Can a Landlord Keep a Deposit for Cleaning in New York?

In New York, whether you can keep part of a security deposit for cleaning turns on the difference between routine turnover cleaning and cleaning a mess the tenant left behind. Ordinary dirt from living in the unit — light dust, a floor that needs mopping, normal kitchen grime — is the cost of turning a unit, not a tenant charge. Cleaning that goes beyond normal wear and tear, like grease caked on cabinets, pet waste, or trash left in the apartment, is a different situation. Either way, the statute controls what you may deduct and how, so read N.Y. Gen. Oblig. Law § 7-108 before you write the check, and know that you have 14 days after the tenant vacates to return the deposit with an itemized statement — missing that deadline forfeits your right to keep any part of it.

Routine turnover cleaning vs. cleaning a mess

The practical test most landlords apply is simple: would this cleaning be needed after any tenant of ordinary habits moved out after the same length of stay? If yes, it's turnover work. Wiping down an empty fridge, vacuuming carpet that was vacuumed regularly, washing windows, a general "make-ready" pass — those are costs of owning a rental.

Cleaning that exists only because of how this particular tenant treated the unit is a different category. Think oven interiors with burned-on spills that take a specialist, a bathroom with mold from a tub that was never cleaned for a year, animal urine soaked into flooring, or bags of garbage left in a closet. That's damage-adjacent cleaning, and it's the kind of condition landlords point to when they itemize.

New York's statute, not a blog post and not your lease's "professional cleaning" clause, decides which charges are permitted and how they must be presented. If your lease has a flat cleaning fee baked in, don't assume it survives scrutiny — check the statute and our New York lease agreement resources before you rely on it.

A worked example: the $1,750 one-bedroom

Say you rent a one-bedroom in Buffalo for $1,750 a month. You collected a security deposit of $1,750 — one month's rent, which matches New York's cap of one month's rent (seasonal rentals and owner-occupied co-ops excepted). If you're ever unsure how much you can collect on a given unit, run it through the security deposit limit checker.

At move-in on April 1, you walked the unit with the tenant and took 40 timestamped photos: inside the oven, under the sink, the bathroom tile grout, each closet floor, the fridge shelves. Both of you signed a move-in condition form noting the unit was delivered clean with a new range.

The tenant gives notice and hands you the keys on June 3. Your 14-day clock to return the deposit with an itemized statement runs to June 17.

June 3: the move-out walk

You walk the unit the same afternoon and photograph the same 40 angles. What you find:

• Floors need sweeping and mopping; baseboards are dusty.
• The oven interior has burned-on spills about a quarter-inch thick across the bottom and up the door glass.
• Two trash bags and a broken drying rack left in the bedroom closet.
• Bathroom grout is stained but intact; the toilet needs a normal scrub.
• Refrigerator has spoiled food and an odor; shelves are sticky.

You sort the list into two columns. Floors, baseboards, grout stains, and the toilet go in the turnover column — a tenant who lived there 14 months would leave that behind no matter how tidy. The oven, the abandoned trash and rack, and the spoiled-food fridge go in the beyond normal use column, because your April 1 photos show a clean oven and an empty, odor-free fridge, and nobody's belongings belong in the unit after move-out.

June 5: the invoice

You hire a cleaning service rather than doing it yourself, because a third-party invoice is far easier to defend than your own estimate. The invoice breaks out line items:

Line item	Amount	Your call
General clean (floors, bath, dusting)	$180	Turnover — you absorb it
Oven deep clean	$95	Deduct
Refrigerator sanitize / odor removal	$60	Deduct
Haul-away: 2 trash bags + drying rack	$75	Deduct
Invoice total	$410	$230 deducted

You asked the cleaner to itemize on the invoice precisely so you could split it. A single line reading "turnover clean — $410" would have forced you into an all-or-nothing argument.

June 10: the itemized statement

You prepare the statement: deposit held $1,750, deductions $230 (three lines, each with the dollar figure and a one-sentence description), balance returned $1,520. You attach the cleaner's invoice and a short photo set — the April 1 oven next to the June 3 oven, the April 1 fridge next to the June 3 fridge, and the closet with the trash. You mail the statement and the $1,520 together on June 10, well inside the June 17 deadline. Keeping your move-in and move-out condition records in one place — Rentmark's inspection checklists let you attach photos to each room — makes this a 20-minute job instead of a weekend of hunting through your phone.

The tenant emails to object to the oven charge. You reply with the April 1 photo, the June 3 photo, and the itemized invoice line. That's usually where it ends; our notes on resolving security deposit disputes without court walk through what to do if it doesn't.

If one fact changes

You never did a move-in inspection

Strip the April 1 photos out of the scenario and your position collapses. You can show the oven was filthy on June 3; you cannot show it wasn't filthy on April 1. The tenant's answer — "it came that way" — is now as credible as your version. In practice, that means you'd likely return the full $1,750 rather than defend a $230 charge you can't tie to a before-and-after. A documented walkthrough at both ends is the single thing that makes a cleaning deduction stick, which is why move-in and move-out inspections are worth doing even on a unit you've owned for years.

You miss the 14-day deadline

Say you got busy and mailed the statement and check on June 25 instead of June 17. Under New York's rule, the deposit must be returned within 14 days after the tenant vacates with an itemized statement, and missing it forfeits the right to keep any part. The $230 you were entitled to in the first version of this story is gone — the oven photos don't matter anymore. Read § 7-108 for the exact mechanics, including how the clock is measured in your situation.

Your lease charges a flat cleaning fee

If your lease says "$300 professional cleaning fee deducted at move-out regardless of condition," don't treat it as self-executing. A lease term doesn't override the statute, and a charge unconnected to actual condition is the weakest kind of deduction to defend. The safer structure is a lease that requires the unit be returned in the condition received, less normal wear and tear, plus an actual invoice at move-out — the approach covered in our guide to writing a rock-solid lease.

The four things to have in your file

1. Move-in photos, dated, covering oven, fridge, bath, floors, closets.
2. Move-out photos from the same angles, taken the day you get keys back.
3. A third-party invoice with separate line items, so routine cleaning and condition-driven cleaning aren't blended.
4. An itemized statement delivered with the balance inside the 14-day window, naming each deduction and its amount.

This is general information, not legal advice — for how § 7-108 applies to your unit and your lease, talk to a New York attorney.