Your New York landlord kept the security deposit. Here is what to do.

Reviewed by Daniel Hochman, Esq. · Last updated October 17, 2026

The deposit is held in trust. It was never the landlord's money.

General Obligations Law § 7-103 says a security deposit stays the tenant's property while the landlord holds it. The landlord holds it in trust and may not mix it with personal funds. In a building with six or more units the deposit has to sit in a New York bank account that earns interest, and the landlord may keep only a small annual administrative share of that interest. The rest of the interest belongs to you.

That framing matters when a landlord treats the deposit as a bonus they get to keep unless you prove otherwise. The law runs the other way. The landlord has to justify every dollar withheld, in writing, on a deadline.

One month's rent, no more.

The Housing Stability and Tenant Protection Act of 2019 rewrote § 7-108 for every residential lease in the state. A landlord may not collect a deposit or advance rent that exceeds one month's rent. A demand for "first, last, and security" is a demand for more than the statute allows, and the excess is recoverable. Application and move-in fees have their own limits, covered in rental application fees in New York.

The same section gives you the right to a walk-through. Before you move in you can ask for an inspection and a written list of existing damage, signed by both sides. Before you move out the landlord has to tell you that you can request a final inspection. If you ask, it happens one to two weeks before you leave, the landlord gives you an itemized list of what they intend to charge, and you get the chance to fix it yourself. A landlord who skips these steps has a harder time proving any deduction later.

Fourteen days. Itemized. Or forfeited.

Within fourteen days after you vacate, the landlord must return the deposit. If they deduct anything, they must send an itemized statement explaining the basis for each deduction and return the balance at the same time.

The consequence for missing the deadline is the strongest part of the statute. A landlord who fails to provide the itemized statement and the balance within fourteen days forfeits any right to retain any portion of the deposit. It does not matter whether the apartment actually needed work. The deduction argument is gone, and the full deposit is owed.

Most tenants do not know this rule, and many landlords count on that. A letter that quotes it, with the move-out date and the day the fourteen days ran, changes the conversation.

What a landlord can lawfully deduct.

The statute limits deductions to a short list:

• Unpaid rent. Rent you actually owed under the lease at move-out.
• Damage beyond normal wear and tear. A hole in the wall, a broken door, a stained carpet you caused. Not faded paint, nail holes from hanging pictures, or a carpet worn thin by years of ordinary use.
• Unpaid utilities you were responsible for under the lease.
• Moving and storage of belongings you left behind.

Cleaning fees for an apartment left in ordinary condition, repainting after a multi-year tenancy, and replacing an appliance that simply reached the end of its life do not belong on the list. If the landlord did not give you the move-out inspection and itemized list you were entitled to, courts are skeptical of damage claims that surface for the first time after you are gone.

Willful withholding: up to twice the deposit.

Section 7-108 authorizes punitive damages of up to twice the deposit when the landlord's violation was willful. A landlord who ignores your written request, never sends an itemized statement, and keeps the money for months is the fact pattern this provision was written for. The demand letter states that exposure in plain terms, which is what the landlord then has to weigh.

You still recover the deposit itself and any interest the landlord owed. The double-damages figure sits on top of that and is the court's call, so a good letter asks for the deposit and puts the punitive exposure on the table rather than pretending it is automatic.

What to do in the first thirty days.

The order matters more than the volume.

1. Put your forwarding address in writing. Email or text the landlord the day you leave. The fourteen days run from the day you vacate either way, but a landlord who claims they did not know where to send the check loses that excuse.
2. Photograph everything on the way out. Every room, the appliances, the inside of the closets, the meter readings. Date-stamped photos are the whole case if damage is later alleged.
3. Count fourteen days. If nothing arrives, or a check arrives with deductions and no itemized statement, the forfeiture has already happened. Do not argue about the carpet. The landlord no longer has the right to deduct for it.
4. Send a written demand. Cite the statute, state the move-out date, state the deadline that passed, demand the full deposit by a date certain, and say what happens next. Certified mail with a return receipt, plus email.
5. File in small claims if the deadline passes. New York City Civil Court hears claims up to $10,000; city courts elsewhere up to $5,000; town and village courts up to $3,000. Filing costs under $25 and no lawyer is required. The small claims limits by court are worth checking before you file.

Run the numbers first with the free security deposit calculator; it counts the fourteen days from your move-out date and shows the exposure a willful violation creates.

What an attorney demand letter does here.

A tenant's own letter is often ignored because the landlord assumes the tenant will not follow through. A letter on law firm letterhead, signed by a New York attorney, changes that calculation. It quotes § 7-108, fixes the dates, states the forfeiture, states the punitive exposure, and gives a deadline with a consequence the landlord can look up. For a deposit of one month's rent in New York, the letter is the cheapest step in the dispute and the one a landlord has the most reason to answer.

It is not the right tool in every case. If the landlord has vanished, a lawsuit and a judgment come first and the letter is a formality. If the landlord is an individual with no assets and no address, even a judgment may go uncollected. And if you left owing more rent than the deposit covers, the landlord's deduction may simply be correct. The intake screens for those situations before you pay.

The same law firm handles the related tenant problems. If the landlord also let the apartment fall apart, see landlord won't make repairs, and for a winter without heat, no heat or hot water in NYC. If you paid the landlord's broker, the FARE Act may get that fee back too, and getting a broker fee back after the FARE Act walks through the steps. For the court route, read the New York small claims guide and the honest comparison of a demand letter versus small claims. All of the firm's flat-fee demand letters follow the same model.

Common landlord excuses, answered.

"We are still getting estimates." The statute does not pause for estimates. Fourteen days is fourteen days.

"The lease says the deposit is non-refundable." A residential lease cannot waive § 7-108. The clause is void.

"You broke the lease, so you forfeit the deposit." Early termination may create a claim for rent, but the deposit is still subject to the fourteen-day itemization rule. The landlord has to show the actual unpaid rent, not keep the deposit as a penalty.

"We mailed it." Ask for the date, the address, and the check number. A landlord who mailed it can prove it; one who did not usually goes quiet.

"Normal wear and tear is a judgment call." It is, and the judgment is made by a small claims judge who sees this fact pattern every week. Photographs on the way out settle most of it.

If you want to send the first letter yourself, our guide on how to write a demand letter in New York covers what to put in it and how to send it so it counts. If the landlord ignores it, the New York small claims court guide explains the dollar limits, the filing fee, and what happens at the hearing.