Class B Multiple Dwellings List

In the City of New York, short-term rentals in entire units are only permitted in “Class B” multiple dwellings, which have been approved by the City of New York for legal short-term occupancies, and therefore, booking services are not required to report transactions for qualifying listings offering occupancy in buildings that appear on a list of Class B multiple dwellings.  Similarly, the requirements of the Registration Law do not apply to Class B multiple dwellings.

A Class B multiple dwelling is “a multiple dwelling which is occupied, as a rule, transiently, as the more or less temporary abode of individuals or families who are lodged with or without meals. This class includes hotels, lodging houses, rooming houses, boarding houses, boarding schools, furnished room houses, lodgings, club houses, and college and school dormitories.”  Please note that Department of Finance (“DOF”) Tax Classifications shows a building's tax status, which may not be the same as the legal use of the structure.  In particular, the DOF tax classifications for two-family dwellings all start with “B”, but this is not the occupancy classification, and a DOF classification of B does not mean the building is a Class B multiple dwelling.

Booking services are not required to report transactions for qualifying listings offering occupancy in buildings that appear on OSE’s list of Class B multiple dwellings.  Similarly, hosts of short-term rentals occurring in a Class B Multiple Dwellings are exempt from the registration requirements of the Short-Term Rental Registration Law (Local Law 18 of 2022).

The legal occupancy of a building is ultimately determined by the NYC Department of Buildings (DOB). The inclusion or omission of a building on OSE’s Class B Multiple Dwelling list does not alter and may not be deemed to alter the legal occupancy or zoning use group of a building or portion thereof as determined by the DOB. Moreover, inclusion on this list only reflects the legal occupancy classification, and should not be used to assume that there are no other barriers or compliance issues relating to the property’s use for short-term renting.

A list of Class B dwellings did not exist prior to OSE’s implementation of the Booking Service Data Reporting Law. To develop the list, OSE identified buildings likely to be Class B using data from other agencies and manually reviewed each building’s occupancy classifications.

Download the April 4, 2024 updated Class B Multiple Dwellings List (XLS)

The list has two tabs, and both should be reviewed when looking to see if a building is on the Class B Multiple Dwelling list.

OSE encourages every building owner to check the legal occupancy of their buildings with DOB records. If after checking the legal occupancy of a building, an owner believes that a building is a Class B multiple dwelling and should be on OSE’s Class B list, the owner may apply for a review of the building’s legal occupancy and inclusion on the list. In addition, any individual, including, but not limited to, owners, tenants, neighbors, or civic groups may apply for a review of a building’s legal occupancy and removal from the list.

Download Request for Inclusion On, or Removal From, OSE’s Class B Multiple Dwelling List (PDF)