Brooklyn Firm Settles $352,250 After Illegally Collecting Hold Deposits and Using Housing Court Records for Screening
For more than 200 Brooklyn apartment hunters, a past trip to housing court haunted them in their search for a new home.
Brooklyn High Rise LLC has now reached a settlement with the New York Attorney General’s Office over its tenant-screening practices. The signed settlement agreement says the firm reviewed landlord-tenant court information while screening prospective renters.
From January 2020 through about Sept. 5, 2025, roughly 1,015 of the firm’s 2,558 applications included those records. Of those applicants, 203 were denied housing.
Those figures are findings from the Attorney General’s Office that Brooklyn High Rise admitted as part of the settlement. The agreement itself says the firm had been obtaining some applicants’ housing court records since “approximately July 15, 2019, to September 2025,” although the more detailed application numbers begin in 2020.
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Since 2019, New York Real Property Law Section 227-f has prohibited landlords from refusing to rent to someone because that person was involved in a past or ongoing landlord-tenant court case. The law also puts the burden on housing providers in certain situations. If they obtain an applicant’s housing court history and then reject that person, New York presumes the records influenced the decision unless another reason can be shown.
Under the new agreement, the firm must keep requests for those records out of its screening process. If prohibited court information reaches the company anyway, the applicant must be allowed to submit new materials without it and have the application reviewed by someone who has not yet seen the court history.
The settlement also addresses a question on Brooklyn High Rise’s application asking whether prospective renters had ever been convicted of a crime. New York City’s Fair Chance Housing Law generally requires covered housing providers to make a conditional offer before asking about or reviewing most criminal history. Brooklyn High Rise must remove the question from its initial application and train employees on the applicable housing protections.
Applicants Also Paid Hundreds to Hold Apartments
Housing court records were not the only issue uncovered. Brooklyn High Rise also collected “good faith” deposits of $500 to $750 from people applying for apartments to “hold an apartment,” as detailed in the settlement.
The settlement says Brooklyn High Rise represented that applicants who withdrew or were denied housing “often” received refunds. The New York Attorney General’s Office, however, estimates that roughly 300 applicants did not get their deposits back between January 2020 and December 2025.
The agreement now creates a $150,000 fund to repay qualifying applicants. Most claims will be for $500; anyone seeking $750 must present proof of paying that amount. Only one claim is allowed per household, and anyone whose deposit was ultimately put toward rent is not eligible.
New York already limits what landlords can charge during the application process. Under Real Property Law Section 238-a, most application fees are prohibited, while allowable credit and background checks generally cannot cost more than $20 or the actual expense, whichever is lower.
There is a distinction in the settlement’s price tag. The Attorney General’s Office describes it as a $352,250 agreement: $202,250 in penalties and $150,000 in restitution. The signed settlement itself offers “a partial suspended payment of $100,000.00, as part of terms that are dependent on the timely payment of the unsuspended amounts.”
