As to the question of the co-owner’s responsibility for statutory compliance, as previously detailed, the obligation is to hold the security deposit as a trustee. As a general principle, “a trustee in New York is held as much accountable for damage to the trust by reason of negligent inaction as for affirmative wrongdoing” (Matter of Goldstick, 177 AD2d 225, 238 [1st Dept 1992], mod on rearg 183 AD2d 684 [1st Dept 1992]).
*971In this case, the property was leased jointly by the two named defendants, with both names appearing on the lease as lessors.3 No argument is raised to defeat the observation that each co-owner bears the obligations of a cotrustee in relation to a security deposit. A cotrustee
“may delegate the exercise of a trust power to a fellow trustee, especially where the latter has an expertise in some particular aspect of the trust management; but that does not give a trustee the right to abdicate [the] duty to be personally ‘active in the administration of the trust’ ” (id.; Bogert, Trusts § 92, at 331 [6th ed]; see 90A CJS, Trusts § 380 [Form or manner of deposit] [a trustee “may not deposit (funds) in his or her own name as an individual, or in any name other than that of the trust or in his or her name as trustee, or commingle the trust account with his or her own in the bank or depositary. If he or she does, it constitutes a conversion of the fund for which he or she is liable”]).