StateCalcUSA

Security Deposit Interest Calculator

This tool is for information only. It is not legal, tax, or financial advice. Verify current law with the official sources cited before acting.

The short answer

Only a few states require landlords to pay interest on a security deposit, and only six jurisdictions have a fixed or indexed 2026 number that can be computed from the statute alone: Connecticut (0.49% for 2026), Maryland (3.47% for 2026), Minnesota (1% simple), Ohio (5% on the excess over one month's rent), Massachusetts (a 5% ceiling, not a guaranteed rate), and Illinois (a near-zero passbook rate for buildings with 25 or more units). Every other interest state ties the amount to the actual bank or account rate, so this calculator asks you to enter that rate instead of inventing one.

Calculate the interest owed

Enter the facts of the tenancy. The calculator applies the statutory thresholds for the state you pick, uses simple interest only, and tells you when a figure cannot be computed from the statute alone.

Required for Ohio and New Mexico, where the rule compares the deposit to one month's rent.

Required for Illinois (25 or more units) and New York (6 or more units). It also affects the New Jersey account-type rule.

Needed in New Jersey, New York, New Hampshire, North Dakota, Pennsylvania, the District of Columbia, and New Mexico, and for the Massachusetts actual-rate comparison. Find it on the landlord's statement or from the bank where the deposit is held.

The formula: simple interest only

Interest = deposit × annual rate × years held. Minnesota and Maryland require simple interest expressly, and this calculator never uses a compound formula. A compound formula would overstate what those statutes allow. The rate and the years are adjusted first for each state's thresholds: minimum holding periods, minimum deposit amounts, unit counts, and, in Ohio, the excess-only base. Where a rate is an annual index (Connecticut, Maryland, Illinois), the holding is split by calendar year and each year's published index applies only to that year. A prior year's rate is never carried forward silently.

Why some states cannot be computed from the statute alone

In New Jersey, New York, New Hampshire, North Dakota, Pennsylvania, the District of Columbia, and New Mexico, the statute defines the interest by what the account actually earned: the actual earnings, the bank savings rate, the passbook rate, or the statement savings rate. No statute publishes that number, so no honest calculator can supply it. Websites that show a fixed percentage for these states are inventing precision. This calculator asks for the actual rate and then applies the statutory rules around it, including New York's 1% landlord administrative retention and Pennsylvania's 1% administrative fee. Two figures seen on other sites are wrong and are never used here: there is no fixed New York rate and no fixed New Jersey rate in the statutes, and Minnesota has no 3% rule in the official statute text.

Return deadlines

Each result also shows the deposit return deadline for the state you picked, with a verification label. Nine deadlines were read in official statute text: Massachusetts (30 days), Minnesota (21 days), Maryland (45 days), Ohio (30 days), Utah (30 days), Connecticut (21 days or 15 days after a written forwarding address, whichever is later), South Dakota (21 days), Louisiana (one month), and North Dakota (30 days). Kentucky's statute was also read in official text and states no fixed return deadline, so no day count is printed for Kentucky. Most other deadlines come from secondary tables and are labeled as such. Tennessee's deadline remains unverified at the official-source standard: the section as reproduced states no fixed day count, so no day count is printed for Tennessee either. If a deadline has passed, the security deposit demand letter generator can draft a statute-cited letter.

Categories, not a single count

Published counts of interest states range from 10 to 17 plus the District of Columbia, because each count uses a different definition. Some counts include Virginia, whose rule was repealed in 2015; some count mobile-home-only or conditional rules as statewide requirements. This site uses the categories from the research instead of a bare headline number. The full table, with rates, thresholds, and verification labels for every state, is on the security deposit interest by state page.

CategoryWhat it meansJurisdictions
(A) Statewide, nearly unconditionalInterest is owed without further facts, apart from the Massachusetts one-year gate.Connecticut, Maryland, Minnesota, Massachusetts (1-year gate)
(B) Statewide, conditional or thresholdInterest depends on unit count, holding period, deposit size, or the actual account rate.Illinois, New Jersey, New York, New Hampshire, North Dakota, Pennsylvania, District of Columbia, New Mexico, Ohio
(C) Mobile-home park onlyStandard residential tenancies owe no interest.Arizona, Maine
(D) Depends on holding methodInterest depends on how the landlord held the money.Florida, Iowa
(E) Local ordinance onlyNo statewide rule; some cities require interest.California cities, Chicago
(F) No statewide requirementNo interest rule found in the secondary tables for standard residential tenancies.All remaining states, including Virginia (repealed 2015)

Frequently asked questions

Which states require landlords to pay interest on security deposits?

There is no single reliable count, because every published count uses a different definition. The honest answer uses categories: a few states require interest statewide with almost no conditions (Connecticut, Maryland, and Minnesota, plus Massachusetts once the one-year gate is met); several more require it only when thresholds are met, such as a minimum number of units, a minimum holding period, or a deposit above a set amount; Arizona and Maine require it only for mobile-home parks; Florida and Iowa make it depend on how the landlord held the money; and some cities, such as San Francisco, Los Angeles, and Berkeley, require it under local ordinances even though the state does not. The full category table is on the security deposit interest by state page.

How is security deposit interest calculated?

With simple interest only: deposit amount times the annual rate times the years held. Minnesota and Maryland require simple interest expressly, and this calculator never compounds. The rate, the thresholds, and the accrual rules differ by state: Maryland counts only full months and requires at least six months and a deposit of at least $50, Ohio charges 5% only on the part of the deposit above the greater of $50 or one month's rent, and Connecticut's rate is an annual index that must be applied one calendar year at a time.

Why does the calculator ask for my bank rate in some states?

Because in those states the statute ties the interest to what the account actually earned, and no statute publishes that number. New Jersey, New York, New Hampshire, North Dakota, Pennsylvania, the District of Columbia, and New Mexico all define the interest by the actual account, bank, passbook, or savings rate. Any website showing a fixed percentage for those states is inventing it. This calculator asks you to enter the actual account rate from the landlord's statement or the bank, and then applies the statutory thresholds and any allowed administrative retention.

Does my landlord owe interest if I lived there less than a year?

It depends on the state. Massachusetts, New Hampshire, and the District of Columbia require at least a year before any interest is owed; Pennsylvania requires at least two years; North Dakota requires at least nine months of occupancy; Maryland, Ohio, and Illinois require more than six months; and Minnesota has no minimum holding period in the statute. If the holding period falls short of the threshold, the interest owed under that state's rule is $0, even if the rate itself is high.

What happens if my landlord misses the return deadline?

The consequence depends on the state, and the penalty and its base differ from state to state: some states multiply the wrongfully withheld portion, some multiply the whole deposit, and some have no multiplier at all. There is no single national rule. The security deposit demand letter generator states the verified remedy only for states where the statute was checked, and it states the trigger condition the statute requires, such as bad faith or a missed deadline.

Does Virginia require interest on security deposits?

No. Virginia's old interest rule was repealed, and beginning in January 2015 there is no interest to be paid on security deposits in Virginia. Stale charts that still list Virginia are wrong. The current statute, Virginia Code section 55.1-1226, has no interest requirement.

What is the Connecticut return deadline for a security deposit?

Not later than 21 days after termination of the tenancy or 15 days after the landlord receives written notification of the tenant's forwarding address, whichever is later, the landlord must deliver the full deposit plus accrued interest or the balance plus a written statement itemizing the damages deducted (Connecticut General Statutes section 47a-21(d)(2), read from the official Connecticut General Assembly text on November 12, 2026). Public Act 23-207 reduced the period from 30 days to 21 days. An account claiming 15 business days is wrong: the statute says 21 days, with no business-day qualifier. The Connecticut 2026 interest rate of 0.49% is verified separately from the Department of Banking.

Related tools

Sources

Every figure on this page comes from one of the sources below. "Official" means the statute or agency text was read; "quotation" means the statute text was read as quoted in a court opinion or statute-reproduction site; "secondary" means a summary table. All accessed November 12, 2026.

Rates and rules verified November 12, 2026 from official sources. Connecticut, Kentucky, South Dakota, Louisiana, and North Dakota deposit rules were re-checked against official statute text on November 12, 2026; Tennessee's section could not be retrieved from an official publisher and remains unverified at that standard. Indexed rates (Connecticut, Maryland, Illinois) are re-published each year; this page shows the 2026 figures only.