When must a landlord pay or credit deposit interest in North Dakota?

Interest is paid at the end of the tenancy, together with the deposit itself (§ 47-16-07.1(1)). Where the landlord keeps part of the deposit, the application must be itemized, and the itemization, the amount due and a written notice must be delivered or mailed to the tenant's last furnished address within thirty days after the lease terminates and the tenant delivers possession (§ 47-16-07.1(3)).

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

Section 47-16-07.1(4) makes a landlord "liable for treble damages for any security deposit money withheld without reasonable justification." That remedy plainly reaches withheld deposit money.

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

Verified August 28, 2026 All North Dakota topics →

North Dakota owes a tenant interest on a security deposit once the tenancy has run nine months or longer, and the money must sit in a federally insured interest-bearing savings or checking account held for the tenant's benefit.

Cited to N.D.C.C. § 47-16-07.1 (security deposits; interest-bearing account; nine-month exemption; treble damages) subsections 1, 3, 4, 6 and 1 more cited source · Verified August 28, 2026

There is no statutory rate. What the account actually earns is what the tenant is owed, and it is paid with the deposit when the lease ends: the statute requires that "the security deposit and any interest accruing on the deposit must be paid to the lessee upon termination of a lease." Shorter tenancies carry no interest at all — a landlord "is not required to pay interest on security deposits if the period of occupancy was less than nine months in duration." A rate figure circulates widely for North Dakota, usually stated as the Federal Reserve discount rate as of January 1, and it is not in the law: § 47-16-07.1 contains no rate of any kind. Anything withheld from the deposit must be itemized in writing within thirty days after the lease ends and the tenant hands back possession, and deposit money withheld without reasonable justification carries treble damages.

North Dakota deposit interest at a glance

Interest owed to the tenant	Conditional — owed only in certain circumstances
How the rate is set	Whatever the account actually earns
Current figure	No published figure exists
Rate rules	No North Dakota statute sets a rate. What the tenant is owed is what the account earns: § 47-16-07.1(1) requires the landlord to put the money in "a federally insured interest-bearing savings or checking account for the benefit of the tenant," and then provides that "the security deposit and any interest accruing on the deposit must be paid to the lessee upon termination of a lease." The figure comes from the institution the landlord chose, so it varies from landlord to landlord and from year to year. There is no percentage, no floor, no formula, no index, and no administrative allowance the landlord may keep before paying the tenant.
Accrual and payment	Interest is paid at the end of the tenancy, together with the deposit itself (§ 47-16-07.1(1)). Where the landlord keeps part of the deposit, the application must be itemized, and the itemization, the amount due and a written notice must be delivered or mailed to the tenant's last furnished address within thirty days after the lease terminates and the tenant delivers possession (§ 47-16-07.1(3)). Money the tenant does not claim within one year of the lease's termination becomes subject to the state's unclaimed-property reporting rules under § 47-30.2-04.
Who and what is covered	One condition, and it turns on how long the tenant lived there: "A lessor is not required to pay interest on security deposits if the period of occupancy was less than nine months in duration" (§ 47-16-07.1(3)). Nine months of occupancy or more, and the interest is owed; less, and it is not. The rule is written as an exemption from a general duty rather than as a trigger for one, and there is no deposit-size or unit-count threshold anywhere in the section. Subsection 6 applies the section to the state and its political subdivisions when they are the landlord.
Statute controls where or how the deposit is held	Yes
Interest-bearing account required	Yes
Custody rules	The deposit must go into "a federally insured interest-bearing savings or checking account for the benefit of the tenant" (§ 47-16-07.1(1)). Three things are packed into that one phrase: the institution must be federally insured, the account must bear interest, and the money is held for the tenant rather than as the landlord's own. The section does not use the word "separate," states no rule against mixing the deposit with other funds, and requires no notice to the tenant of where the account is.
Penalty for violation	Section 47-16-07.1(4) makes a landlord "liable for treble damages for any security deposit money withheld without reasonable justification." That remedy plainly reaches withheld deposit money. Whether accrued interest counts as "security deposit money" for the same purpose is not answered anywhere in the section, and no position is stated here in either direction.
Local rules	None noted for this state

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

Calculate North Dakota security deposit interest — free, no signup, built on the same verified North Dakota law as this page.

Notes and caveats

The "Federal discount rate as of January 1" figure is an invention — Rate charts and landlord-facing pages state that North Dakota pays deposit interest at the Federal Reserve discount rate as of January 1. No such rate appears in § 47-16-07.1, and no other section of chapter 47-16 supplies one. The statutory mechanism is the account itself — a federally insured interest-bearing account for the tenant's benefit, with "any interest accruing on the deposit" paid at termination. A landlord who applied a discount-rate figure would be paying a number the legislature never wrote, and a tenant told to expect one is being told the wrong law.
Nine months of occupancy, not nine months of holding the money — The condition keys to "the period of occupancy," not to how long the landlord held the deposit, and it is phrased as an exemption from the duty rather than as a trigger. It is also the entire condition: North Dakota attaches no deposit-size threshold, no unit-count threshold, and no landlord election to the interest rule.
Treble damages attach to withheld deposit money — Subsection 4 makes a landlord liable for treble damages for "any security deposit money withheld without reasonable justification." Whether that phrase carries accrued interest along with the principal is not resolved by the text of the section, so this page states it neither way. What is settled is that the treble remedy reaches deposit money withheld without reasonable justification.
A cross-reference that points at the wrong subsection — Subsection 1 says the deposit and its interest are paid at termination "subject to the conditions of subsection 2" — but subsection 2 is the pet-deposit rule. The conditions the sentence is reaching for, the thirty-day itemization and the nine-month interest exemption, sit in subsection 3. The mismatch reads as leftover renumbering from the insertion of the pet-deposit subsection. It changes nothing substantive; the section is read by its substance.

Common questions: North Dakota 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 North Dakota security deposit interest rate right now?: No published figure exists. No North Dakota statute sets a rate. What the tenant is owed is what the account earns: § 47-16-07.1(1) requires the landlord to put the money in "a federally insured interest-bearing savings or checking account for the benefit of the tenant," and then provides that "the security deposit and any interest accruing on the deposit must be paid to the lessee upon termination of a lease."
When must a landlord pay or credit deposit interest in North Dakota?: Interest is paid at the end of the tenancy, together with the deposit itself (§ 47-16-07.1(1)). Where the landlord keeps part of the deposit, the application must be itemized, and the itemization, the amount due and a written notice must be delivered or mailed to the tenant's last furnished address within thirty days after the lease terminates and the tenant delivers possession (§ 47-16-07.1(3)).
Does the deposit have to be in an interest-bearing account in North Dakota?: Yes — for the tenancies the law covers, North Dakota law requires the deposit to sit in an interest-bearing account or names the investment vehicle; the coverage conditions are on this page. The deposit must go into "a federally insured interest-bearing savings or checking account for the benefit of the tenant" (§ 47-16-07.1(1)). Three things are packed into that one phrase: the institution must be federally insured, the account must bear interest, and the money is held for the tenant rather than as the landlord's own.
What happens if a landlord does not pay deposit interest in North Dakota?: Section 47-16-07.1(4) makes a landlord "liable for treble damages for any security deposit money withheld without reasonable justification." That remedy plainly reaches withheld deposit money.
Do any cities or counties in North Dakota have their own deposit-interest rules?: None noted for this state.

Citations

N.D.C.C. § 47-16-07.1 (security deposits; interest-bearing account; nine-month exemption; treble damages) · subsections 1, 3, 4, 6 (verified 2026) Official source
N.D.C.C. ch. 47-16 (Leasing of Real Property) — the chapter that contains the deposit rules and no rate provision (verified 2026) Official source

How this record was verified: Direct read of North Dakota Century Code chapter 47-16 (Leasing of Real Property) in the Legislative Branch's published chapter text, with § 47-16-07.1 read in full — all six subsections — and the section examined for any rate, index or schedule of any kind: the account and payment sentences of subsection 1, the pet-deposit rule of subsection 2, the itemization window and the nine-month clause of subsection 3, the treble-damages sentence of subsection 4, and the public-landlord clause of subsection 6, each read as printed.