Massachusetts: Security Deposit Return Deadlines & Deductions
The short answer
A Massachusetts landlord has 30 days after your tenancy ends and you hand back possession to return your deposit, together with a sworn, itemized list of any deductions and receipts if withholding for damage. The deposit is capped at one month's rent. A landlord can only deduct unpaid rent, a lease-authorized real estate tax increase, and actual damage you caused beyond reasonable wear and tear — nothing else, and never for damage that was already noted on your move-in Statement of Condition unless it was later repaired and then damaged again. The deposit must sit in a separate, interest-bearing Massachusetts bank account, and once held a year or more it earns you 5% annual interest (or the bank's own lower rate). Massachusetts enforces this strictly: several specific violations — no separate account, no transfer to a new owner, or missing the 30-day return deadline — forfeit the landlord's entire right to keep any of the deposit AND trigger treble damages plus interest, court costs, and attorney's fees.
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This is the general rule in Massachusetts. Ezel applies current Massachusetts law to your specific facts and answers with citations to the statutes.
| Governing law | M.G.L. c. 186, § 15B |
|---|---|
| Deadline to return the deposit | 30 days after the termination of a tenancy-at-will, or after the end of the tenancy specified in a valid written lease (in practice, once the tenant has also delivered possession) |
| Itemized statement required? | Yes, if any deduction is taken. Within the 30 days, the landlord must give the tenant an itemized list of damages, sworn to under pains and penalties of perjury, describing the nature of the damage and needed repairs in precise detail, plus written evidence (estimates, bills, invoices, or receipts) of the actual or estimated cost. Separately, at the START of the tenancy, the landlord must give a signed Statement of Condition within 10 days of receiving the deposit or the start of the tenancy (whichever is later); the tenant then has 15 days to sign it or attach a list of disagreements. |
| What can be deducted | Only three categories, and the statute says no others are allowed: (1) unpaid rent or water charges not validly withheld; (2) an unpaid real estate tax increase the tenant is obligated to pay under a conforming tax-escalation clause; and (3) a reasonable amount to repair damage the tenant (or someone under the tenant's control, or on the premises with the tenant's consent) caused, reasonable wear and tear excluded. No deduction is allowed for damage that was already listed on the move-in Statement of Condition, unless the landlord later repaired that exact damage and can prove any new damage is unrelated. A landlord can still sue separately (beyond the deposit) for willful or malicious property destruction that costs more to fix than the whole deposit. |
| Maximum deposit amount | One month's rent. (A 2025 amendment, effective August 1, 2025, also lets the state's executive office of housing and livable communities create an optional fee-in-lieu-of-deposit program, capped at the same one month's rent total, but that program isn't usable until implementing regulations are issued.) |
| Interest on the deposit? | Yes, but only once the deposit has been held for a year or longer: 5% per year (or the bank's own lower passbook rate, if lower), running from day one of the tenancy, paid to the tenant at the end of each year held (or within 30 days of an earlier termination). This interest is separate from — but calculated the same way as — interest MA also requires on any last month's rent collected in advance. |
| Penalty for a late/bad-faith withholding | A landlord forfeits the right to retain ANY portion of the deposit, or to counterclaim for damage, if the landlord: (a) doesn't hold the deposit in the required separate account; (b) doesn't furnish the sworn itemized list within 30 days when a deduction is taken; (c) uses a lease provision that conflicts with this law or tries to make the tenant waive it; (d) doesn't properly transfer the deposit to a new owner; or (e) doesn't return the deposit or balance owed within 30 days of termination. For violations (a), (d), or (e) specifically, the tenant is also awarded damages equal to three times the amount wrongfully withheld, plus 5% interest from the date payment became due, plus court costs and reasonable attorney's fees. |
| Separate account or bond required? | Yes. The deposit must sit in a separate, interest-bearing account at a Massachusetts bank, structured to be beyond the reach of the landlord's own creditors (including a bankruptcy trustee or foreclosing mortgagee) and to transfer automatically to a new owner. The landlord must give the tenant a receipt within 30 days naming the bank, its location, and the account number. Skipping the separate-account requirement entitles the tenant to the deposit's immediate return. |
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Requirements one by one
Governing law
Massachusetts's security deposit rules live in one long, detailed statute, M.G.L. c. 186, § 15B, covering the deposit cap, the move-in Statement of Condition, the separate-account and interest requirements, the return deadline and permitted deductions, what happens if the property is sold, and the noncompliance penalties, all in a single section of the landlord-tenant chapter.
Deadline to return the deposit
"The lessor shall, within thirty days after the termination of occupancy under a tenancy-at-will or the end of the tenancy as specified in a valid written lease agreement, return to the tenant the security deposit or any balance thereof." (§ 15B(4)).
Itemized statement required?
Only if a deduction is being made — but when it is, the bar is high: "the lessor shall provide to the tenant within such thirty days an itemized list of damages, sworn to by the lessor or his agent under pains and penalties of perjury, itemizing in precise detail the nature of the damage and of the repairs necessary to correct such damage, and written evidence, such as estimates, bills, invoices or receipts, indicating the actual or estimated cost thereof." (§ 15B(4)). Separately, at the START of the tenancy, the landlord must give a signed Statement of Condition "upon receipt of such security deposit, or within ten days after commencement of the tenancy, whichever is later" (§ 15B(2)(c)), and the tenant then has 15 days to sign it or attach a list of disagreements.
What can be deducted
The statute lists exactly three categories and closes the door on anything else: "(i) any unpaid rent or water charges which have not been validly withheld or deducted... (ii) any unpaid increase in real estate taxes which the tenant is obligated to pay pursuant to a tax escalation clause... and (iii) a reasonable amount necessary to repair any damage caused to the dwelling unit by the tenant or any person under the tenant's control or on the premises with the tenant's consent, reasonable wear and tear excluded." (§ 15B(4)). The statute is explicit that this list is exhaustive: "No deduction may be made from the security deposit for any purpose other than those set forth in this section." It also blocks double-dipping on pre-existing damage: nothing can be deducted for damage already listed on the move-in Statement of Condition, unless the landlord fixed that exact damage and can prove any later damage is unrelated to it.
Maximum deposit amount
One month's rent: § 15B(1)(b)(iii) allows "a security deposit equal to the first month's rent," on top of separate caps for first and last month's rent and a key/lock charge collected at move-in. A 2025 amendment (effective August 1, 2025) also added an optional "fee in lieu of a security deposit" program the state's executive office of housing and livable communities may set up by regulation, capped at the same one month's rent total — but as of this writing, no such regulations exist yet, so the ordinary one-month-deposit rule is what applies in practice.
Interest on the deposit?
Yes, once the deposit has been held a year or longer: "A lessor of residential real property who holds a security deposit pursuant to this section for a period of one year or longer from the commencement of the term of the tenancy shall, beginning with the first day of the tenancy, pay interest at the rate of five per cent per year, or other such lesser amount of interest as has been received from the bank where the deposit has been held." (§ 15B(3)(b)). That interest is paid annually, or in full within 30 days if the tenancy ends before the deposit's one-year anniversary.
Penalty for a late/bad-faith withholding
Five specific failures each independently forfeit the landlord's whole right to keep any of the deposit: not using the required separate account, not furnishing the sworn itemized list within 30 days, using a lease clause that conflicts with this law, not transferring the deposit to a new owner, or not returning the deposit within 30 days (§ 15B(6)(a)-(e)). Three of those five failures — the separate-account violation, the transfer violation, and the missed-30-day-return violation — carry an additional, harsher remedy: "the tenant shall be awarded damages in an amount equal to three times the amount of such security deposit or balance thereof to which the tenant is entitled plus interest at the rate of five per cent from the date when such payment became due, together with court costs and reasonable attorney's fees." (§ 15B(7)).
Separate account or bond required?
Yes. "Any security deposit received by such lessor shall be held in a separate, interest-bearing account in a bank, located within the commonwealth under such terms as will place such deposit beyond the claim of creditors of the lessor." (§ 15B(3)(a)). The landlord must send the tenant a receipt within 30 days naming the bank, its location, and the account number; skipping the separate account altogether "shall entitle the tenant to immediate return of the security deposit" — a remedy that kicks in right away, not just at the end of the tenancy.
What trips people up
A landlord who skips the move-in Statement of Condition can lose the right to deduct for damage at all, and can't deduct twice for the same pre-existing damage either way. The statute blocks any deduction for damage that was already on that opening statement, unless the landlord actually repaired it and can prove new damage is unrelated — so a Statement of Condition that's missing, sloppy, or never updated after a repair can quietly wipe out a landlord's ability to charge for real damage later.
Not every violation carries the same penalty. All five listed failures forfeit the landlord's right to keep any of the deposit, but the statute's own text limits the specific treble-damages-plus-interest-plus-fees remedy to three of them (no separate account, no transfer to a new owner, missing the 30-day return deadline) — a missing or defective itemized list, or an unlawful lease clause, is treated differently under the statute's own wording.
Interest only starts accruing once the landlord has held the deposit for a full year. A shorter tenancy may never trigger any interest obligation at all under § 15B(3)(b), even though the deposit still has to sit in a separate, interest-bearing account from day one.
Common questions
Does my Massachusetts landlord owe me interest on my deposit? Only if the deposit was held for a year or longer — then yes, at 5% per year or the bank's own lower rate, paid annually or within 30 days of an earlier move-out.
Is there a cap on my Massachusetts security deposit? Yes — one month's rent, on top of whatever the landlord separately collects for first month's rent, last month's rent, and a key/lock charge.
My landlord deducted for a scratch that was already on my move-in Statement of Condition — can they do that? Not unless they already repaired that exact scratch and can show the damage they're now charging you for is a new, unrelated problem — the statute specifically blocks deducting twice for the same pre-existing condition.
Statutes and sources
- M.G.L. c. 186, § 15B(1)(b)(iii) — the one-month deposit cap and the 2025 fee-in-lieu amendment.
https://malegislature.gov/Laws/GeneralLaws/PartII/TitleI/Chapter186/Section15b (accessed 2026-07-06) - M.G.L. c. 186, § 15B(3)(a)-(b) — the separate-account, receipt, and interest requirements.
https://malegislature.gov/Laws/GeneralLaws/PartII/TitleI/Chapter186/Section15b (accessed 2026-07-06) - M.G.L. c. 186, § 15B(4) — the 30-day return deadline and the three permitted deduction categories.
https://malegislature.gov/Laws/GeneralLaws/PartII/TitleI/Chapter186/Section15b (accessed 2026-07-06) - M.G.L. c. 186, § 15B(6)-(7) — the forfeiture triggers and the treble-damages remedy.
https://malegislature.gov/Laws/GeneralLaws/PartII/TitleI/Chapter186/Section15b (accessed 2026-07-06) - M.G.L. c. 186, § 15B(2)(c) — the move-in Statement of Condition requirement.
https://malegislature.gov/Laws/GeneralLaws/PartII/TitleI/Chapter186/Section15b (accessed 2026-07-06)
Source links
Every statute quoted above, linked, with the date we checked it.
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