A two-bedroom apartment in Bushwick goes on the market for $3,400 a month. Four friends look at it and start doing the math: split four ways, that is $850 a person. Manageable. But before anyone signs, someone in the group raises the question that always comes up: is it even legal to have four people in a two-bedroom?

The answer is more interesting than yes or no. NYC has three separate rules that determine how many roommates you can legally have, and they do not always say the same thing. Here is how they actually work in 2026.

Rule 1: The New York State Roommate Law (Real Property Law § 235-f)

This is the rule most New Yorkers vaguely know about and almost nobody fully understands. According to the New York City Bar Legal Referral Service summary of the roommate law: “If you live in a privately owned building and you are the only tenant on your lease, then you have a right to share your apartment with your immediate family and with one other adult who is not related to you and that person’s dependent children.”

Read that carefully. The statutory right is:

• One named tenant on the lease = the right to have one unrelated adult roommate (plus that roommate’s dependent children), plus any number of your own immediate family members.
• Your lease cannot strip this right away. If your lease says “no roommates,” that clause is not enforceable when the roommate law applies.
• You must notify the landlord in writing within 30 days of the roommate moving in (or within 30 days of the landlord asking for the information). The NYC Bar guidance recommends certified mail, return receipt requested.

What about when there are multiple people on the lease? According to the NYC Rent Guidelines Board Roommates FAQ, citing the state’s Homes and Community Renewal guidance: “When two or more tenants are named on the lease, the number of tenants and roommates cannot exceed the number of tenants named in the lease.”

Translation: if two people sign the lease, you can have up to two roommates total (one each), not unlimited. The statutory right scales with named leaseholders, not with bedrooms.

Rule 2: The 80 Square Foot Rule (NYC Housing Maintenance Code § 27-2075)

Even if the roommate law would allow another body, the city’s Housing Maintenance Code has a separate physical-space ceiling. Under Section 27-2075 of the NYC Housing Maintenance Code, the maximum number of occupants legally allowed in an apartment is determined by dividing the total livable floor area by 80 square feet.

Important details on the calculation:

• Livable area includes the kitchen and any kitchenette square footage.
• Excluded from the calculation: private halls, foyers, bathrooms, and water closet compartments.
• For every two legal occupants, one child under four years old can also live in the apartment without counting against the limit.

So that 800-square-foot two-bedroom in Bushwick? Take the livable area (let’s say it is roughly 750 square feet after subtracting the bathroom and hallway), divide by 80, and you get a maximum of nine legal occupants. The Housing Maintenance Code is rarely the constraint in NYC apartments — it is the roommate law and your lease that usually bind first.

Rule 3: Your Lease and Whether You Are Rent-Regulated

The first two rules establish your floor and your ceiling. Your lease, and whether the apartment is rent-regulated, decides what happens between them.

If the apartment is rent-stabilized or rent-controlled: per the NYC Rent Guidelines Board, citing NYS Homes and Community Renewal: “In a rent stabilized apartment, the rent collected from the roommate cannot exceed their proportionate share of the apartment.” If the legal rent is $2,400 and you have one roommate, you cannot charge them more than $1,200. Charging more is a violation of the rent stabilization rules and your roommate can recover the overcharge.

If the apartment is market-rate (unregulated): the proportionate-share rule does not apply. You can negotiate the split however you want — by bedroom size, by who has the private bathroom, by who agreed to take the windowless room. As long as you are not violating the lease or another law, the math is up to you and your roommate.

What If You Are the Roommate, Not the Leaseholder?

This is where many co-living arrangements get uncomfortable. According to the NYC Rent Guidelines Board’s roommate FAQs: “The rights of roommates who are not family members are limited. They may be evicted when the tenant on the lease vacates the apartment. In addition, the named tenant can ask a roommate to leave the shared apartment by commencing a roommate holdover case in NYC Housing Court.”

Translation: if you are not on the lease, the leaseholder can ask you to leave through housing court — but they cannot lock you out, change the locks, or remove your belongings. Any of those is an illegal eviction under NYC Administrative Code § 26-521, regardless of whether your name is on the lease.

Action Steps Before You Add a Roommate

1. Re-read your lease. Pull out the original lease, find the occupancy and roommate clauses. If your lease prohibits roommates and you are the only tenant on the lease, that clause is likely unenforceable — but you still want to know what it says.
2. Confirm the regulation status of the apartment. Request your rent history from NYS Homes and Community Renewal. If the apartment is rent-stabilized, the proportionate-share rule on rent charging applies.
3. Notify your landlord in writing within 30 days. Send the roommate’s name by certified mail, return receipt requested. Keep the receipt — it is your proof you complied with the statute.
4. Write a separate roommate agreement. This is not a lease addendum and the landlord is not a party. The agreement spells out rent split, utility responsibility, security deposit handling, guest policy, and what happens if one person wants to move out before the lease ends. We covered the specific clauses in our 10-clause roommate agreement guide.
5. Run the square-footage math. If you are pushing toward four or more people in a smaller apartment, do the divide-by-80 calculation. The Housing Maintenance Code limit is rarely a problem in normal-sized apartments but can be a real issue in tiny studios and one-bedrooms.

The Bottom Line

If you are the only person on the lease, the state Roommate Law gives you the right to one unrelated adult roommate regardless of what the lease says, with 30 days’ written notice to the landlord. If multiple people are on the lease, the total household cannot exceed the number of named tenants. The 80-square-foot-per-person Housing Maintenance Code rule sits on top of all of that as a physical ceiling. And if the apartment is rent-stabilized, the rent you charge your roommate has to be proportional.

Most roommate disputes in NYC are about money, cleanliness, and unannounced guests — not legality. But knowing the actual framework before you sign turns the conversation from “I think this is okay” into “here is what the law says.”