New York security deposit law
Your landlord is on a clock, and most tenants never find out it exists. Here is what the statute actually says — quoted, with a link so you can read it yourself.
14 days after you vacate, your landlord must provide an itemized statement of any deductions and return the rest of the deposit.
- Itemization
- Required. This is the shortest deadline of any large state, and the consequence for missing it is the harshest.
- If they get it wrong
- A landlord who misses the 14-day deadline forfeits any right to retain any portion of the deposit. Willful violations can carry punitive damages up to twice the deposit.
- Statute
- N.Y. Gen. Oblig. Law § 7-108
The part most people miss
New York does not merely penalise a late landlord — it removes their right to keep anything at all. If day 15 arrives with no itemized statement, the entire deposit is owed regardless of the condition you left the place in.
Within fourteen days after the tenant has vacated the premises, the landlord shall provide the tenant with an itemized statement indicating the basis for the amount of the deposit retained, if any, and shall return any remaining portion of the deposit to the tenant.
N.Y. Gen. Oblig. Law § 7-108(e)
Where that leaves you
Work out the date you handed back possession, then count. If the deadline has passed and nothing arrived, that fact alone carries weight under New York law — read the statute above and see where you stand.
If you are still living there, or about to move out, the most useful thing you can do takes fifteen minutes. Nearly every dispute reduces to a single question — was that damage there before you were — and the person holding dated photographs is the one who wins it.
Check your exact timeline for New York
Other states
How this was sourced: Statute text read at newyork.public.law (§ 7-108), 19 Aug 2026.