New York Security Deposit Deductions: Allowed Charges and 14-Day Rule

Under New York General Obligations Law § 7-108, your landlord can only make security deposit deductions for four specific things: unpaid rent, unpaid utility charges you owed directly to the landlord, damage beyond normal wear and tear, and reasonable moving or storage costs for belongings you left behind. Anything outside those four categories is unlawful. And if the landlord fails to return the balance of your deposit with an itemized statement within 14 days of your move-out, they lose the right to keep any of it, even for damage you genuinely caused.¹

The Four Lawful Deductions

Unpaid Rent and Utilities Owed to the Landlord

If you owe rent when you move out, the landlord can subtract the exact balance from your deposit, matched to your ledger. Padding the figure with speculative future costs or undocumented late fees doesn’t fly. The same goes for utilities, but only utilities you were contractually required to pay directly to the landlord under your lease. If your electric or gas account sits in your own name with the utility company, your landlord has no claim on your deposit for that bill.¹ Both categories require documentation: specific invoices, account statements, or ledger entries. A vague claim that you “still owe money” won’t survive a dispute.

Damage Beyond Normal Wear and Tear

This is where most deposit fights start. The landlord can deduct for damage you caused that goes beyond ordinary living, but cannot keep a cent for the natural aging of the apartment, and cannot charge you for damage a previous tenant caused.¹

Normal wear and tear includes fading paint, carpet worn thin in high-traffic areas, small nail holes from hanging pictures, light scuffs on hardwood, and minor discoloration of bathroom fixtures. New York courts have treated hair in bathrooms, dust in kitchen drawers, and cobwebs on windowsills as ordinary use that doesn’t justify deductions.² Courts have also ruled that professional carpet cleaning, window washing, and interior painting after a tenancy are turnover costs the landlord absorbs, not tenant damage.

Damage that justifies a deduction looks different: broken windows, large holes in drywall, deeply stained or burned flooring, cracked tiles, broken fixtures. These represent harm beyond what time and ordinary use would produce.

Depreciation on Damaged Items

Even when the damage is real, the landlord can only charge based on the item’s remaining useful life. If the carpet you stained was already ten years old, you don’t owe the price of brand-new carpet. The deduction has to reflect what the carpet was still worth given its age. HUD publishes estimated useful life guidelines for flooring, paint, and appliances, and those benchmarks are widely used to work out depreciated values in disputes.³ Landlords should have photos and repair receipts; tenants should have their own move-in photos.

Moving and Storage of Abandoned Belongings

The fourth category catches many tenants by surprise. If you leave furniture, boxes, or other property behind when you vacate, the landlord can deduct reasonable costs for moving and storing those items before re-renting the unit.¹ The costs have to be reasonable and itemized; a landlord can’t hire the most expensive hauler available when a simpler option existed. The surest way to avoid this one is to take everything with you.

Why Cleaning Charges Usually Aren’t Allowed

Cleaning is not a separate lawful deduction category under the statute. A landlord can only charge for cleaning when the apartment’s condition rises to the level of damage beyond normal wear and tear. Most leases require you to leave the unit in “broom-clean” condition, which courts have interpreted to mean free of garbage, refuse, and debris when you hand over the keys. It does not require professional cleaning. Leaving behind a few minor items or some dust in drawers has been treated as too trivial to justify withholding anything.

The practical line: routine turnover work like steam-cleaning carpets, scrubbing appliance interiors, and washing windows is the landlord’s cost of doing business between tenants. A deduction for cleaning is only valid when your specific neglect created the need, and the landlord should have receipts from the cleaning company along with an explanation of why the work was necessary. A unit left filthy enough that it genuinely can’t be re-rented without professional intervention can qualify as damage beyond normal wear and tear.

The 14-Day Deadline and What Happens If the Landlord Misses It

Within 14 days after you move out, the landlord has to return whatever portion of the deposit they aren’t keeping, along with an itemized statement listing every dollar withheld and the reason for each deduction. Mailing the check and statement to your last known address satisfies the delivery requirement.¹

Miss that window, and the landlord forfeits the right to keep any portion of the deposit. No exceptions. A landlord with a perfectly valid $2,000 damage claim who sends the statement on day 15 loses the right to withhold anything.¹

A landlord who willfully violates these rules can be ordered to pay punitive damages of up to twice the deposit amount. “Willful” matters. An honest mistake may only cost actual damages, but deliberately withholding without justification or ignoring requests for an itemized statement opens the door to the doubled penalty.¹

Two Inspections That Protect Your Deposit

Move-In Inspection

After you sign the lease but before you move in, the landlord must offer you a walkthrough to document the apartment’s condition together. If you accept, both parties sign a written agreement noting every existing defect. The law specifically bars the landlord from keeping any portion of your deposit for problems listed in that document.⁴ That signed list is powerful evidence months or years later.

Move-Out Inspection

When either side gives notice to end the tenancy, the landlord has to tell you in writing that you can request a pre-move-out inspection and be present for it. If you request one, it happens between two weeks and one week before your lease ends, with at least 48 hours’ written notice of the date and time. After the walkthrough, the landlord gives you an itemized list of any repairs or cleaning they plan to charge you for. You then get the chance to fix those issues before you leave, potentially saving your entire deposit.⁴

If you give less than two weeks’ notice before leaving, the landlord isn’t required to offer the move-out inspection. Always request both inspections in writing and keep copies.

A Note for Rent-Stabilized Tenants

These protections used to apply only to non-rent-stabilized apartments under § 7-108, while rent-stabilized tenants fell under a separate section with fewer safeguards. In November 2025, amendments to § 7-107 extended the same core protections to rent-stabilized tenants, including the 14-day return deadline, itemized statements, the two inspection rights, and the opportunity to cure conditions before the tenancy ends. The lawful deduction categories are the same.⁵

Getting Your Money Back

Attorney General Complaint

The New York Attorney General’s office accepts complaints when a landlord fails to return a deposit, charges more than one month’s rent, doesn’t place the deposit in a trust account, or fails to pay required interest. You need to try to resolve the issue directly with your landlord first. If the landlord claims they kept the money for damage or unpaid rent, the AG’s office generally won’t step into that factual dispute; those go to court.⁶

Small Claims Court

Small claims court is where most deposit disputes actually get decided. In New York City, you can bring claims up to $10,000, which covers the vast majority of security deposit cases. The clerks walk you through the filing, and you don’t need a lawyer. You will need your landlord’s correct legal name and address for service.⁷

One point worth knowing before you walk in: the landlord bears the burden of proving the deductions were justified. You don’t have to prove you deserve the money back; they have to prove they had the right to keep it. Your move-in inspection agreement, dated photos, and any written correspondence about the apartment’s condition become the center of that proof. Tenants who documented the unit at the start of the lease walk into court in a dramatically stronger position than those who didn’t.

1
New York State Senate. New York General Obligations Law 7-108 – Deposits Made by Tenants of Non-Rent Stabilized Dwelling Units
2
Legal Information Institute. Reasonable Wear and Tear
3
U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. Chapter 5 Special Claims for Unpaid Rent, Tenant Damages, and Other Charges
4
New York State Senate. New York General Obligations Law 7-108 – Deposits Made by Tenants of Non-Rent Stabilized Dwelling Units
5
Rent Guidelines Board. Security Deposits FAQs
6
New York State Attorney General. Rent Security Complaint Form
7
New York State Attorney General. Recovering Rent Security Deposits and Interest