Ask Habitat: Does the Roommate Law Apply to a Subtenant's Roommate?

HABITAT ANSWERS: In 1983, New York State adopted RPL, Section 235f, also called the Roommate Law. Legislators crafted the law to prevent tenants, or the holders of apartment leases, from getting around subletting restrictions by claiming their subtenants were roommates.

The law also aimed to protect tenants who wanted to bring into their apartments actual roommates "for economy, safety and companionship." Not surprisingly, courts decided early on that the Roommate Law applies to co-ops.

The Roommate Law grants tenants the right to have a roommate. It defines a tenant as "a person who is a party to the lease or rental agreement for such premises."

This language is broad enough to cover not only the proprietary lease between a co-op and a proprietary lessee, but also the sublease between a proprietary lessee and a subtenant. Because a co-op sublease is a type of "lease or rental agreement," according to the law, a sublease allows the possibility for a subtenant to get a roommate.

The law also applies even in cases where the prime tenant and subtenant knew all along that the subtenant intended on getting a roommate, and failed to disclose it to the co-op during the sublet application process.

The bottom line, therefore, is that subtenants have the right to bring in a roommate under the Roommate Law, and that roommate is not required to go through the same application process as the original subtenant.

Moreover, subtenants are allowed to charge their roommates whatever the market will bear — although subtenants must reside in the apartment simultaneously with roommates.

Subtenants who are the sole named lessee in a sublease can only have one roommate, although both subtenant and roommate may bring in family members provided the total occupancy does not exceed legal limits.

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