Portland, Oregon: security deposit interest

City Code § 30.01.087(B)(1) gives the landlord two weeks from receiving the money — a security deposit or last month's rent — to put it into an account at a secure financial institution kept apart from the landlord's personal and business operating accounts. The account does not have to bear interest; that choice is the landlord's, and the rental agreement must state which kind of account it is. If it does bear interest, all of the interest accrues to the tenant's benefit and must be paid in full with the deposit refund, less an optional deduction of five percent of the interest for administrative costs. That deduction is five percent of the interest, never five percent of the deposit. Because the duty switches on the landlord's own account choice, a Portland tenant may be owed a real sum or nothing at all, and the lease is where the answer starts.

Portland deposit interest at a glance

The rate

There is no Portland rate to look up, and the city publishes none. What the tenant is owed is whatever the landlord's account actually earned, credited proportionately: "all interest will accrue proportionately to the benefit of the tenant." The landlord may take one deduction from it — "an optional five percent deduction for administrative costs from such interest" — and nothing more. Where the landlord has chosen an account that pays nothing, nothing is owed.

Accrual and payment

Interest is paid with the deposit rather than annually. Section 30.01.087(B)(1) requires the landlord to pay the interest in full, less the optional administrative deduction, to the tenant with the unused security deposit, unless it is used to cover claims for damage; subsection (B)(2) runs that accounting through the state's refund mechanics in ORS 90.300, which give the landlord thirty-one days after the tenancy ends. During the tenancy, where the account bears interest, the landlord must give the tenant a receipt of the account and any interest earned on request, no more than once per year.

Who and what is covered

The section covers rental agreements for dwelling units within Portland that fall under Oregon's Residential Landlord and Tenant Act, ORS chapter 90. It attaches on receipt of the money rather than after any holding period, and it applies to a deposit and to money paid for last month's rent alike, whatever the amount. Whether interest is owed at all turns on a single fact: whether the account the landlord chose bears interest. The rental agreement has to say which it is.

Custody of the deposit

Segregation is mandatory, and the clock is short. Within two weeks of receiving a tenant's funds paid as a security deposit or for last month's rent, the landlord must deposit all of them "into a secure financial institution account segregated from the landlord's personal and business operating accounts." The account need not be interest-bearing — that choice stays with the landlord — but the rental agreement "must reflect the name and address of the financial institution at which the security deposit is deposited and whether the security deposit is held in an interest-bearing account."

How this interacts with state law

Oregon's own deposit statute, ORS 90.300, requires no interest on a security deposit and prescribes no account, escrow or segregation of any kind, so both halves of the Portland rule are local additions: the segregated account, and the tenant's claim on whatever that account earns. The city leans on the state for the back end — the refund accounting and its thirty-one-day clock are the state's, and Portland routes the payment of interest through them.

Work out a figure: the deposit interest calculator covers Portland — no published rate table exists here, so it computes on the rate the account actually paid, per the local rule.

Notes and caveats

• Five percent of the interest, not of the deposit — The most consequential misreading of this section turns a small administrative allowance into a large deduction. The code allows "an optional five percent deduction for administrative costs from such interest" — the base is the interest earned, not the deposit. On a $1,500 deposit in an account paying a modest rate, the difference between five percent of the interest and five percent of the deposit is the difference between a few dollars and seventy-five. The deduction is also optional, so a landlord who does not take it owes the whole of the interest.
• Whether anything is owed depends on the account — Portland requires the account to be segregated but does not require it to earn anything, so two tenants in the same building can be owed different amounts, or nothing. The lease is where a tenant checks: the rental agreement must name the financial institution and state whether the deposit is held in an interest-bearing account. If it is, the tenant can ask for a receipt of the account and the interest earned, and the landlord must provide one — though no more than once in a year.
• Last month's rent is covered too — The two-week segregated-account duty reaches "a tenant's funds paid as a security deposit or for last-month's rent," so prepaid last month's rent gets the same treatment as the deposit, including the interest rule if the account bears interest. Rules elsewhere that cover only the deposit itself do not carry over here.
• No published Portland rate — Unlike cities that announce a figure each year, Portland sets no rate and publishes no schedule, because the amount owed is whatever the landlord's account actually earned. Working out a Portland figure means starting from the account, not from a table; there is no city number to look up for any year.
• Where the penalty comes from — This section states its own duties but does not carry its own damages measure for failing to pay the interest. It routes the payment through the state's deposit accounting in ORS 90.300, which is the statute that carries Oregon's remedies for a deposit that is not properly accounted for or returned.

Cite this page: "Landlord Atlas, Portland, Oregon: security deposit interest (verified August 29, 2026), landlordatlas.com/laws/deposit-interest/oregon/portland/" — free to cite and quote with a link (how these records are verified).

Citations

• Portland City Code § 30.01.087 (Security Deposits; Pre-paid Rent) · (B)(1) (verified 2026) Official source

How this record was verified: Portland City Code § 30.01.087 (Security Deposits; Pre-paid Rent) read in full on the city's official code site, including the on-page currency line — 'Added by Ordinance 189581; amended by Ordinances 189715, 190064, 190905, and 191973, effective January 1, 2025' — with the subsection (B) account, interest, receipt and disclosure sentences read word for word and the subsection (B)(2) reference to the state refund accounting traced to ORS 90.300.

This page records local law on deposit interest. The statewide position — Oregon requires no interest on a residential security deposit at the state level — but a Portland tenant may be owed it, because the city's own code says so when the deposit sits in an interest-bearing account. — lives on the Oregon deposit-interest page with its own citations and verification date.