New York / Housing guide

New York Landlord Obligations: What the Law Requires and What It Costs to Get Wrong

Homzora editorial team · Updated October 5, 2026

New York deposit law is procedural, and the procedure is unforgiving. A landlord with a genuinely good claim who sends the itemized statement on day fifteen has lost the claim entirely. Not reduced. Lost.

This guide sets out what the law requires of a residential landlord in New York, where the expensive mistakes are, and what the consequences actually look like.

The one month cap

Since June 2019, General Obligations Law section 7-108 provides that a landlord may not demand or receive a deposit or advance exceeding one month rent for most residential units. The Housing Stability and Tenant Protection Act introduced it.

Two points decide whether a particular arrangement complies.

The cap is the total figure. Any pet deposit or other refundable advance forms part of the same one month, so one month as security plus a refundable pet deposit exceeds the limit.

And non-refundable fees in place of a deposit are prohibited for covered units. That closes the route several other states leave open, where fees sit outside the cap and are not limited.

The practical consequence is that the first month, last month and security structure is unlawful for most New York rentals. Anyone still operating that way is relying on a position that changed more than seven years ago.

Which units sit outside it

The exceptions are narrow: continuing care retirement communities, senior residential communities, assisted living providers, adult care facilities licensed under the social services law, and units covered by emergency housing rent control statutes or the city rental and rehabilitation code.

Rent stabilized apartments sit under a separate but overlapping regime at section 7-107, which this guide does not cover. If you manage stabilized units, do not assume the 7-108 rules apply identically.

Holding the deposit

Under section 7-103 the deposit remains the tenant property and is held in trust. Commingling it with your own funds is prohibited.

Buildings with six or more units carry an interest obligation on deposits held. The rate mechanism is outside what we have compiled and is worth establishing separately if that applies to you.

The fourteen day clock

This is where the exposure sits.

The deposit, less any allowable deductions, must be returned within fourteen calendar days of the tenant vacating. Where deductions are made, an itemized statement describing each charge and its cost must accompany the balance inside the same fourteen days.

There is no dollar threshold for itemization. Every deduction must be itemized regardless of how small.

Fourteen days is the shortest return deadline in any state we cover. Florida allows fifteen where no claim is made, Georgia thirty, Chicago forty five. New York gives you two weeks.

What missing it costs

A landlord who fails to provide the refund or the itemized statement within fourteen days forfeits any right to retain any portion of the deposit.

Not the disputed portion. Any portion. Including amounts that would have been plainly recoverable had the paperwork gone out in time.

Late return, or return without an itemized statement, is a violation in itself, independent of whether the deductions were justified. And where a court finds the violation willful, it may award the tenant up to twice the deposit in punitive damages.

So the arithmetic on a two thousand dollar deposit is this: send the statement on day fourteen and you keep what you can document. Send it on day fifteen and you return the full two thousand and may owe four.

The inspection obligations

A tenant has the right to an inspection before moving in and to a pre move out inspection with the landlord.

Both are worth taking seriously from the landlord side rather than treating as a tenant formality. A documented move in condition record is what supports a deduction fourteen months later, and a pre move out walkthrough surfaces disputes while they can still be resolved rather than after the statement has gone out.

A deduction with photographs, a dated condition record and a receipt is defensible. The same deduction with none of those is an argument.

Notice before ending a tenancy or raising rent

Under Real Property Law section 226-c, a landlord proposing a rent increase of five percent or more, or declining to renew, must give advance written notice scaled to the tenant length of occupancy.

Thirty days where occupancy is under one year. Sixty days from one year to under two. Ninety days at two years or more. The measure is occupancy or lease term, whichever is longer.

Verbal notice does not satisfy it. And where notice is given late, the tenancy continues on existing terms from the date actual written notice is served until the full period expires. A ninety day notice served short does not become valid on day thirty one; it starts ninety days running from service.

An increase below five percent does not trigger the tiered notice, which is a distinction worth getting right before serving anything.

The fourteen day rent demand

A written fourteen day rent demand must be served before a nonpayment proceeding can be filed, under RPAPL 711(2). The Housing Stability and Tenant Protection Act extended this from three days.

No oral demand is permitted and no shorter notice is allowed. The demand must state the amount claimed due, identify the rental period it covers, demand payment or possession within fourteen days, and include the disclosure notice required by RPL 231-c.

A demand missing any of those elements is defective, and a defective predicate notice fails regardless of whether the rent is genuinely owed.

The fee caps

New York caps late fees at fifty dollars or five percent of the monthly rent, whichever is less. Application fees are capped at twenty dollars.

No other state we cover caps either. Georgia, Illinois and Florida leave both entirely to the lease. Anyone operating across state lines should treat New York as the exception rather than assuming a lease term that works elsewhere works here.

Self help is a crime here

Removing a tenant without a court proceeding is unlawful in every state we cover. In New York it is also a crime, under RPAPL 768.

That is a materially different position from Georgia or Florida, where self help is unlawful but not criminal. Lock changes, utility shutoffs and removal of belongings carry criminal exposure in New York in a way they do not elsewhere.

A compliance checklist

• Cap every refundable amount at one month rent in total, counting pet deposits and any other advance.
• Do not charge non-refundable fees in place of a deposit on covered units.
• Hold deposits separately and never commingle them.
• Diary day fourteen from the vacate date for every departing tenant, and work backward from it.
• Itemize every deduction, however small, with supporting documentation.
• Calculate notice periods from occupancy length, not from the lease term alone, and remember the five percent trigger.
• Check every rent demand contains all four required elements before serving.
• Never use self help. In New York it is criminal.

The short version

One month cap including every refundable advance. Fourteen days to return the deposit with an itemized statement, and total forfeiture if you miss it. Thirty, sixty or ninety days notice before a five percent increase or a non renewal, by occupancy length. A fourteen day rent demand with four required elements before any nonpayment filing. Late fees capped at fifty dollars or five percent, application fees at twenty.

Most New York landlord disputes are not about whether the money was owed. They are about whether the paperwork went out on time.

The full statutory references, with every provision cited, are free to download at our New York datasets.

Not legal advice. This page summarizes published provisions of New York law as of September 2026 and does not evaluate any particular tenancy or portfolio. Section 7-107, governing rent regulated units, is not covered here and those units carry additional obligations. New York housing law varies by building age, unit count and regulatory status. Consult an attorney before relying on any of it.

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