New York Residential Lease Agreement
New York caps a residential security deposit at one month's rent and gives the landlord 14 days to return it with an itemized statement. Late fees are capped by statute, and every lease must carry sprinkler, flood and Good Cause Eviction notices. In New York City, rent stabilization and local ordinances add requirements a general lease form does not cover.
What New York law does to this document
One month's deposit, returned in 14 days
No deposit or advance may exceed one month's rent, so a landlord cannot collect a deposit and prepaid last month's rent together. Within 14 days after the tenant vacates, the landlord must return the deposit with an itemized statement of anything kept. A landlord who misses the deadline forfeits the right to retain any part of the deposit. A willful violation exposes the landlord to punitive damages of up to twice the deposit.
N.Y. Gen. Oblig. Law § 7-108(1-a)The deposit stays the tenant's money
A security deposit remains the tenant's property, and the landlord holds it in trust and may not mix it with personal funds. A landlord who puts the deposit in a bank must tell the tenant in writing the bank's name and address and the amount. In a building with six or more units the deposit must sit in an interest-bearing account at a bank in New York, and the landlord may keep an administrative fee of one percent per year. Any waiver of these rules is void.
N.Y. Gen. Oblig. Law § 7-103(1), (2), (2-a), (3)Late fees and application fees
A late fee may be charged only when rent is more than five days late. It cannot exceed $50 or five percent of the monthly rent, whichever is less. Before a lease is signed, the only fee a landlord may charge an applicant is for a background and credit check, limited to the actual cost or $20, whichever is less.
N.Y. Real Prop. Law § 238-aGood Cause Eviction notice
Since 2024 a landlord must attach to or include in every initial lease and renewal a statutory notice stating whether the unit is covered by the Good Cause Eviction Law and, if it is exempt, why. The law itself applies in New York City and in municipalities that opt in. Where it applies, a rent increase above the lower of ten percent or five percent plus the regional change in the Consumer Price Index is presumed unreasonable. A landlord with no more than ten units in the state is exempt, although a municipality outside New York City may set a different number by local law.
N.Y. Real Prop. Law §§ 211-216, 231-cSprinkler and flood disclosures
Every residential lease must state in bold type whether the premises have a maintained and operative sprinkler system and, if they do, the date it was last maintained and inspected. Every residential lease must also disclose whether the premises sit in a FEMA-designated floodplain or flood hazard area and any flood damage the landlord knows of, and must include a statutory paragraph telling renters that flood insurance is available.
N.Y. Real Prop. Law §§ 231-a, 231-bNew York City adds its own rules
A rent-stabilized lease in New York City must attach the state housing agency's lease rider, Form RA-LR1, to each vacancy and renewal lease. City law requires owners to give each tenant signing a vacancy lease a notice of the property's bedbug history for the previous year. Under the city's FARE Act, in effect since June 11, 2025, a broker hired by the landlord may not charge its fee to the tenant.
N.Y.C. Admin. Code §§ 27-2018.1, 20-699.21Where people go wrong in New York
- Collecting first month's rent, last month's rent and a deposit at signing, which puts the advance payments over the one-month cap in General Obligations Law § 7-108(1-a).
- Writing in a flat late fee above $50 or five percent of the rent, or charging it before the rent is five days late, contrary to Real Property Law § 238-a.
- Signing the generator's lease as drafted: it does not contain the sprinkler notice, the flood disclosure and flood insurance paragraph, or the Good Cause Eviction notice required by Real Property Law §§ 231-a, 231-b and 231-c, and it accepts a deposit above one month's rent, a return period longer than 14 days, prepaid last month's rent and a flat ban on subletting that § 226-b overrides in buildings with four or more units, so each of those must be added or corrected for a New York tenancy.
How the generator works
A current residential lease, fixed-term or month-to-month, covering rent, deposit, maintenance, and the disclosures landlords now have to make. Answer a short interview and the draft assembles as you go, with New York already set as the governing state. Download it as PDF or Word. No fee. No account.