A Brooklyn real estate firm turned away 203 rental applicants between 2019 and 2025 based on their housing court histories, a practice New York outlawed in 2019, Attorney General Letitia James said on September 18, 2026. Under a settlement with her office, Brooklyn High Rise LLC will stop pulling court records on applicants, pay $202,250 in penalties and return $150,000 in application deposits it kept. The case is the latest in a series of state actions against “tenant blacklisting,” in which landlords and brokers screen out renters because of past disputes with prior landlords.
How The Blacklist Worked At Brooklyn High Rise
According to the attorney general’s announcement, Brooklyn High Rise obtained housing court records on some prospective tenants during its screening process between July 15, 2019 and September 5, 2025. The office found that 203 applicants were illegally denied housing during that period based on their submitted court history.
The investigation began in May 2025. Since the law changed in 2019, the attorney general’s office has been reviewing records from third-party tenant screening bureaus to identify landlords and brokers that keep requesting landlord-tenant court histories. Brooklyn High Rise surfaced because it continued ordering screening reports from a vendor that included those histories.
The screening problem came with a financial cost for many applicants. The firm charged $500 to $750 as a “good faith deposit” to hold an apartment during the application process and often failed to return it when applicants were denied or withdrew. The office estimates about 300 applicants never got that money back between January 2020 and December 2025.
Old disputes that follow a renter. A housing court case can resurface years later through screening reports, and disputed rental balances can surface the same way through collectors, which is where the debt-validation steps in The Bank Account & Debt Protection Kit help test whether an old claim holds up.
What New York Law Says About Housing Court Records
The Housing Stability and Tenant Protection Act, enacted in 2019, changed New York’s Real Property Law to make it illegal for a landlord or property owner to deny a rental application based on the applicant’s past housing court records.
The law also shifts the burden of proof. If there is documented evidence that a landlord obtained an applicant’s housing court records and then denied the application, the law presumes the denial was illegally based on those records. The landlord must then prove the applicant was rejected for other reasons.
That presumption matters because housing court filings are common and often say little about a tenant’s reliability. A case can be brought over a repair dispute, withheld rent during a habitability problem, or a claim that was dismissed. Treating any such filing as a mark against an applicant can penalize renters who simply went to court to enforce their own rights.
“All New Yorkers deserve to be treated fairly when applying for housing opportunities,” James said. “My office will continue to stand up for all tenants and ensure that everyone has access to safe housing, regardless of their history.”
What The Settlement Requires Of The Firm
Brooklyn High Rise has agreed to end its unlawful screening policies, including seeking past landlord-tenant court records. If an applicant submits court history paperwork anyway, the firm must tell the applicant to resubmit without it, and a new leasing agent with no knowledge of that paperwork will be assigned to review the application.
The firm must also remove questions about court history and criminal background from its rental applications, publicly affirm compliance with New York’s tenant blacklisting and anti-discrimination laws on its leasing platforms, and train its leasing agents and staff on blacklisting and fair housing rules. If it violates the agreement, the attorney general’s office reserves the right to pursue further enforcement, up to and including litigation.
The money breaks down into $202,250 in penalties for violating the blacklisting law and $150,000 in restitution for deposit holders. Applicants who applied through the Brooklyn High Rise website and were denied or withdrew between January 2020 and December 2025 will be contacted by the firm and can file claims for $500 or, in some cases, $750.
The matter was handled by Assistant Attorney General Jane Landry-Reyes of the Housing Protection Unit, with assistance from Legal Assistant Cecily Mills, under the supervision of Unit Chief Brent Meltzer.
Why Older Renters Face Particular Risk
Longtime tenants are more likely to have a housing court filing somewhere in their past, simply because they have rented for decades. A rent-stabilized tenant who went to court over heat, repairs or an improper rent increase may have a record even though the tenant prevailed. When that renter later needs to move, to be closer to family, to find an elevator building or to cut costs on a fixed income, a screening report can quietly close doors.
The attorney general’s office has urged landlords, brokers and leasing agents to stop requesting landlord-tenant court records and rental histories altogether and to end relationships with screening bureaus that still provide them. For renters, the practical step is to keep copies of applications, deposit receipts and any denial notice, and to note whether a broker asked about prior court cases or requested a screening report.
Any New Yorker who believes an apartment was denied because of a housing court history with a previous landlord can file a complaint using the attorney general’s tenant blacklisting complaint form. The office’s general help line is 1-800-771-7755.
The Brooklyn High Rise settlement follows other recent tenant actions by the office, including a July 2026 settlement with a Brooklyn management company over illegal lockout evictions and a May 2026 agreement closing a law firm accused of taking advantage of New York City tenants facing eviction.
When A Past Housing Dispute Becomes A Money Problem
A rejected application is only part of the damage for renters caught up in screening practices like this one. Old landlord disputes can also resurface as alleged balances, collection letters or held-back deposits that are hard to challenge without organized proof.
The Bank Account & Debt Protection Kit includes the debt-validation steps for demanding proof of an old rental balance, the frozen-account response if a judgment creditor reaches a bank account, and a protected-funds and dispute log for tracking each contact.
Those tools are collected in The Bank Account & Debt Protection Kit.
This article was prepared with AI assistance and reviewed against the linked official sources.
