What is the Pennsylvania security deposit interest rate right now?

No published figure exists. Pennsylvania sets no rate. The tenant's share is whatever the escrow account actually earns, less the landlord's allowance. § 511.2(b) entitles the landlord "to receive as administrative expenses, a sum equivalent to one per cent per annum upon the security money so deposited, which shall be in lieu of all other administrative and custodial expenses."

When must a landlord pay or credit deposit interest in Pennsylvania?

Nothing is owed for the first two years. § 511.2(c) provides that "[t]he provisions of this section shall apply only after the second anniversary of the deposit of escrow funds," and it is the whole of § 511.2 — the escrow duty, the written notice and the interest split — that switches on at that mark. The clock runs from the date the money was deposited, not from the start of the lease. § 511.1(c) reads the same way, speaking of "the third or subsequent year of a lease, or during any renewal after the expiration of two years of tenancy."

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

Yes — for the tenancies the law covers, Pennsylvania law requires the deposit to sit in an interest-bearing account or names the investment vehicle; the coverage conditions are on this page. Funds over $100 "shall be deposited in an escrow account of an institution regulated by the Federal Reserve Board, the Federal Home Loan Bank Board, Comptroller of the Currency, or the Pennsylvania Department of Banking" (§ 511.2(a)). Whenever funds go into any escrow account, the landlord must then notify each tenant in writing, "giving the name and address of the banking institution in which such deposits are held, and the amount of such deposits."

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

Pennsylvania's doubling remedy names unpaid interest three times over. A landlord who fails to pay the tenant the difference between the sum deposited, "including any unpaid interest thereon," and the actual damages within 30 days after termination or surrender and acceptance "shall be liable in assumpsit to double the amount" of that difference (§ 512(c)), and the burden of proving actual damages is on the landlord.

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

Verified August 29, 2026 All Pennsylvania topics →

Pennsylvania requires a landlord to pay interest on a security deposit over $100, but only once the money has been held for more than two years.

Cited to Landlord and Tenant Act of 1951 § 511.1 (Escrow Funds Limited) / 68 P.S. § 250.511a (c), (e), (f) and 3 more cited sources · Verified August 29, 2026

The duty switches on after the second anniversary of the deposit itself, not of the lease, and from then on the tenant is paid annually on the anniversary of the lease commencement. There is no statutory rate: the tenant receives what the escrow account actually earns, less an administrative allowance of 1% a year measured on the deposit — 1% of the money deposited, not of the interest — which is the only charge the landlord may take. Where the account pays 1% a year or less, that allowance consumes the whole return and the tenant is owed nothing. What Pennsylvania does add is a sharp remedy: a landlord who does not pay over the escrowed sum "including any unpaid interest thereon" within 30 days of the end of the tenancy is liable for double it.

Pennsylvania deposit interest at a glance

Interest owed to the tenant	Yes — required by statute
How the rate is set	Whatever the account actually earns
Current figure	No published figure exists
Rate rules	Pennsylvania sets no rate. The tenant's share is whatever the escrow account actually earns, less the landlord's allowance. § 511.2(b) entitles the landlord "to receive as administrative expenses, a sum equivalent to one per cent per annum upon the security money so deposited, which shall be in lieu of all other administrative and custodial expenses." Two things follow. The 1% is measured on the security money deposited — the deposit itself, not the interest it earned — and it is the only charge the landlord may take; no other fee may be netted out. What the tenant gets is "[t]he balance of the interest paid." The blunt consequence: where the account pays 1% a year or less, the allowance consumes everything the money earned and the tenant's share is zero. No dollar figure can be worked out from the statute alone — it takes the rate the account actually pays.
Accrual and payment	Nothing is owed for the first two years. § 511.2(c) provides that "[t]he provisions of this section shall apply only after the second anniversary of the deposit of escrow funds," and it is the whole of § 511.2 — the escrow duty, the written notice and the interest split — that switches on at that mark. The clock runs from the date the money was deposited, not from the start of the lease. § 511.1(c) reads the same way, speaking of "the third or subsequent year of a lease, or during any renewal after the expiration of two years of tenancy." From then on the tenant's balance "will be paid to said tenant annually upon the anniversary date of the commencement of his lease" (§ 511.2(b)). At the end of the tenancy, within 30 days of termination or of surrender and acceptance, the landlord must deliver a written list of any damages claimed together with payment of the difference between the escrowed sum, "including any unpaid interest thereon," and the actual damages (§ 512(a)).
Who and what is covered	Residential leaseholds only — § 511.1(e), and § 512(f) ("shall apply only to residential leaseholds and not to commercial leaseholds"). The escrow duty in § 511.2(a) reaches "all funds over one hundred dollars ($100)" deposited under a lease newly executed or reexecuted after the act's effective date, so a deposit of exactly $100 or less falls outside it — and outside the interest duty with it, because § 511.2(b) operates on money required to be deposited. Nothing applies at all until after the second anniversary of the deposit (§ 511.2(c)). Any attempted waiver by the tenant, by contract or otherwise, is void and unenforceable (§ 511.1(f); § 512(d)).
Statute controls where or how the deposit is held	Yes
Interest-bearing account required	Yes
Custody rules	Funds over $100 "shall be deposited in an escrow account of an institution regulated by the Federal Reserve Board, the Federal Home Loan Bank Board, Comptroller of the Currency, or the Pennsylvania Department of Banking" (§ 511.2(a)). Whenever funds go into any escrow account, the landlord must then notify each tenant in writing, "giving the name and address of the banking institution in which such deposits are held, and the amount of such deposits." A landlord may skip escrowing altogether by posting a good and sufficient guarantee bond from a bonding company authorized to do business in Pennsylvania, guaranteeing that the escrow funds, less the cost of necessary repairs, "including interest thereon," come back to the tenant (§ 511.3 / 68 P.S. § 250.511c). The bond route removes the account, not the interest.
Penalty for violation	Pennsylvania's doubling remedy names unpaid interest three times over. A landlord who fails to pay the tenant the difference between the sum deposited, "including any unpaid interest thereon," and the actual damages within 30 days after termination or surrender and acceptance "shall be liable in assumpsit to double the amount" of that difference (§ 512(c)), and the burden of proving actual damages is on the landlord. A landlord who fails to provide the written list of damages within 30 days "shall forfeit all rights to withhold any portion of sums held in escrow, including any unpaid interest thereon," and loses the right to sue the tenant for damage to the premises (§ 512(b)). One trap runs the other way: a tenant's failure to give the landlord a new address in writing on termination or on surrender and acceptance "shall relieve the landlord from any liability under this section" (§ 512(e)) — which reaches the whole of § 512, not just the doubling.
Local rules	None noted for this state

Cite this page: "Landlord Atlas, Pennsylvania Security Deposit Interest Laws (verified August 29, 2026), landlordatlas.com/laws/deposit-interest/pennsylvania/" — free to cite and quote with a link (how these records are verified). Everything above is cited in the citations section below.

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Notes and caveats

The two-year clock runs from the deposit, not the lease — § 511.2(c) applies the section "only after the second anniversary of the deposit of escrow funds." So the trigger is the date the money was handed over. Where a deposit was paid before the lease began — the common case — the two dates differ. The act does not address renewals in terms, but because the clock is tied to the deposit rather than the lease, a renewal or replacement lease that carries the same escrowed money forward does not restart it. The one court decision found construing the trigger reads it the same way: during the first two years the act regulates only how much may be collected, and the escrow-and-interest regime attaches at the second anniversary — Maha v. Ardolino (In re Ardolino), 298 B.R. 541, 547 (Bankr. W.D. Pa. 2003).
Two different anniversary dates, unreconciled — The duty switches on at the second anniversary of the deposit (§ 511.2(c)); the payment falls due "upon the anniversary date of the commencement of his lease" (§ 511.2(b)). Whenever the deposit predates the lease these are different days of the year, and the act says nothing about which governs the first payment.
One percent of the deposit, not of the interest — § 511.2(b) gives the landlord "a sum equivalent to one per cent per annum upon the security money so deposited." The base is the deposit principal, so on a $1,500 deposit the allowance is $15 a year whatever the account earned. It is also the landlord's only permitted charge — "in lieu of all other administrative and custodial expenses." A widespread misreading treats it as 1% of the interest, which understates it badly at low rates.
The tenant's share can be zero — Because the tenant gets "the balance of the interest paid" after the 1% allowance, an account paying 1% a year or less leaves nothing over. Pennsylvania is not a state where a deposit-interest figure can be quoted from the statute; the answer depends on the rate the escrow account actually pays.
A seam in the text, stated as it stands — § 511.2(a)'s notice sentence speaks of funds deposited "in any escrow account, interest-bearing or noninterest-bearing," which read on its own suggests a landlord could choose an account that earns nothing. Three other passages point the other way: § 511.1(c) says the escrow funds "together with interest shall be returned to the tenant"; § 511.2(b) speaks of money "required to be deposited in an interest-bearing escrow savings account"; and § 512 three times speaks of the escrowed sum "including any unpaid interest thereon," and doubles it. On the structure of the act the interest is an entitlement and the quoted phrase governs the scope of the notice duty; the competing reading is recorded here because the statute itself does not resolve it in a single sentence.
The $100 line means over $100 — § 511.2(a) reaches "all funds over one hundred dollars ($100)." A deposit of exactly $100 is not over it, so neither the escrow duty nor the interest duty attaches.
A bond instead of an escrow account still owes interest — § 511.3 lets a landlord post a guarantee bond in place of escrowing, guaranteeing return of the escrow funds less necessary repairs, "including interest thereon." A landlord on the bond route has no escrow account at all and still owes the tenant interest — which is one reason the interest reads as an entitlement rather than a by-product of the account.
Give the landlord a new address in writing — § 512(e) relieves the landlord "from any liability under this section" where the tenant does not give the landlord a new address in writing on termination or on surrender and acceptance. That is broader than the comparable rule in some states: it reaches the whole of § 512, including the payment duty and the doubling.

Common questions: Pennsylvania 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 Pennsylvania security deposit interest rate right now?: No published figure exists. Pennsylvania sets no rate. The tenant's share is whatever the escrow account actually earns, less the landlord's allowance. § 511.2(b) entitles the landlord "to receive as administrative expenses, a sum equivalent to one per cent per annum upon the security money so deposited, which shall be in lieu of all other administrative and custodial expenses."
When must a landlord pay or credit deposit interest in Pennsylvania?: Nothing is owed for the first two years. § 511.2(c) provides that "[t]he provisions of this section shall apply only after the second anniversary of the deposit of escrow funds," and it is the whole of § 511.2 — the escrow duty, the written notice and the interest split — that switches on at that mark. The clock runs from the date the money was deposited, not from the start of the lease. § 511.1(c) reads the same way, speaking of "the third or subsequent year of a lease, or during any renewal after the expiration of two years of tenancy."
Does the deposit have to be in an interest-bearing account in Pennsylvania?: Yes — for the tenancies the law covers, Pennsylvania law requires the deposit to sit in an interest-bearing account or names the investment vehicle; the coverage conditions are on this page. Funds over $100 "shall be deposited in an escrow account of an institution regulated by the Federal Reserve Board, the Federal Home Loan Bank Board, Comptroller of the Currency, or the Pennsylvania Department of Banking" (§ 511.2(a)). Whenever funds go into any escrow account, the landlord must then notify each tenant in writing, "giving the name and address of the banking institution in which such deposits are held, and the amount of such deposits."
What happens if a landlord does not pay deposit interest in Pennsylvania?: Pennsylvania's doubling remedy names unpaid interest three times over. A landlord who fails to pay the tenant the difference between the sum deposited, "including any unpaid interest thereon," and the actual damages within 30 days after termination or surrender and acceptance "shall be liable in assumpsit to double the amount" of that difference (§ 512(c)), and the burden of proving actual damages is on the landlord.
Do any cities or counties in Pennsylvania have their own deposit-interest rules?: None noted for this state.

Citations

Landlord and Tenant Act of 1951 § 511.1 (Escrow Funds Limited) / 68 P.S. § 250.511a · (c), (e), (f) (verified 2026) Official source
Landlord and Tenant Act of 1951 § 511.2 (Interest on Escrow Funds Held More Than Two Years) / 68 P.S. § 250.511b · (a), (b), (c) (verified 2026) Official source
Landlord and Tenant Act of 1951 § 511.3 (Bond in Lieu of Escrowing) / 68 P.S. § 250.511c (verified 2026) Official source
Landlord and Tenant Act of 1951 § 512 (Recovery of Improperly Held Escrow Funds) / 68 P.S. § 250.512 · (a), (b), (c), (e), (f) (verified 2026) Official source

How this record was verified: Direct read of the Landlord and Tenant Act of 1951 (Act of April 6, 1951, P.L. 69, No. 20), Article V, in the Pennsylvania General Assembly's published full text of the act: § 511.1 (Escrow Funds Limited), § 511.2 (Interest on Escrow Funds Held More Than Two Years), § 511.3 (Bond in Lieu of Escrowing) and § 512 (Recovery of Improperly Held Escrow Funds), each read in full and quoted verbatim, with the Purdon's Statutes numbering (68 P.S. §§ 250.511a, 250.511b, 250.511c and 250.512) recorded alongside the act-section numbering the official text uses. The act is unconsolidated, and the General Assembly's act landing page serves only a table of contents, so the full-act text URL is the one cited here. A case-law check (2026-08-29) found no Pennsylvania appellate decision construing § 511.2's two-year threshold; the one decision located that quotes § 511.2(c)'s trigger — Maha v. Ardolino (In re Ardolino), 298 B.R. 541, 547 (Bankr. W.D. Pa. 2003) — reads the section as applying only after the second anniversary of the deposit, i.e. as of the beginning of the third year, with the first two years governed only by the deposit-amount limit of § 511.1, which matches the reading stated here; the interest-entitlement seam described in the notes otherwise stands on the statutory text alone.