Tenants Legal Hotline

Providing free legal assistance to residential tenants in upstate New York.

Response time will vary based on the urgency of the case. If you are an Ithaca tenant in an emergency situation, please call LawNY at 607-273-3667.

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About Us

Founded in 2020, The Tenants Legal Hotline (TLH) is a Cornell Law School pro bono project where seasoned full-time attorneys, law students, and recent law graduates work together year-round to provide free legal assistance to residential tenants in upstate New York. Free legal representation is primarily provided by law students enrolled in the Tenants Advocacy Practicum under attorney supervision.

The Tenants Legal Hotline is directed by Michaela Azemi at Cornell Law’s Office of Public Service. TLH is funded in part by the Legal Assistance of Western New York (LawNY).

How do we work?

First, Intake Volunteers and/or tenants must submit an intake form to provide a brief overview of the tenant and their concerns. Then, the Operations Manager files the intake form and any related documents into an active case folder. Once this is done, the Operations Manager assigns and sends the case to our Cornell Law team of attorneys, students, and recent graduates. Lastly, our legal team will provide free legal assistance.

Levels of assistance vary on a case-by-case basis, ranging from brief advice to full representation in court. We provide free legal advice to all tenants in upstate New York, and free court representation in 6 counties: Tompkins, Tioga, Steuben, Schuyler, Chemung and Allegany. The Hotline has handled cases related to evictions, security deposits, leasing, rent, and related fees, rent regulated apartments, notices and entry, habitability and repairs, discrimination, and other housing-related emergencies.

Our Impact

4,668

calls fielded

124

tenants represented

65

evictions prevented

1,382

tenants helped

$100,000+

recovered for tenants

18

housing units repaired or improved

Need Legal Advice? Submit an Intake Form!

No, we do not provide legal assistance for landlords. We assist residential tenants.
No, we will never contact [person] without your permission. This includes but is not limited to: your landlord, property manager, partner, family member, etc.
As of now, we do not have an official income limit. We have assisted tenants of all incomes.
If you are calling the hotline and nobody has answered, you can leave a voice message with your name, phone number, best days/times to reach you, and whether your issue is urgent or non-urgent. We will do our best to get back to you as soon as we can. You may also email TenantsLegalHotline@gmail.com.
Please keep in mind that our hotline is entirely run by volunteers, who are often students, so the times that volunteers are available to work the hotline will vary.
Our intake volunteers who manage the hotline at 607-301-1560 are not equipped to provide legal advice directly to you when you first call. Their sole job is to record a brief overview of your information and issues in order to send it to the legal team so that the properly trained legal volunteers can follow up with you.
We do not have a physical office that you can visit in-person. The hotline is 100% remote. However, members from our team are willing to meet with you in-person at a public setting if necessary. Most of our team is based at Cornell Law School in Ithaca, NY. For more information, please send us an email at TenantsLegalHotline@gmail.com.
No, we have assisted tenants from all over upstate New York, including but not limited to the following counties: Monroe, Allegany, Chemung, Steuben, Tioga, Chenango, Ulster, Broome, Cameron, Oneida, Fairfax, Schuyler and so on! Although we are based in Ithaca, we do not limit our services to Ithaca/Tompkins County tenants.