homes and Community Renewal. Do not assume an old building means a stabilized apartment; many units have left the system.

4. Check the building, not just the apartment

A renovated kitchen tells you nothing about the boiler. In New York, the history of the building is public, and it is the best predictor of what living there will be like.

The city's housing agency, HPD, records code violations and sorts them by severity. Class C violations are the ones classed as immediately hazardous: no heat, no hot water, lead paint, rodents. Look at how many are open now. What an open violation means depends on its severity, its age and the size of the building: two violations in a six-unit walk-up are a different level of concern than two in a 200-unit tower.

Two details are easy to miss. An owner can certify to the city that a violation was corrected, but that certification is not the same as an inspector confirming the repair. And corner buildings often have two street addresses, while the records may be filed under only one of them. If a large building seems to have no history at all, try the other address before you conclude the record is clean.

The records are spread across several city systems, which makes this tedious to do from another city. A simpler starting point is a free NYC building report by address from Weverit, an independent site that puts a building's open violations, Department of Buildings records and complaint history on one page. Running the address before you book a viewing can save you a trip down I-95.

5. Heat is a legal requirement, and winter is the test

If you are moving between now and spring, pay attention to heat. New York City's heat season runs from October 1 through May 31. During those months, owners must keep apartments at 68 degrees or warmer during the day when it is below 55 outside, and at 62 degrees or warmer overnight.

Most buildings comply. Some do not, and the complaint record shows it. A building with repeated heat complaints over several winters deserves a closer look. Past complaints do not guarantee another outage, but they can reveal a recurring problem worth asking about before you sign. That is exactly the kind of thing a listing will never mention and a public record will.