Look up your own state before you set a number on the next lease. There is no national deposit cap, the caps that exist are written differently from each other, and a deposit over the limit is usually recoverable by the tenant no matter how reasonable it seemed.
The table below carries thirteen states, each read from the current statute rather than from a summary. If yours is not here, the method further down gets you the answer in about five minutes.
Read your state’s deposit cap correctly
Caps come in four shapes, and mixing them up is where landlords get caught.
A flat multiple of rent is the common one: one month, one and a half, two. A term-dependent cap changes with the length of the tenancy, so a month-to-month arrangement and a one-year lease have different ceilings in the same state. A tenant-dependent cap turns on a characteristic of the tenant, most often age. And a landlord-dependent cap turns on who owns the property, which is how California carves out an allowance for small owners.
Then there are states with no statutory cap at all. That is not the same as no rules. Washington sets no ceiling but bars a landlord from collecting any deposit without a written condition checklist at the start of the tenancy, and a landlord who skips it owes the tenant the full deposit plus costs and fees.
Thirteen states, from the statute
| State | Cap | Statute |
|---|---|---|
| Arizona | One and a half months’ rent | A.R.S. § 33-1321(A) |
| California | One month’s rent. Two months for a landlord who is a natural person, or an LLC whose members are all natural persons, owning no more than two residential rental properties totaling no more than four units, unless the tenant is a service member | Civ. Code § 1950.5(c) |
| Connecticut | Two months’ rent. One month if the tenant is 62 or older | Conn. Gen. Stat. § 47a-21(b) |
| Delaware | One month’s rent where the agreement runs a year or more, and for month-to-month tenancies once they pass a year, with the excess credited back | 25 Del. C. § 5514(a) |
| Florida | No cap in the deposit statute | Fla. Stat. § 83.49 |
| Iowa | Two months’ rent | Iowa Code § 562A.12(1) |
| Kansas | One month unfurnished, one and a half months furnished | K.S.A. 58-2550(a) |
| Maine | Two months’ rent | 14 M.R.S. § 6032 |
| Massachusetts | Equal to the first month’s rent | M.G.L. c. 186 § 15B(1)(b) |
| New Hampshire | One month’s rent or $100, whichever is greater | RSA 540-A:6 I(a) |
| North Carolina | Two weeks’ rent week to week, one and a half months month to month, two months for longer terms | N.C.G.S. § 42-51(b) |
| Virginia | Two months’ rent | Va. Code § 55.1-1226(A) |
| Washington | No cap, but no deposit at all without a written move-in checklist | RCW 59.18.260 |
Every row above was read from the state’s own legislative site in September 2026. Statutes change, so re-check before you rely on one.
California’s rule changed recently enough that a lot of published summaries are still wrong about it. The current text caps the deposit at one month’s rent without distinguishing furnished from unfurnished, and the small-owner allowance is narrow: two properties, four units, natural persons only, and it does not apply when the prospective tenant is a service member. Full detail sits on the California security deposit rules page.
Check what counts toward the cap
A cap of one month’s rent is not a cap on the line item labeled “security deposit.” It is a cap on refundable money collected up front, whatever the lease calls it.
Statutes tend to say this with a phrase like “security, however denominated.” Arizona’s reads that way. California’s does too. The practical effect is that a pet deposit, a key deposit, a cleaning deposit, and a “damage deposit” all stack into the same ceiling.
In many states, two things can sit outside the cap. Both depend on the state, so read the statute before you count on either one:
- Genuinely non-refundable fees, where the lease says non-refundable in plain terms and the amount is defensible. A fee the tenant could reasonably expect back is a deposit wearing a different name. California does not allow this at all: any payment, fee, or charge imposed at the start of the tenancy is security, and a lease may not call any security nonrefundable (Cal. Civ. Code § 1950.5(b), (n)).
- Last month’s rent, which some states treat as prepaid rent rather than security. Others count it toward the cap. California’s cap excludes only first month’s rent, so last month’s rent counts (§ 1950.5(b), (c)(1)), and Arizona’s names prepaid rent inside its cap (A.R.S. § 33-1321(A)). Some states, Massachusetts among them, regulate it separately.
If you are weighing a pet charge against the cap, pet deposit versus pet rent walks through which structure survives a cap and which one eats it.
Find the statute for a state that is not in the table
Five minutes, no subscription, no summary site.
- Search for the state name plus “landlord tenant act” and open the result on a
.govdomain. Every state publishes its own code. Skip the aggregators. - Find the security deposit section. It is usually titled “Security deposits” and sits in the landlord-tenant chapter.
- Read the subsection that starts with a phrase like “shall not demand or receive.” That is the cap, if there is one.
- Read the next two subsections. Caps often carry exceptions for furnished units, short terms, senior tenants, or small owners.
- Note the date on the page. Many state sites show the year of the last amendment.
When there is no such subsection, the state most likely has no cap, and your ceiling is what the market will bear plus whatever a local ordinance says. Cities do regulate this in some places, which is why the statute is the floor of your research and not the end of it.
Set a deposit amount you can defend
Being under the cap is the legal question. Whether the number is right is a business question, and they are not the same.
The Census Bureau put the median asking rent for vacant units at $1,531 in the second quarter of 2026. On a unit at that rent, a one-month deposit is roughly $1,500 held for the life of the tenancy: real protection against a bad exit, and also real money a good applicant has to produce alongside first month’s rent before they have keys.
A few rules of thumb that hold up:
- Charge the same amount to every applicant for the same unit, using written criteria. Varying it person to person is where fair housing exposure starts.
- Where the state allows more for a pet, price the risk rather than the animal.
- Do not use a large deposit to compensate for thin screening. A deposit you cannot return is a lawsuit; an applicant you should not have approved is a vacancy.
- Write the amount and the conditions for withholding into the lease. Several states, Washington among them, require the written terms before the money is collectible.
Run the number through the security deposit calculator before you publish the listing, and keep the held amount, the interest if your state requires it, and the return deadline on one record with deposit tracking.
This is general information, not legal advice. Rules change and local ordinances vary. Confirm current requirements with your city, county, or an attorney before you act.