Your landlord is holding your money. What are the rules?

Two questions, both answered from the statute and cited on the page. Pick the one you came for.

Choose your question and your state

What do you want to know?

Your deposit and dates are entered on the next page and never leave your browser.

What is security deposit interest?

Your landlord is holding your money, sometimes for years. In some states the law treats that money as still yours and requires them to hand over the interest it earned, on top of the deposit itself.

There is no national rule, and among the 14 jurisdictions that do require it, almost none work the same way. A few set a rate in the statute. Most tie it to whatever the landlord's bank account actually paid, which means no published number exists for anyone to look up. Several apply only above a building size, a deposit size, or a minimum length of tenancy.

Where a figure cannot be worked out honestly, these pages say so and tell you what to ask your landlord for, rather than inventing a number you might put in an email.

Which states require deposit interest?

These 14 require it under at least some conditions. Read the conditions — several apply only to large buildings or long tenancies.

All 50 states and DC

A verified "no interest required" is worth as much as a yes. Those pages carry the return deadline, what the deposit may be deducted for, and what happens if your landlord misses it.