A year-round rental out east is an ordinary New York residential lease, and the state’s tenant rules apply to it. The short version: one month’s rent is the most anyone can hold as a deposit, an application check costs at most $20, and the landlord owes you notice before ending or sharply raising a lease. If you are still choosing a home, start with current year-round rentals on Hamptons Key, then use this page before you sign.
The rules below come from the Attorney General’s tenant guide and cover rentals that are not rent regulated. Rent-regulated housing follows a separate set of rules that the guide describes on its own. A short summer rental may be documented differently, so read the lease you are actually offered.
The deposit: one month, and no last month’s rent
A landlord can require a security deposit of no more than one month’s rent. The Attorney General states that this limit also means a landlord cannot ask for last month’s rent and a deposit together. If the rent goes up at renewal, the landlord may collect the difference to bring the deposit up to the new monthly rent.
The money is held in trust for you. A landlord may not mix it with personal funds. Interest is owed only in some cases: buildings with six or more apartments, or any landlord who chose to put the deposit in an interest-bearing account.
Fees you can and cannot be charged
Before you sign, the most a landlord can charge for a credit and background check is $20. The landlord has to hand you a copy of the report and the invoice from the company that ran it. You can also bring your own report if it was run in the last 30 days, and then no fee applies.
“Key money” is illegal. That is any extra payment, above the rent and the deposit, to be chosen for a vacant home. A licensed real estate broker’s fee is a separate matter.
Late fees and receipts
Rent is not late until it is more than five days overdue. The most a landlord can charge is $50 or 5% of the monthly rent, whichever is less. If you pay in cash, by money order or by cashier’s check, the landlord must give you a written receipt showing the date, amount and period covered.
Read the lease for what cannot be there
New York voids certain clauses even if you sign them. According to the Attorney General, a lease cannot:
- exempt the landlord from liability for injuries or property damage caused by the landlord’s negligence
- waive your right to a livable, safe and sanitary home (the warranty of habitability)
- bar you from living with immediate family and one additional occupant with that person’s dependent children
- excuse the landlord from trying to re-rent if you leave early
An oral lease for more than one year cannot be enforced, so get a year-round lease in writing, signed by both parties, with the dates, rent and due date written out.
Renewal and notice
A landlord does not have to renew a lease. If the landlord plans not to renew, or to raise the rent by more than 5%, the notice must be in writing:
| How long you have lived there | Notice required |
|---|---|
| Less than one year, or a lease shorter than one year | 30 days |
| More than one year but less than two | 60 days |
| Two years or more, or a two-year lease | 90 days |
If you stay past the end of a lease and the landlord keeps accepting rent, you become a month-to-month tenant. Outside New York City, a month-to-month tenant gives one month’s notice to leave.
Getting your deposit back
On a non-regulated rental, the landlord must return the deposit within 14 days of your move-out. Deductions for damage need an itemized receipt within that window, or the whole deposit goes back. You can ask the landlord to inspect before you leave and be present at the inspection. A landlord who deliberately breaks this rule can owe up to twice the deposit.
Photograph every room on move-in day and again on move-out. The Attorney General notes that photographs of the condition of the home can be offered as evidence.
Heat: what the state schedule covers
The state’s heating-season rule (heat from October 1 through May 31, with set minimum temperatures) is written for multiple dwellings. A single-family house or cottage is governed by its lease, which is why the lease should say who buys oil or propane and who monitors the tank. The utilities checklist for rentals covers that.
When something goes wrong
Talk to the landlord in writing first. If that fails, the Attorney General’s Bureau of Consumer Frauds and Protection takes rent-security complaints, and the Attorney General says its office can mediate deposit disputes. Retaliation is illegal: the law presumes a landlord is retaliating if the terms of your tenancy change substantially, or an eviction case begins, within a year of your good-faith complaint.
Rental permits are a separate check from the lease. Before you pay a deposit, confirm the home is legally permitted to be rented.
Questions people ask
Can an owner ask for first month, last month and a security deposit?
First month's rent at signing is ordinary. Last month's rent on top of a security deposit is not allowed: the Attorney General says the one-month limit means a landlord cannot ask for both.
How long does a landlord have to return my deposit?
For a rental that is not rent regulated, 14 days after you move out. If anything is deducted for damage, the landlord must give you an itemized receipt in that same window or return the full deposit.
Where do small claims go in the Hamptons?
The Attorney General lists a $3,000 small-claims ceiling for Eastern Suffolk County town and village courts, so larger disputes go to a higher civil court.
Sources
- New York Attorney General, Tenants
- New York Attorney General, Residential Tenants' Rights Guide
- New York Attorney General, Recovering Rent Security Deposits and Interest
Checked October 2026. Rules, fees and hours change; confirm with the office or operator before you act.