How to ask your landlord for security deposit interest

If your state requires interest on security deposits, your landlord owes it whether or not you ask. In practice, though, small landlords often do not know the rule exists, and larger ones do not volunteer money nobody has requested. The request is on you.

The good news is that this is not a fight. In most cases it is one email that quotes a statute, states a number, and asks for payment. The rest of this page is how to make that email hard to ignore.

Before you write: get three things

A request that contains all three of these tends to get paid. A request missing any of them tends to get a shrug.

1. The statute, by name

Every state page on this site shows the exact statute that creates the obligation, with a link to the official text. Quote it by its section number in your email. This single detail changes how the request reads: it moves you from someone who thinks they are owed something to someone who has looked it up.

2. A number, and how you got it

Do not write "please pay me the interest." Write the figure and show the working. The calculator on your state's page produces a period-by-period breakdown for exactly this reason. Paste it in, or attach a screenshot.

If your state ties the rate to the account the deposit sat in rather than setting one in the statute — which is the case in most states that require interest at all — then no published number exists and you cannot compute the figure yourself. That is not a dead end. Skip tothe version of the email for that situation.

3. Your dates and your deposit amount

Move-in date, move-out date, and the deposit as paid. If you still have the lease or the receipt, say so. Landlords who dispute the figure usually dispute the dates first.

The email

Short is better. This is a request for a routine payment, not an argument. Replace everything in square brackets.

Subject: Interest on security deposit — [address]

Hi [name],

I rented [address] from [move-in date] to [move-out date] and paid a security deposit of [$amount].

Under [statute name and section], landlords in [state] are required to pay interest on security deposits [add the condition that applies, e.g. "held for more than six months" or "in buildings of ten or more units"].

By my calculation the interest owed is [$figure], worked out at [rate] over [number] months. I have attached the breakdown. If your figure differs, please send me your calculation and I will check it against mine.

Could you confirm when this will be paid? Happy to take it by the same method as the deposit return.

Thanks,
[your name]
[phone]

Three things that email does deliberately. It cites the rule rather than asserting it. It invites the landlord to produce a competing number instead of demanding agreement, which is much easier to say yes to. And it asks a closed question — when will this be paid — that is awkward to leave unanswered.

If your state does not publish a rate

Several states say the tenant gets the interest the account actually earned, without naming a percentage. Only your landlord knows what that account paid, so the first email asks for the rate rather than the money.

Under [statute name and section], the deposit had to be held in an interest-bearing account and the interest earned belongs to me. Could you confirm which institution held the deposit and the rate that account paid for each year of the tenancy? Once I have that I can work out the amount and we can settle it.

Landlords in these states are generally required to be able to answer that question. An inability or refusal to answer is itself informative, and in some states it changes what a court will assume about the rate.

Timing

Send it with, or straight after, the deposit return request rather than as a separate follow-up months later. Interest is normally paid alongside the deposit, and a landlord who has already closed the file is a harder audience than one who has not yet sent the cheque.

Every state page here shows that state's deadline for returning the deposit. If that deadline has passed, say so in the email — the interest and the late return are usually governed by the same section, and the consequences for missing the deadline are often more serious than the interest itself.

If you get nothing back

Send one follow-up after two weeks, quoting the original email and its date. Keep both. A documented request that went unanswered is the thing that makes the next step straightforward, and it costs you nothing to create.

What that next step looks like is covered inwhat to do if your landlord will not return your deposit.

Two things not to do

• Do not send a number you have not checked. A figure that turns out to be wrong hands the landlord a reason to dismiss the whole request, and you will not get a second first impression.
• Do not threaten a penalty you have not read. Several states do impose serious consequences for withholding deposits, and those are described on each state page. Quoting one incorrectly is worse than not mentioning it.

Start with your state to get the statute, the rule and the figure you need for the email.