Does the deposit have to be in an interest-bearing account in Mississippi?

No statute addresses whether the account must bear interest. Mississippi says one thing about holding the money and it is not an account rule. § 89-8-21(2) provides that a deposit "shall be held by the landlord for the tenant who is a party to such agreement," and that "[t]he claim of a tenant to such payment or deposit shall be prior to the claim of any creditor of the landlord." Those two sentences fix whose money it is and where the tenant ranks against the landlord's creditors if the landlord fails.

What happens if a landlord does not pay deposit interest in Mississippi?

No statutory penalty reaches an interest violation specifically.

Does a landlord have to pay interest on a security deposit in Mississippi?

Verified August 28, 2026 All Mississippi topics →

Mississippi requires no interest on a residential security deposit.

Cited to Miss. Code Ann. § 89-8-21 (Security deposit), in the Attorney General's published text of the Residential Landlord and Tenant Act, §§ 89-8-1 to 89-8-29 (1)-(4) · Verified August 28, 2026

The state does have a deposit statute — Miss. Code Ann. § 89-8-21 — and it speaks to holding the money, claiming against it and returning it, yet it never mentions interest, an account, an escrow or a trust. The words "account," "escrow" and "bearing" do not appear anywhere in chapter 89-8. The one holding rule says the deposit "shall be held by the landlord for the tenant," and pairs that with a creditor-priority rule putting the tenant's claim ahead of the landlord's creditors; that is a statement about whose money it is, not a requirement to keep it in any particular place. On the money itself the section is a closed scheme: the landlord may claim only amounts reasonably necessary for unpaid rent, tenant-caused damage beyond ordinary wear and tear, cleaning at the end of the tenancy, or other reasonable and necessary expenses caused by the tenant's default, must itemize them in a written notice, and must return the remainder no later than forty-five days after termination, possession and the tenant's demand. Bad-faith retention exposes the landlord to damages of up to two hundred dollars on top of actual damages.

Mississippi deposit interest at a glance

Interest owed to the tenant	No — no statute addresses it
How the rate is set	No rate exists — there is no interest duty
Current figure	No published figure exists
Rate rules	No rate rules — no duty exists
Accrual and payment	No payment duty exists
Who and what is covered	No statutory conditions stated — see the summary and notes
Statute controls where or how the deposit is held	No statute addresses how the deposit is held
Interest-bearing account required	No statute addresses whether the account must bear interest
Custody rules	Mississippi says one thing about holding the money and it is not an account rule. § 89-8-21(2) provides that a deposit "shall be held by the landlord for the tenant who is a party to such agreement," and that "[t]he claim of a tenant to such payment or deposit shall be prior to the claim of any creditor of the landlord." Those two sentences fix whose money it is and where the tenant ranks against the landlord's creditors if the landlord fails. They do not name an account, an escrow, a trust or an institution, they do not require the deposit to be kept apart from the landlord's own funds, and nothing in chapter 89-8 forbids mixing it with them.
Penalty for violation	No statutory penalty reaches an interest violation specifically
Local rules	None noted for this state

Cite this page: "Landlord Atlas, Mississippi Security Deposit Interest Laws (verified August 28, 2026), landlordatlas.com/laws/deposit-interest/mississippi/" — free to cite and quote with a link (how these records are verified). Everything above is cited in the citations section below.

Check the verified Mississippi answer — and every state and city that differs — in the deposit interest calculator — free, no signup, built on the same verified Mississippi law as this page.

Notes and caveats

"Held by the landlord for the tenant" is not a trust account — This is the phrase most likely to be over-read in Mississippi. § 89-8-21(2) makes the landlord the holder of money that belongs to the tenant and puts the tenant ahead of the landlord's creditors — an ownership and priority rule that matters most in an insolvency. It creates no account, requires no escrow, and does not stop a landlord from depositing the money into a general operating account. Mississippi is a weaker silence than a state whose deposit statute says nothing about holding at all, and the difference is worth keeping straight: there is something here to read, and what it says is not an interest or account duty.
The only 'interest' words in the chapter are about ownership — Chapter 89-8 uses the word twice outside the deposit section — for an occupant "who succeeds to his interest" in the exclusions at § 89-8-3, and for "two (2) or more persons having a joint or common interest" in the "Organization" definition at § 89-8-7, which also supplies the chapter's only two uses of 'trust' as entity types. The single 'accrued' in the chapter attaches to late fees, not to earnings.
The 2018-vintage text is still the current text — The published reproduction relied on here carries the chapter as amended through the 2018 session. Three later enacted measures touch chapter 89-8 — SB 2461 of 2022 (which also created the eviction sections §§ 89-8-31 through 89-8-45), SB 2328 of 2025 and HB 1200 of 2025 — and none of the three amends § 89-8-21. The deposit section has not changed since 2018.

Common questions: Mississippi deposit interest

Each answer is the verified value from the table above, restated as a direct answer. Free to quote with a link to this page.

What is the Mississippi security deposit interest rate right now?: No published figure exists.
When must a landlord pay or credit deposit interest in Mississippi?: No payment duty exists.
Does the deposit have to be in an interest-bearing account in Mississippi?: No statute addresses whether the account must bear interest. Mississippi says one thing about holding the money and it is not an account rule. § 89-8-21(2) provides that a deposit "shall be held by the landlord for the tenant who is a party to such agreement," and that "[t]he claim of a tenant to such payment or deposit shall be prior to the claim of any creditor of the landlord." Those two sentences fix whose money it is and where the tenant ranks against the landlord's creditors if the landlord fails.
What happens if a landlord does not pay deposit interest in Mississippi?: No statutory penalty reaches an interest violation specifically.
Do any cities or counties in Mississippi have their own deposit-interest rules?: None noted for this state.

Citations

Miss. Code Ann. § 89-8-21 (Security deposit), in the Attorney General's published text of the Residential Landlord and Tenant Act, §§ 89-8-1 to 89-8-29 · (1)-(4) (verified 2026) Official source

How this record was verified: Complete read of the Mississippi Residential Landlord and Tenant Act, Miss. Code Ann. §§ 89-8-1 through 89-8-29, in the Attorney General's published reproduction of the statutory text (the route already carried for this state), with § 89-8-21 read in full, all four subsections; every occurrence of 'interest', 'escrow', 'trust', 'bearing', 'accrue' and 'account' in the chapter examined in context, the chapter returning nothing for the last three; and the reproduction's 2018 currency limit closed against three enrolled acts on the Legislature's own server — SB 2461 (2022), SB 2328 (2025) and HB 1200 (2025) — each parsed for the sections it amends, none of which is § 89-8-21, with HB 442 (2026) read as introduced.