New York / Housing guide
New York Security Deposit Rules: The One Month Cap and the Fourteen Day Clock
Homzora editorial team · Updated September 13, 2026
A New York landlord cannot ask you for more than one month rent as a deposit. Not one month plus a pet deposit, not first and last and security. One month, total, for most residential rentals.
That has been the law since June 2019, and a surprising amount of guidance still online describes the position before it. This guide covers what the rule actually says, the fourteen day clock that runs when you move out, and what happens when a landlord misses it.
The one month cap
Under General Obligations Law section 7-108, 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 of 2019 introduced it.
Two points decide whether a particular demand is inside the cap.
It is the total figure. Any pet deposit or other advance forms part of the same one month. A landlord cannot take one month as security and add a refundable pet deposit on top.
Non-refundable fees in place of a deposit are prohibited for covered units. That is a different position from several other states, where fees sit outside the cap and are not limited at all.
The practical consequence is that the old demand for first month, last month and security is unlawful for most New York rentals. If you are asked for it, that is worth raising in writing before you sign anything.
Which units sit outside the cap
The exceptions are narrow and specific: 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.
Most ordinary residential tenancies are inside the cap.
Rent stabilized apartments sit under a separate but overlapping set of rules at section 7-107, which we have not compiled. If your unit is stabilized, do not assume the 7-108 rules apply exactly.
The fourteen day clock
When you move out, the landlord has fourteen calendar days to return the deposit less any allowable deductions.
Where deductions are made, an itemized statement describing each charge and its cost must arrive with the balance inside the same fourteen days. There is no dollar threshold for this. Every deduction must be itemized regardless of how small.
Fourteen days is the shortest deadline of any jurisdiction Homzora covers. Florida allows fifteen where no claim is made, Georgia thirty, and Chicago forty five.
What happens when a landlord misses it
This is the part worth knowing before you need it.
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.
Late return, or return without an itemized statement, is itself a violation independent of whether the deductions were valid. A landlord with a genuinely good claim who sends it on day fifteen has lost the claim.
Where a court finds the violation willful, it may award up to twice the amount of the deposit as punitive damages.
Your inspection rights
Two rights that most renters never use and that cost nothing to exercise.
You have the right to an inspection before moving in, and to a pre move out inspection with the landlord before you leave.
The second is the more useful. A pre move out inspection tells you what the landlord intends to deduct while you still have time to deal with it. A scuff you can clean yourself for nothing becomes a line item on an itemized statement if nobody mentions it until after you have handed back the keys.
Ask for it in writing, and do it early enough that you can act on what you are told.
Where the deposit sits while you live there
Under General Obligations Law section 7-103, the deposit remains your property and is held in trust. A landlord may not commingle it with their own funds.
Buildings with six or more units carry an interest obligation on deposits held. We have not compiled the rate mechanism and do not publish a figure for it.
One thing you cannot do: apply the deposit toward your final month rent. It exists to cover unpaid obligations or damage after the tenancy ends, and treating it as prepaid rent is treated as nonpayment.
What to do in practice
- Check the total at signing against one month rent. Add every refundable amount together. If it exceeds one month, ask on what basis before paying.
- Photograph everything on the day you take possession, dated, and do it again on the day you leave.
- Ask for the pre move out inspection in writing, early enough to fix whatever it turns up.
- Give a forwarding address in writing and keep proof of when you did.
- Diarize day fourteen. If nothing has arrived, that is the point at which the position changes materially in your favor.
- Put any dispute in writing first, citing section 7-108. A good number of these resolve without escalation because the landlord was working from pre 2019 assumptions.
The short version
One month rent is the cap, and it includes every refundable advance. Fourteen days to return it with an itemized statement of any deductions. Miss that deadline and the landlord keeps nothing. Up to twice the deposit in punitive damages for a willful violation.
The full statutory reference, with every provision and section cited, is free to download at our New York datasets.
Not legal advice. This page summarizes published provisions of the New York General Obligations Law as of September 2026 and does not evaluate any particular tenancy. New York housing law varies by building age, unit count and regulatory status, and section 7-107 governing rent regulated units is not covered here. Consult an attorney or a legal aid organization about your own situation.