Housing Policy
The rules for Roommates on findlucid.com, in plain words.
What Roommates is
Roommates is a place for findlucid.com members to find shared living: a room in a home someone already lives in, a room to fill, or people to team up with and rent a place together. Posts come from the people who live there. There are no agents, no landlords, and no whole apartments here. Every poster is a member who passed our selfie check with a human review. That verifies the person is real. It does not verify the room, and findlucid.com never collects rent, deposits, or fees for a room.
Everyone gets a fair shot
Housing is not a popularity contest, and the law backs that up. Under the Fair Housing Act and New York State and City human rights law, nobody may be turned away or screened out because of race, color, religion, sex, national origin, disability, family status, age, sexual orientation, gender identity, marital or partnership status, citizenship or immigration status, lawful occupation, or lawful source of income, including housing vouchers. Roommates is built so this cannot quietly happen: there is no field, filter, or ranking anywhere in Roommates for any of those things, and posts may not state rules about who may apply. Listing text is checked by an automated screen and by people. If a post breaks this policy, report it. We read every report.
Assistance animals are not pets
A pet policy never applies to an assistance animal. If you use an assistance animal, you do not need to ask for a pet exception, and no pet fee or pet deposit may be charged for it.
Money safety
Never pay a deposit or rent before you have seen the room in person and signed an agreement. Never wire money or pay with gift cards or a payment app to hold a room. A post that asks for that is the most common rental scam there is, and it is the fastest way to get removed here. If anyone asks you for money upfront, report the post with the money-upfront reason. Those reports go first in our review line, within 24 hours. Keep your chat on findlucid.com until you have met in person.
Your roommate rights in New York
New York Real Property Law section 235-f, often called the roommate law, says that when you are the only person who signed the lease, you generally have the right to share your home with one roommate, plus the roommate's dependent children, even if the lease says otherwise. Your landlord cannot unreasonably block this. You must tell your landlord the roommate's name within 30 days of them moving in, or within 30 days of your landlord asking. Landlords may ask for the name. That is the right the law gives them, and it is information about the roommate, not a permission slip for the landlord to run their own screening of who you live with. This right does not apply in public housing, and most subsidized housing runs on its own occupancy rules, so check your program's rules first.
A sublet is different
A roommate lives with you in the home. A sublet hands the home to someone else for a stretch while you are away. Subletting runs on different rules (Real Property Law section 226-b): most tenants need the landlord's written consent first, through a formal request process. If you are posting a sublet on Roommates, your post must confirm you have that right, and we may ask about it in review.
Rent-regulated homes
If your apartment is rent stabilized or rent controlled, extra rules apply to how much a roommate can be charged: a roommate's share generally cannot be more than their proportionate share of the legal rent. Know your lease and your building's rules before you post, and charge a fair share.
Reporting and enforcement
Every listing has a report option. Reports about money asked upfront are answered first, within 24 hours. Posts that break this policy come down, and repeat offenders lose their accounts. If you believe you were discriminated against in housing, you can also file a complaint with the New York State Division of Human Rights or the NYC Commission on Human Rights. Those agencies take it seriously, and so do we.
This page explains our policy and sums up New York law in plain words. It is not legal advice. Questions? Email us at support@findlucid.com.