The Tenants Advocacy Program (TAP) is a pro bono team of Cornell attorneys, law students, and undergraduate volunteers working together to provide free legal services to residential tenants in upstate New York, which excludes NYC, Long Island, and all other states. We can also provide free court representation to tenants in the following counties: Tompkins, Tioga, Steuben, Schuyler, Chemung, Monroe, Allegany, Broome, and Chenango. If you live in upstate NY but your county is not listed, that means we cannot represent you in court, but we can give you advice.

If your issue is urgent, please contact your local legal aid provider ASAP before completing this form. You can find your local provider by visiting LawHelpNY.org/find-legal-help.

For Ithaca tenants with urgent issues, call LawNY at 607-273-3667.

For Rochester tenants with urgent issues, call LASROC at 585-232-4090.

For Binghamton tenants with urgent issues, call LASMNY at 877-777-6152.

If you are seeking assistance from TAP, and your local legal aid provider declined to assist you, please fill out the application below. Response time will vary based on the urgency of the case. Please do not complete this form if another legal provider is currently assisting you with this issue, or if you currently have a pending application with another legal provider for this issue.

For assistance in completing our intake form below, please call our hotline at (607) 301-1560 to speak with a volunteer or email tenantslegalhotline@gmail.com. If a volunteer is not available, please leave a message with your full name, phone number, and the best times to call you back.

Please do not submit duplicate applications. Submitting repeated applications will not expedite your status. Our team responds to applications in the order they were received, with an exception for urgent cases that require priority. If you already submitted an application, please send any new updates on your issue to tenantslegalhotline@gmail.com.

To add attachments to your application, please click here.