Landlord Sent Damages Notice to Tenant More Than 14 Days After Move-Out

Tenant rented a house from landlord for a two-month period during July-August 2020, and gave landlord a $20,000 security deposit. At tenant's request, landlord allowed tenant to vacate early, on July 24, 2020. Twenty days later, landlord sent tenant an itemized statement of claimed damages to the house and withheld $4,560 from the security deposit refund. In response, tenant sued landlord, claiming that landlord's failure to notify him of the claimed damages within 14 days after he moved out barred landlord from withholding any portion of the security deposit. The Suffolk County Supreme Court granted landlord's request for summary judgment dismissing tenant's claim.

Tenant appealed and won. In 2019, General Obligations Law Section 7-108(1-a)(e) was added and required that, in order to use security deposit funds to pay the cost of repairing damages caused by a tenant, a landlord must, within 14 days after the tenant has vacated, give the tenant an itemized statement indicating the basis for the amount of the deposit retained and return any remaining portion. Otherwise, landlord forfeits any right to retain any portion of the deposit. In this case, since landlord's notice was sent more than 14 days after tenant moved out, landlord can't withhold the portion of the security deposit retained.

Cohen v. Abrusso: Index No. 611931/20, Case No. 2022-05370, 2024 NY Slip Op 03163 (App. Div. 2 Dept.; 6/12/24; Connolly, JP, Wooten, Ford, Ventura, JJ)