In New York a residential security deposit is capped at one month's rent, it has to come back within fourteen days of your moving out, and anything withheld must be explained in an itemized statement. Miss the fourteen days and the landlord forfeits the right to keep any of it. The newest piece: since 15 November 2025 those protections reach rent-stabilized tenants too, who had been left outside much of the 2019 reform.
The four rules worth memorising
| Rule | What it means |
|---|---|
| One month, maximum | The deposit or advance cannot exceed one month's rent. Asking you, a guarantor or any third party for more is unlawful. |
| Fourteen days | The deposit must be returned within fourteen days of your moving out, with an itemized statement for anything kept. |
| Forfeiture | If the landlord fails to provide the statement and the deposit within fourteen days, they forfeit any right to retain any portion of it. |
| Limited deductions | Only unpaid rent, unpaid utilities, damage beyond normal wear and tear, and moving and storage of your belongings. |
That third row does a lot of work and is the one most tenants do not know. The deadline is not a target — missing it is itself the remedy.
Normal wear and tear is not damage
The line matters because most disputes live on it. Faded paint, carpet worn along the path everyone walks, small nail holes from hanging pictures, a sticking door after a humid summer — these are the marks of a home having been lived in, and they are the landlord's cost of doing business. A cracked basin, a burned worktop, a door off its hinges, a room left full of furniture are damage. If you are unsure which side something falls on, photograph it, because a photograph taken on the day you leave settles more arguments than any argument does.
The walk-through nobody mentions
This is the most useful right in the statute and the least used, because it depends on a notice landlords do not always send.
- Once either side gives notice to end the tenancy, the landlord must tell you in writing that you may request an inspection before vacating, and that you may be present at it. (This does not apply if you give less than two weeks' notice.)
- If you request one, it takes place no earlier than two weeks and no later than one week before the tenancy ends.
- The landlord must give you at least 48 hours' written notice of the date and time.
- Afterwards the landlord gives you an itemized statement of the repairs or cleaning they propose to deduct for.
- You then have the chance to fix those things yourself before the tenancy ends — which is the whole point of doing it a week early.
Ask for the inspection in writing as soon as notice is given, whether or not the landlord offers. A deduction you were warned about and cured is a deduction that never happens.
What changed for rent-stabilized tenants on 15 November 2025
The 2019 reform rewrote section 7-108 of the General Obligations Law, which covers non-rent-stabilized units. Stabilized tenancies sit under section 7-107 and did not pick up all of it. That gap closed on 15 November 2025: amendments to 7-107 extended the fourteen-day return, the limits on what may be deducted, the itemized statement and the inspection right to rent-stabilized tenants. If you are stabilized and moved out before that date, the older rules governed; if you are moving now, these do. Not sure which you are? See am I rent stabilized?
Two things that only apply to stabilized apartments
- Interest on the deposit. The deposit earns interest, of which the owner may keep 1% a year for administrative costs. You choose how you take the rest: subtracted from the rent, held in trust until the tenancy ends, or paid to you as a lump sum at the end of each year.
- Historic over-deposits. If two months' security was collected when the apartment first came under rent stabilization and the same tenant is still in it, the owner must refund the excess over one month's rent. And the next stabilized tenant cannot be asked for more than one month either.
The deposit is not the landlord's money
It is held in trust for you. It remains yours throughout the tenancy, which is why it cannot simply be treated as the last month's rent by either side, and why it has to be accounted for rather than absorbed. That framing is worth holding on to when a landlord talks about the deposit as though it were a fee.
If it does not come back
- Write, and date it. Ask for the deposit and for the itemized statement, and note the date you moved out and the day the fourteen days expired.
- Gather the record: your move-in and move-out photographs, the lease, proof of what you paid, any inspection statement.
- If you are rent-stabilized and the complaint is that you were charged more than one month, New York State Homes and Community Renewal takes that on Form RA-89, the tenant's complaint of rent or other specific overcharges.
- Otherwise small claims court is the ordinary route for a deposit, and it is designed to be used without a lawyer.
- Get advice if the amount is large or the facts are contested — a tenant attorney or a legal services organisation can tell you quickly whether the forfeiture rule is in play.
Where the building record comes in
Two things about a building are worth knowing before you hand anyone a month's rent: whether the apartment is a legal one, and who you would actually be dealing with. Both are public. See illegal apartments and conversions for the first and how to look up your NYC landlord for the second, or search the address free at Check a Building.
This guide is general tenant education, not legal advice, and it is not tenant screening. Security deposit disputes turn on the facts of a particular tenancy; consult a tenant attorney or a legal services organisation before relying on any of this in a dispute. Sources: NYS HCR — Fact Sheet #9, Security Deposits (including the 15 November 2025 amendments to General Obligations Law section 7-107); New York General Obligations Law sections 7-107 and 7-108; NYC Rent Guidelines Board — Security Deposits FAQ.