How long does a New York landlord have to return a security deposit?

Fourteen days from the tenant vacating. General Obligations Law 7-108(1-a)(e) requires the landlord to provide an itemized statement showing the basis for any amount retained and to return the balance within fourteen days, and a landlord who fails to provide both the statement and the deposit within that period forfeits any right to retain any portion of it. In any dispute about the amount retained, paragraph (f) puts the burden of proof on the landlord, and a wilful violation carries punitive damages of up to twice the deposit.

Can a New York landlord charge an application fee?

No. Real Property Law 238-a(1)(a) bars any payment, fee or charge for the processing, review or acceptance of an application, and any other payment or charge before or at the beginning of the tenancy. The only permitted pre-tenancy charge is the background and credit check fee, which paragraph (b) caps at the actual cost of the checks or twenty dollars, whichever is less. The fee must be waived entirely if the applicant supplies a check conducted within the past thirty days, and cannot be collected unless the landlord hands over a copy of the check and the invoice from the entity that ran it.

What is the maximum late fee in New York?

Fifty dollars or 5% of the monthly rent, whichever is less, and nothing at all until the rent has gone unpaid for five days. Real Property Law 238-a(2) sets both the trigger and the ceiling, and subdivision 3 makes any lease provision waiving or limiting the section void as against public policy. A cooperative housing corporation may charge a shareholder up to 8% of the monthly maintenance fee where the proprietary lease provides for it.

Can a New York landlord charge a bounced rent check fee?

Only if the lease says so, and the rule changed on October 16, 2025. Real Property Law 238-a(2-a) bars any charge for a dishonoured rent check unless it was contracted for in the lease, and where it was, the charge is capped at the landlord's actual costs for the return of the check or the amount set by General Obligations Law 5-328(3)(a), being twenty dollars, whichever is greater. Above twenty dollars the landlord must produce substantiating evidence on request. Note that the two caps in the same section run in opposite directions: screening is the lesser of actual cost or twenty dollars, and the dishonoured check is the greater.

How much notice must a New York landlord give before raising the rent or not renewing?

Thirty, sixty or ninety days, on a sliding scale. Real Property Law 226-c(2) measures the period on the cumulative amount of time the tenant has occupied the residence or the length of the tenancy in each lease, whichever is longer: under one year, thirty days; more than one year but less than two, sixty days; more than two years, ninety days. The same notice is owed on any renewal offer raising the rent by 5% or more. If the landlord misses it, the tenancy continues on the existing terms from the date written notice was actually given until the period expires.

How much notice must a New York landlord give before entering?

New York fixes none. There is no landlord-entry statute in New York, and Real Property Law article 7 contains no entry section at all, so the notice period is whatever the lease says. The State does set the outer limit: Real Property Law 235 makes wilful interference with the tenant's quiet enjoyment a violation, and RPAPL 768 makes a lockout or a course of harassing conduct a class A misdemeanor with a civil penalty of not less than one thousand nor more than ten thousand dollars for each violation. Pages that quote a New York entry notice period as though the State had legislated one are inventing it.

Does the Good Cause Eviction law apply everywhere in New York?

No, but its notice does. Article 6-A of the Real Property Law applies in New York City by operation of section 212, and everywhere else only in a village, town or city that has adopted it by local law under section 213. As of the Division of Housing and Community Renewal notice of May 4, 2026, nineteen municipalities had opted in. Separately, Real Property Law 231-c requires the statutory Good Cause notice in every initial and renewal lease statewide, including in a municipality that never adopted the law, where the landlord ticks the box saying the locality has not adopted it.

Which disclosures does a New York lease have to contain?

Five. The sprinkler system notice in bold face type under Real Property Law 231-a; the flood history and risk notice under Real Property Law 231-b, including the prescribed National Flood Insurance Program paragraph; the Good Cause Eviction law notice under Real Property Law 231-c; the certificate of occupancy notice under Real Property Law 235-bb, which applies to property of three or fewer rental units; and the federal lead-based paint disclosure for housing built before 1978. The first three carry no threshold and no actual-knowledge qualifier at all.

Does a New York lease need a bed bug disclosure?

Not statewide. The infestation-history form given to a tenant signing a vacancy lease comes from New York City Administrative Code 27-2018.1 and is a city duty. The statewide provision, Real Property Law 235-j, is a notice duty during the tenancy rather than a disclosure at signing: on learning of an infestation the landlord must tell the tenants immediately above, below and adjacent within seventy-two hours, without identifying the affected unit, and must post a common-area notice within seventy-two hours.

Does a New York landlord have to re-rent if a tenant leaves early?

Yes. Real Property Law 227-e, in force since 2019, requires a landlord whose residential tenant vacates in violation of the lease to take reasonable and customary action, in good faith and according to the landlord's resources and abilities, to re-rent at fair market value or at the rate agreed in the lease, whichever is lower. Once the replacement tenant's lease is in effect it terminates the former tenant's lease. The burden of proof sits on the party seeking damages, and a lease clause exempting the landlord from the duty is void as contrary to public policy.

How long is a New York rent demand before eviction?

Fourteen days. RPAPL 711(2) requires a written demand for the rent giving at least fourteen days' notice requiring, in the alternative, payment or possession, served in the manner RPAPL 735 prescribes. Under the version in force until June 15, 2034 the demand must also append the Good Cause Eviction notice. A tenant can end the case by paying: RPAPL 731(4) makes payment of the full rent before the hearing moot the ground, and RPAPL 749(3) requires the court to vacate the warrant on tender of the full rent at any time before it is executed, absent bad-faith withholding.

Can a New York landlord sue for late fees in a nonpayment case?

No. RPAPL 702 defines rent in a residential summary proceeding as the monthly or weekly amount charged for the use and occupation of the dwelling and provides that no fees, charges or penalties other than rent may be sought, notwithstanding any language to the contrary in the lease. A late charge, a legal fee or a utility charge has to be pursued as an ordinary money claim, not folded into the eviction.

Can a New York lease make the tenant pay the landlord's attorney fees?

It can contain a fee clause, but the clause will not stay one-sided and it will not work on a default. Real Property Law 234 implies into any residential lease giving the landlord a fee remedy a covenant by the landlord to pay the tenant's reasonable fees incurred through the landlord's own failure to perform, or in the successful defence of any proceeding the landlord brings. The section also provides in terms that a landlord may not recover attorneys' fees upon a default judgment, and that any waiver of the section is void as against public policy.

How many people can live in a New York apartment?

More than the lease usually says. Real Property Law 235-f, the roommate law, makes it unlawful to restrict occupancy to the tenant and immediate family, and any such restriction is unenforceable as against public policy. A lease signed by one tenant is construed to permit that tenant, the tenant's immediate family, one additional occupant and that occupant's dependent children, so long as the tenant or the tenant's spouse occupies as a primary residence. The tenant must tell the landlord the occupant's name within thirty days of the occupancy beginning or of a request, and the occupant acquires no right of continued occupancy.

Can a New York tenant sublet?

In a building of four or more residential units, yes. Real Property Law 226-b(2) gives the tenant a right to sublet subject to the landlord's advance written consent, which shall not be unreasonably withheld, on a certified-mail request carrying seven specified items. The landlord may seek further information within ten days and must answer within thirty days of the request or the additional information, whichever is later, and the landlord's silence is deemed consent. Assignment is different: consent may be withheld unconditionally, but unreasonable withholding entitles the tenant to be released from the lease on thirty days' notice.

Is there a retaliation rule in New York?

Yes, with a one-year presumption. Real Property Law 223-b bars a notice to quit, a proceeding, a refusal to renew or an unreasonable rent increase in retaliation for a good-faith complaint about a health or safety violation or a habitability condition, for enforcing rights under the lease or the warranty of habitability, or for participating in a tenants' organization. A rebuttable presumption of retaliation arises where the landlord acts within one year of the protected act. Subdivision 5-a makes null and void any lease provision assessing a fee, penalty or dollar charge for making a complaint. The section does not reach an owner-occupied dwelling of fewer than four units.

Must a New York lease be written in plain language?

Yes. General Obligations Law 5-702 requires every written agreement for the lease of residential space to be written in a clear and coherent manner using words with common and every day meanings, and to be appropriately divided and captioned by its various sections. A landlord who fails is liable for the tenant's actual damages plus a statutory penalty of fifty dollars, with a ceiling of ten thousand dollars across any class action. A violation does not void the lease or give a defence to an action to enforce it.

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New York lease forms: Residential Lease Agreement Month-to-Month Agreement Move-In / Move-Out Checklist Deposit Itemization All New York Forms

Free New York Residential Lease Agreement

New York residential lease agreement walk-through

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A configurable New York residential lease agreement that generates a signable multi-page PDF. Built to current statewide law — the one-month deposit cap, the fourteen-day accounting, the fee caps in Real Property Law 238-a, and the five disclosures New York actually requires.

New York GOL 7-108 One-Month Cap Free PDF 2026 Edition

Updated Q3 2026 By Tenant Screening Background Check Editorial Team Scope New York State ~19 min read

A New York residential lease agreement is governed not by a single landlord-tenant act but by three separate bodies of law: Real Property Law article 7, the General Obligations Law for anything to do with the deposit, and the Real Property Actions and Proceedings Law for anything to do with ending the tenancy. The Housing Stability and Tenant Protection Act of 2019 rewrote large parts of all three at once, and a great deal of the New York lease material still circulating describes the law as it was before that. Three points decide most disputes. The deposit is capped at one month’s rent and must be accounted for within fourteen days or the right to retain any of it is forfeited. Fees are capped by statute rather than by the lease — there is no lawful application fee at all, and the late charge cannot begin before the fifth day. And every lease in the State, in every village, town and city, must now carry the Good Cause Eviction notice, even where the locality has never adopted the Good Cause law. This page builds a statewide lease that carries all of it, and says clearly where New York City departs.

New York Lease Rules at a Glance

Security Deposit Cap

1 Month

Deposit Accounting

14 Days

Late Fee Starts

Day 5

Notice to End or Raise

30 / 60 / 90 Days

The change nothing on the first page of results has caught up with: Real Property Law 238-a(2-a), added by an act signed on October 16, 2025, bars any charge for a dishonoured rent check unless it was contracted for in the lease — and where it was, caps it at the landlord’s actual cost or the General Obligations Law 5-328(3)(a) figure of twenty dollars, whichever is greater. That is the opposite test from the screening cap in the same section, which is the lesser of actual cost or twenty dollars.

Three New York Rules That Catch Landlords Out

First, the fourteen-day deposit deadline is a forfeiture, not a fine. General Obligations Law 7-108(1-a)(e) provides that a landlord who does not deliver both the itemized statement and the deposit within fourteen days of the tenant vacating forfeits any right to retain any portion of it — and paragraph (f) puts the burden of proving that any retained amount was reasonable on the landlord, not the tenant. Second, the Good Cause notice is statewide even though the Good Cause law is not. Real Property Law 231-c sits in article 7 rather than in article 6-A, and it requires the statutory notice in every initial and renewal lease in the State; the first exemption box on the notice is for a locality that has not adopted the law, which is the plainest possible confirmation that the notice is still owed there. Third, New York has no landlord entry statute. Article 7 contains no entry section, so any figure quoted as the New York entry notice period is coming from the writer, not the Legislature — which makes the entry clause one of the few places in a New York lease where the drafting genuinely decides the outcome.

How to Fill Out This New York Lease Agreement

The Eight-Step New York Sequence

1. Name the parties and the managing agent

Name the owner and the agent or person in control of the premises, each with a street address, so that every notice this lease contemplates can actually be served. General Obligations Law 5-702 requires the agreement itself to be written in plain, everyday words and divided and captioned by its various sections.

2. Describe the premises and state the building size

Building size is not cosmetic in New York. Three or fewer rental units triggers the certificate of occupancy disclosure; four or more triggers the statutory sublet right; six or more family dwelling units require the deposit to sit in an interest-bearing account; and an owner-occupied building of fewer than four units sits outside the retaliation statute.

3. Choose the term and decide on automatic renewal

A fixed term ends on its own date, but the Real Property Law 226-c notice is still owed on a renewal raising rent by 5% or more. An automatic-renewal clause is inoperative under General Obligations Law 5-905 unless the landlord serves the reminder notice at least fifteen and not more than thirty days before the tenant’s own deadline.

4. Set rent, the due day and the payment methods

Real Property Law 235-g bars a landlord from making an electronic system the only way to pay, and bars a fee for declining it, so record a non-electronic alternative. Real Property Law 235-e requires written receipts and — a duty most landlords have never heard of — a certified-mail notice if rent has not arrived within five days.

5. Set the late charge against the statutory ceiling

Real Property Law 238-a(2) allows no late charge at all until the rent is five days late, and then caps it at fifty dollars or 5% of the monthly rent, whichever is less. Anything above that is void to the extent of the excess under subdivision 3.

6. Total the deposit against the one-month cap

Enter the deposit and pick which deposit rule applies. The form generates a different clause for a standard tenancy, a registered seasonal use dwelling unit, an owner-occupied cooperative apartment and a unit outside section 7-108(1-a) altogether — because the cap is different in each, and the money never stops being the tenant’s.

7. Complete the five statewide disclosures

Sprinkler and flood go into every residential lease with no size threshold and no actual-knowledge qualifier. The Good Cause notice goes into every initial and renewal lease statewide. The certificate of occupancy notice applies to three-or-fewer-unit properties, and the federal lead disclosure to pre-1978 housing.

8. Generate, sign, and offer the pre-occupancy inspection

Download the multi-page PDF and sign. No witnesses and no notary are needed. But before the tenant moves in, General Obligations Law 7-108(1-a)(c) requires the landlord to offer an inspection, and 7-103(2) requires written notice of which banking organization holds the deposit.

Build Your New York Residential Lease Agreement

Complete the fields below to generate a statewide New York residential lease agreement as a signable multi-page PDF. Every field you fill is written into the document, including the utility allocations and each disclosure you check, and the generated lease cites the controlling New York section at each point. Before handing over keys, run proper tenant screening — but read New York tenant screening laws first, because Real Property Law 227-f makes it unlawful to refuse an applicant on the basis of a past or pending housing court case. Pair the signed lease with a New York move-in / move-out checklist, because the fourteen-day accounting you owe at the end rests entirely on documented condition at the start.

New York Residential Lease Agreement Builder — Statewide

1. Parties

New York has no single owner-identification statute for leases outside New York City, but naming the owner and the managing agent with a street address is what makes the notices in this lease servable. General Obligations Law 5-702 also requires the whole agreement to be written in plain, everyday language and divided into captioned sections.

Landlord (owner) full legal name

Landlord phone

Owner street address for notices and service

Managing agent or person in control of the premises

Agent phone

Agent street address

Rent is payable to (name and address, or the account or transfer method)

Tenant 1 full legal name

Tenant 2 full legal name (if any)

Additional tenants (comma-separated)

Authorized occupants who are not tenants (Real Property Law 235-f)

2. Premises

Building size is not cosmetic in New York. Three or fewer rental units triggers the certificate-of-occupancy disclosure; four or more units triggers the statutory sublet right; six or more family dwelling units requires the deposit to sit in an interest-bearing account; and an owner-occupied building of fewer than four units sits outside the retaliation statute.

Rental property address (street, unit, city, ZIP)

County

Village, town or city (decides the Good Cause question)

Property type

Rental units in the building

Year built (pre-1978 triggers the federal lead disclosure)

Bedrooms / bathrooms

The landlord lives in the building — relevant because Real Property Law 223-b does not reach an owner-occupied dwelling of fewer than four units

3. Term

Lease type

Term length in months (if other)

Lease start date

Lease end date (if fixed)

Include an automatic renewal clause — inoperative under General Obligations Law 5-905 unless the landlord serves the reminder notice at least fifteen and not more than thirty days before the tenant’s own notice deadline

4. Rent & Late Charges

Real Property Law 238-a(2) allows no late charge at all until rent is five days late, and then caps it at fifty dollars or 5% of the monthly rent, whichever is less. Real Property Law 235-g bars a landlord from making an electronic system the only way to pay.

Monthly rent (dollars)

Rent due day of month

Late charge (dollars) — capped at fifty dollars or 5% of the rent, whichever is less

Acceptable payment methods (comma-separated)

Non-electronic payment method offered (Real Property Law 235-g)

5. Fees Before and During the Tenancy

There is no lawful application fee in New York. The only permitted pre-tenancy charge is the background and credit check fee, capped at the actual cost or twenty dollars, whichever is less. The dishonoured-check charge added in October 2025 runs the other way — the actual cost or twenty dollars, whichever is greater — and only if the lease says so.

Background and credit check fee actually charged (dollars)

Dishonoured rent check charge (dollars)

Contract for the dishonoured rent check charge in this lease — Real Property Law 238-a(2-a) permits none at all unless it is contracted for here

6. Security Deposit — capped at one month’s rent

General Obligations Law 7-108(1-a)(a) caps the deposit at one month’s rent. The money stays the tenant’s property under 7-103, and the itemized statement plus any balance is due within fourteen days of the tenant vacating — miss it and the landlord forfeits the right to retain any of it.

Total security deposit (dollars)

Which deposit rule applies

Banking organization holding the deposit, with its address (General Obligations Law 7-103(2))

7. Utilities & Services

Assign each utility. Allocating an account to the tenant does not move the warranty of habitability, and where a tenant has to pay a utility company directly because the landlord did not, Real Property Law 235-a makes that payment deductible from future rent.

Electricity

Gas

Heat

Hot and cold water

Trash / recycling

Internet / cable

Snow removal / grounds

Other utilities or services

8. New York Disclosures

New York’s statewide lease-disclosure set is short but strict, and two of the five are absolute — the sprinkler notice and the flood notice go into every residential lease with no size threshold and no actual-knowledge qualifier. The certificate-of-occupancy notice applies to buildings of three or fewer rental units.

Sprinkler system notice — required in every residential lease, in bold face type (Real Property Law 231-a)

Sprinkler system status

Last maintenance and inspection date (required only if there is a system)

Flood history and risk notice — required in every residential lease (Real Property Law 231-b)

Flood zone status

Prior flood damage known to the landlord, and its nature

Good cause eviction law notice — required in every initial and renewal lease statewide, including where the locality never adopted the law (Real Property Law 231-c)

Good cause status of this unit

Exemption relied on, if any (Real Property Law 214)

Certificate of occupancy disclosure — required where the property has three or fewer rental units, in bold face type (Real Property Law 235-bb)

Certificate of occupancy status

Federal lead-based paint — required for housing built before 1978 (federal, not a New York statute)

Add the New York City variance note — names the city-only duties this statewide lease does not generate, and labels them not required by New York State statute

9. Other Provisions

New York does not ban a lease attorney-fee clause. Real Property Law 234 implies the mirror covenant in the tenant’s favour and bars any landlord fee award on a default judgment, so the option below generates the reciprocal, prevailing-party version only.

Pets allowed

Renters insurance required

Reciprocal prevailing-party attorney fee clause (Real Property Law 234)

State the tenant’s occupancy rights and the thirty-day duty to name an occupant (Real Property Law 235-f)

State the sublet and assignment procedure and the thirty-day deemed consent (Real Property Law 226-b)

State the landlord’s duty to mitigate if the tenant leaves early (Real Property Law 227-e)

Special terms / additional provisions

✓ PDF downloaded. Sign it, offer the pre-occupancy inspection before the tenant moves in, and keep the deposit in a separate account — General Obligations Law 7-103 and 7-108.

What Types of New York Lease Agreement Are There?

New York recognises the usual range, and the label matters more here than in most states because several statutes switch on and off with it. A fixed-term lease runs for a stated period and ends on its own date, with no notice needed to end a tenancy for a definite term — though the Real Property Law 226-c notice is still owed if the landlord wants to renew at a higher rent or not renew at all. A month-to-month tenancy renews each month until notice is given; outside the city of New York, Real Property Law 232-b lets the tenant end it on one month’s notice, while a residential landlord uses the 226-c scale in either direction. A sublease passes possession to a subtenant while leaving the original tenant liable, and in a building of four or more residential units the tenant has a statutory right to one. A roommate arrangement is not really a lease type in New York at all: Real Property Law 235-f gives the tenant the right to bring in an additional occupant whatever the lease says.

Two categories fall outside this form. A commercial lease is not governed by the residential provisions used here, and almost none of the protections on this page apply to one — General Obligations Law 5-702 covers residential space, Real Property Law 238-a covers a residential dwelling unit, and General Obligations Law 7-108 covers dwelling units in residential premises. Manufactured home parks have their own scheme in Real Property Law 233, and a lot in a park is not let on an ordinary residential lease. Attaching the wrong body of law to an arrangement is the most expensive drafting error available, because it is normally discovered in court.

One further split runs through the whole of New York practice: rent-regulated versus unregulated. Rent-stabilised and rent-controlled units carry a parallel regime of registration, prescribed riders, regulated renewal offers and guideline increases that a general lease form cannot generate. This page is the statewide unregulated form. If the unit is in the five boroughs, use the New York City lease builder instead, which is built for the city’s additional duties.

How Much Can a New York Landlord Charge for a Security Deposit?

One month’s rent. General Obligations Law 7-108(1-a)(a) provides that no deposit or advance shall exceed the amount of one month’s rent. The wording is important: it says deposit or advance, not security deposit, so it captures every kind of up-front money together. The old New York practice of taking first month, last month and a month of security is three months of money, and it has not been lawful since 2019.

The exclusions are real but narrow, and they are worth knowing because the rankers do not list them. Subdivision 1-a does not reach a unit subject to the city rent and rehabilitation law or the emergency housing rent control law; a continuing care retirement community; an assisted living provider; an adult care facility; a senior residential community that has submitted an offering plan to the Attorney General; or a not-for-profit independent retirement community that offers personal emergency response, housekeeping, transportation and meals. Two further carve-outs sit inside the section itself. A registered seasonal use dwelling unit under 7-108(4) and (5) escapes the cap, but only if the lease expressly says the unit is registered and names the registry, states that the occupancy is for seasonal use not exceeding one hundred and twenty days, and gives the address of the primary residence the tenant will return to — and only if the unit really is registered with the local or county government. An owner-occupied cooperative apartment under 7-108(6) also escapes it, and payments forming part of the purchase price of the shares are not a deposit at all.

What the landlord may keep is also fixed by statute rather than by the lease. Paragraph (b) permits retention only for reasonable and itemized costs due to non-payment of rent, damage caused by the tenant beyond normal wear and tear, non-payment of utility charges payable directly to the landlord under the lease, and moving and storage of the tenant’s belongings. It then adds two express prohibitions: nothing may be retained for ordinary wear and tear of occupancy, and nothing may be retained for damage caused by a prior tenant.

Whose Money Is the Deposit While the Tenancy Runs?

The tenant’s. General Obligations Law 7-103(1) provides that money deposited as security continues to be the money of the person making the deposit, is held in trust, and shall not be commingled with the recipient’s personal funds. That is a trust obligation, not a contractual one, and it is why a landlord who spends the deposit during the tenancy has a problem quite separate from the accounting at the end.

Two mechanical duties follow. Under 7-103(2), where the deposit is placed in a New York banking organization the landlord must notify the tenant in writing of the name and address of that organization and the amount deposited. Under 7-103(2-a), where the building contains six or more family dwelling units the deposit must go into an interest-bearing account paying the prevailing rate for similar deposits in the area; the landlord may retain 1% per annum as administration expenses, and the remaining interest is held in trust for the tenant or paid over annually. Section 7-103(3) makes any waiver of the section absolutely void.

Section 7-105 handles a sale. On conveying the property, assigning the lease, or on the qualification of a receiver in a foreclosure, the landlord must turn the deposit over to the successor within five days and notify the tenant by registered or certified mail of the transfer and of the transferee’s name and address. Failure to comply is a misdemeanor. Section 7-108(2) then makes a grantee or assignee liable to the tenant for a deposit of which it had actual knowledge, and sets out what counts as actual knowledge and what documentary evidence a tenant may produce.

What Are the Two Deposit Inspections New York Requires?

One before the tenant moves in and one before the tenant moves out, and both are the landlord’s job to offer. No ranking New York lease page carries either, and together they are the most practical protection in the whole deposit section.

The first is at General Obligations Law 7-108(1-a)(c). After the lease is signed but before the tenant begins occupancy, the landlord shall offer the tenant the opportunity to inspect the premises with the landlord or the landlord’s agent to determine its condition. If the tenant asks for it, the parties execute a written agreement before occupancy attesting to the condition and specifically noting any existing defects or damage. The consequence is the point: on the tenant vacating, the landlord may not retain any amount of the deposit for any condition, defect or damage noted in that agreement. The agreement is admissible as evidence of the condition at the start of occupancy, in proceedings about the deposit.

The second is at paragraph (d). Within a reasonable time after either party gives notice of an intention to terminate — unless the tenant terminates on less than two weeks’ notice — the landlord shall notify the tenant in writing of the tenant’s right to request an inspection before vacating and to be present at it. If the tenant requests it, the inspection happens no earlier than two weeks and no later than one week before the end of the tenancy, on at least forty-eight hours’ written notice of the date and time. Afterwards the landlord gives the tenant an itemized statement of the repairs or cleaning proposed as the basis of any deduction, and the tenant has the opportunity to cure those conditions before the tenancy ends. A tenant who cures does not pay, which is a materially better outcome for both sides than a dispute after the keys are back.

How Long Does a New York Landlord Have to Return the Deposit?

Fourteen days from the tenant vacating — and missing it is a forfeiture. General Obligations Law 7-108(1-a)(e) requires the landlord, within fourteen days after the tenant has vacated, to provide an itemized statement indicating the basis for the amount of the deposit retained, if any, and to return any remaining portion. It then says, in terms: if a landlord fails to provide the tenant with the statement and deposit within fourteen days, the landlord shall forfeit any right to retain any portion of the deposit.

That is not a penalty calculated against the amount improperly withheld. It is the loss of the right to withhold at all, however good the underlying claim. A landlord with a genuine two-thousand-dollar damage claim who sends the statement on the sixteenth day has, on the face of the statute, forfeited it.

Two further paragraphs stack on top. Paragraph (f) provides that in any action or proceeding disputing the amount retained, the landlord bears the burden of proof as to the reasonableness of the amount retained — a reversal of the ordinary position, and the reason the pre-occupancy condition agreement is worth having. Paragraph (g) makes a violator liable for actual damages, and a person found to have wilfully violated the subdivision liable for punitive damages of up to twice the amount of the deposit. Section 7-108(3) makes any agreement waiving or modifying the tenant’s rights under the section absolutely void.

What Fees Can a New York Landlord Actually Charge?

Almost none before the tenancy, and a capped one during it. Real Property Law 238-a is titled “Limitation on fees” and it is the single most commonly misstated New York statute, so it is worth taking subdivision by subdivision.

Subdivision 1(a) — no application fee. Except where a statute or regulation provides for a payment, no landlord, lessor, sub-lessor or grantor may demand any payment, fee or charge for the processing, review or acceptance of an application, or demand any other payment, fee or charge before or at the beginning of the tenancy, apart from the background and credit checks allowed by paragraph (b). There are institutional carve-outs for continuing care retirement communities, assisted living providers, adult care facilities and certain senior communities, and a separate rule for cooperative housing corporations where the applicant would become a shareholder.

Subdivision 1(b) — the screening cap, and it is the lesser. A landlord may charge a fee to reimburse the cost of a background check and a credit check, provided the cumulative fee is no more than the actual cost of those checks or twenty dollars, whichever is less. It is not a flat twenty dollars. Two further conditions sit on it. The landlord shall waive the fee entirely if the prospective tenant provides a copy of a background check or credit check conducted within the past thirty days. And the landlord may not collect it at all unless the landlord provides the prospective tenant with a copy of the check and the receipt or invoice from the entity that conducted it.

Subdivision 2 — the late charge. No payment, fee or charge may be demanded for the late payment of rent unless the rent has not been paid within five days of the date it was due, and the charge shall not exceed fifty dollars or 5% of the monthly rent, whichever is less. A cooperative housing corporation may charge a shareholder up to 8% of the monthly maintenance fee where the proprietary lease provides for it, which is the only place in the section where a larger figure appears.

Subdivision 3 — the enforcement. Any provision of a lease or contract waiving or limiting section 238-a is void as against public policy. A late charge that begins on day two, a flat charge above the ceiling, an application fee wearing another name, or a “lease preparation fee” collected at signing is unenforceable to that extent, and the rest of the lease stands.

What Can a New York Landlord Charge for a Bounced Rent Check?

Nothing, unless the lease says so — and this rule is new. Real Property Law 238-a(2-a) was added by an act signed on October 16, 2025, effective on signature, and none of the pages currently ranking for this query carries it.

The default is a prohibition: no landlord shall demand any payment, fee or charge for the delivery of a check given in payment of rent that was subsequently dishonoured by the tenant’s financial institution for insufficient funds. The exception is paragraph (b), and it has two limbs. The charge may be demanded only if it was provided for in the lease or contract between landlord and tenant. And where it was, it shall not exceed the actual costs, charges or fees incurred by the landlord for the return of the dishonoured check, or the amount set forth in subdivision three of section 5-328 of the general obligations law, whichever is great