“agreement for the use or rental of real property as security . . . shall continue to be the money of the person making such deposit or advance and shall be held in trust by the person with whom such deposit or advance shall be made and shall not be mingled with the personal moneys or become an asset of the *966person receiving the same” (emphasis added).1
The statute’s directions are strictly construed (Fore Improvement Corp. v Selig, 278 F2d 143, 146 [2d Cir 1960] [the security deposit law “is emphatic in its language and is declarative of the public policy of New York State” and “such statutes frequently have to be literally construed to obtain the desired compliance”]).
The law’s restriction upon a landlord’s treatment of a rental security deposit is recognized as a firm and fixed feature of New York landlord-tenant relations (1 Dolan, Rasch’s Landlord and Tenant—Summary Proceedings § 13:27 [Deposit as trust fund], at 591 [4th ed] [“provision of the General Obligations Law requiring security deposits to be placed in a trust account is part of a lease contract as if it had been actually written into it”]). Where the landlord abides by the law, the deposit provides security to the landlord against a breach of the lease (Glass v Janbach Props., 73 AD2d 106, 108-109 [2d Dept 1980] [the security deposit law “should not serve to obscure the basic nature of a security deposit. A landlord requires such a deposit, although still the property of the tenant, to attain the status of a protected creditor should the tenant breach the lease” and to serve as “adequate protection should the finances of a tenant falter”]).