All verified rules
The cap is the most a landlord may collect as a deposit, in months of rent; the deadline is the time the statute gives to return the deposit or send the itemized deductions, counted from the event in the last column of each state page. Business days are drawn at seven fifths of their count so they line up with calendar days.
| State | Cap | Deadline | Statute |
|---|---|---|---|
| Alabama | 1 month's rent (more allowed for pets, alterations or increased liability risk) | 60 days | Ala. Code § 35-9A-201(a), (b) |
| Alaska | 2 months' rent, plus a pet deposit of up to 1 month; no cap where the rent is over $2,000 a month | 14 days | AS 34.03.070(a), (g), (h) |
| Arizona | 1.5 months' rent | 14 business days | A.R.S. § 33-1321(A), (D) |
| Arkansas | 2 months' rent (landlords who rent six or more dwellings) | 60 days | Ark. Code Ann. §§ 18-16-304, 18-16-305 |
| California | 1 month's rent for most rentals | 21 days | Cal. Civ. Code § 1950.5 |
| Connecticut | 2 months' rent (1 month for a tenant 62 or older) | 21 days | Conn. Gen. Stat. § 47a-21(b), (d)(2) |
| Delaware | 1 month's rent on leases of 1 year or more | 20 days | 25 Del. C. § 5514(a)(2), (e) |
| Florida | No statutory cap | 15 days | Fla. Stat. § 83.49(3)(a) |
| Hawaii | 1 month's rent, plus a pet deposit of up to 1 month | 14 days | Haw. Rev. Stat. § 521-44(b), (c) |
| Idaho | No statutory cap | 21 days | Idaho Code § 6-321 |
| Illinois | No statutory cap | 45 days | 765 ILCS 710/1 |
| Indiana | No statutory cap | 45 days | Ind. Code § 32-31-3-12(a) |
| Iowa | 2 months' rent | 30 days | Iowa Code § 562A.12(1), (3)(a) |
| Kansas | 1 month's rent unfurnished; 1.5 months furnished; plus up to 0.5 month for pets | 30 days | K.S.A. 58-2550 |
| Maine | 2 months' rent | 30 days | 14 M.R.S. §§ 6032, 6033 [2] |
| Maryland | 1 month's rent | 45 days | Md. Code, Real Prop. § 8-203(b)(1), (e)(1) |
| Massachusetts | 1 month's rent (first month's rent) | 30 days | M.G.L. c. 186, § 15B(1)(b)(iii), (4) |
| Michigan | 1.5 months' rent | 30 days | MCL 554.602, 554.609 [2] |
| Minnesota | No statutory cap | 21 days | Minn. Stat. § 504B.178, subd. 3 |
| Missouri | 2 months' rent | 30 days | RSMo § 535.300 |
| Montana | No statutory cap | 30 days | Mont. Code Ann. § 70-25-202 |
| Nebraska | 1 month's rent, plus a pet deposit of up to 1/4 month | 14 days | Neb. Rev. Stat. § 76-1416 |
| Nevada | 3 months' rent | 30 days | NRS 118A.242(1), (4) |
| New Hampshire | 1 month's rent or $100, whichever is greater | 30 days | RSA 540-A:6, I(a); RSA 540-A:7, I [2] |
| New Jersey | 1.5 months' rent | 30 days | N.J.S.A. 46:8-21.2; 46:8-21.1 |
| New Mexico | 1 month's rent on rental agreements shorter than one year; a larger deposit on an annual agreement earns interest | 30 days | N.M. Stat. Ann. § 47-8-18(A), (C) |
| New York | 1 month's rent | 14 days | N.Y. Gen. Oblig. Law § 7-108(1-a)(a), (e) |
| North Carolina | 2 months' rent for terms longer than month-to-month; 1.5 months month-to-month; 2 weeks week-to-week | 30 days | N.C.G.S. §§ 42-51(b), 42-52 [2] |
| North Dakota | 1 month's rent (2 months in limited cases); pet deposit up to the greater of $2,500 or 2 months' rent | 30 days | N.D.C.C. § 47-16-07.1 |
| Ohio | No statutory cap | 30 days | Ohio Rev. Code § 5321.16 |
| Oklahoma | No statutory cap | 45 days | 41 O.S. § 115(B) |
| Oregon | No statutory cap | 31 days | ORS 90.300(12), (13) |
| Pennsylvania | 2 months' rent in the first year of the lease; 1 month from the second year on | 30 days | 68 P.S. §§ 250.511a, 250.512 (Landlord and Tenant Act of 1951, §§ 511.1, 512) |
| Rhode Island | 1 month's rent | 20 days | R.I. Gen. Laws § 34-18-19 |
| South Carolina | No statutory cap | 30 days | S.C. Code § 27-40-410(a) |
| South Dakota | 1 month's rent | 21 days | SDCL §§ 43-32-6.1, 43-32-24 [2] |
| Texas | No cap stated | 30 days | Tex. Prop. Code §§ 92.101–92.109 |
| Utah | No statutory cap | 30 days | Utah Code § 57-17-3(2) |
| Vermont | No statutory cap | 14 days | 9 V.S.A. § 4461(c) |
| Virginia | 2 months' rent | 45 days | Va. Code § 55.1-1226 |
| Washington | No statutory cap | 30 days | RCW 59.18.260, 59.18.280 [2] |
| West Virginia | No statutory cap | 60 days | W. Va. Code §§ 37-6A-1(7), 37-6A-2 [2] |
| Wisconsin | No statutory cap | 21 days | Wis. Stat. § 704.28(4) |
| Wyoming | No statutory cap | 30 days | Wyo. Stat. § 1-21-1208(a) |
| Colorado | not verified | Colorado's statutes are published only through the LexisNexis host linked by the General Assembly, which returned an error page on 21 Oct 2026; no Colorado agency page giving both figures was found. | |
| District of Columbia | not verified | D.C. Code § 42-3502.17 (read 21 Oct 2026) sets a 45-day notice of claimed amounts but leaves the cap and return rules to 14 DCMR 308-309, whose text DCRegs serves only as a file download that was not opened. | |
| Georgia | not verified | The Georgia Code is published through the LexisNexis host linked by the General Assembly; on 21 Oct 2026 it required a CAPTCHA to open a section, so O.C.G.A. § 44-7-34 could not be read. | |
| Kentucky | not verified | KRS 383.580 (read 21 Oct 2026 on the Legislature's site) sets no cap and no day-count deadline for returning the deposit; it lets the landlord keep an unclaimed refund 60 days after notifying the tenant, which does not fit a return-deadline figure. | |
| Louisiana | not verified | La. R.S. 9:3251 (read 21 Oct 2026) sets no cap and requires return "within one month after the lease shall terminate", a calendar-month period this site's day-count tool cannot show exactly, so no deadline is stated. | |
| Mississippi | not verified | The Mississippi Code is published through the LexisNexis host, which required a CAPTCHA on 21 Oct 2026; Miss. Code § 89-8-21 could not be read, and no Attorney General page states the figures. | |
| Tennessee | not verified | The Tennessee Code is published through the LexisNexis host, which required a CAPTCHA on 21 Oct 2026, so Tenn. Code § 66-28-301 could not be read. | |
Reading the table
Alaska has the shortest clock at 14 days, while West Virginia allows up to 60 days. Several states attach the deadline to more than one event: Rhode Island counts from the latest of three, and West Virginia uses whichever of two periods ends first. The state pages work through a dated example for each so the difference is concrete.
7 jurisdictions are marked not verified because their official statute pages could not be read when the data was checked; this site shows no figure for them rather than one taken from a secondary source. An unreturned deposit is usually claimed in small claims court, so each state page also links the small claims limit for the same state.