How much can a landlord charge for a security deposit in California?

1 month's rent — The limit is the same whether the unit is furnished or not, and it aggregates every security-functioning charge. A small-landlord exception allows up to two months.

How long does a landlord have to return a security deposit in California?

21 days. The clock runs in calendar days from the day the tenant vacates. The landlord must deliver an itemized statement of deductions together with any refund due.

What happens if a landlord does not return the deposit on time in California?

A landlord's bad-faith claim or retention of a deposit, or a successor owner's bad-faith demand for a replacement deposit, can lead a court to award statutory damages of up to twice the amount of the deposit, in addition to actual damages (Civ. Code § 1950.5(m)).

Do landlords have to pay interest on security deposits in California?

No — California does not require interest on the security deposit to be paid to the tenant. No California statute requires interest on a residential security deposit, but local law can. Some rent-control jurisdictions require interest by ordinance.

Can a landlord charge a non-refundable fee in California?

No — non-refundable fees are not allowed in California.

What are the security deposit rules in California?

Verified October 1, 2026 All California topics →

Check your municipality. California does not preempt local rent regulation — city or county ordinances may impose rent caps, notice periods, and fee limits that are stricter than the state law on this page. Verify your municipality's ordinances before relying on any figure below. Verified local pages: Berkeley, Beverly Hills, Culver City, Hayward, Inglewood, Los Angeles, Los Angeles County (unincorporated), Mountain View, Oakland, Oxnard, Pasadena, Pomona, Richmond, Sacramento, San Francisco, San Jose, Santa Ana, Santa Barbara, Santa Monica, West Hollywood.

What the state record says

California has a statewide rent cap. The Tenant Protection Act (AB 1482) limits annual increases on covered units to the lesser of 5% plus regional CPI or 10%, with at most two increases per 12 months. Many units are exempt, and stricter local rent-control ordinances control where they exist. The cap is codified at Civ. Code § 1947.12. It is measured against the lowest gross rent charged in the prior 12 months, and rent discounts, incentives, concessions or credits the owner offered and the tenant accepted are left out of that figure, so the cap is worked out from the undiscounted rent. The gross monthly rate and any owner-offered discounts, incentives, concessions or credits must be listed and identified separately in the lease or rental agreement, or in any amendment to an existing one. The cap remains in effect until January 1, 2030, when the section is repealed. Exempt: housing with a certificate of occupancy issued within the previous 15 years (a rolling window), unless it is a mobilehome; single-family homes, condos and other units that can be sold separately, where the owner is not a REIT, a corporation, an LLC with a corporate member or mobilehome park management, and the tenants have been given the statutory written exemption notice; a duplex where the owner lived in one unit at the start of the tenancy and still does, and neither unit is an accessory or junior accessory dwelling unit; deed-restricted or subsidized affordable housing; school and college dormitories; and housing under a local rent-control law that limits annual increases to less than the state cap.

California caps security deposits at one month's rent for deposits collected or demanded on or after July 1, 2024, whether the unit is furnished or not — with a narrow small-landlord exception allowing two months.

Cited to Cal. Civ. Code § 1950.5 (c), (f), (g), (h), (m) and 1 more cited source · Verified October 1, 2026

Landlords have 21 days after move-out to return the deposit with an itemized statement and repair receipts, leases may not label any deposit 'nonrefundable,' and bad-faith withholding can cost the landlord up to twice the deposit in statutory damages on top of the refund. Landlords must also photograph the unit at move-out, before and after any repair or cleaning they plan to charge against the deposit.

California security deposits at a glance

Maximum deposit	1 month's rent — The limit is the same whether the unit is furnished or not, and it aggregates every security-functioning charge. A small-landlord exception allows up to two months. AB 12 applies the cap to security collected or demanded on or after July 1, 2024; a deposit collected or demanded before that date is not subject to it. Small-landlord exception: up to two months if the landlord is a natural person (or all-natural-person LLC) owning no more than two residential rental properties that together include no more than four units offered for rent — the exception does not apply to service-member tenants. The charges that aggregate into the cap include pet deposits, prepaid last month's rent, and refundable fees. The cap does not bar an advance payment of at least six months' rent on a lease of six months or longer. A landlord who charges a service member more than its standard or advertised deposit because of credit or housing history must explain the higher amount in writing by the time the lease is signed, and must return the extra after no more than six months if the tenant is not behind on rent (Civ. Code § 1950.5(c)).
Return deadline	21 days
Deadline conditions	The clock runs in calendar days from the day the tenant vacates. The landlord must deliver an itemized statement of deductions together with any refund due. If a repair by the landlord or the landlord's employee cannot reasonably be completed within 21 days, or a contractor's or supplier's bill is not yet in hand, the landlord may deduct a good-faith estimate and send it with the itemized statement, then must send the final statement and the supporting documents within 14 days of completing the repair or receiving the documents. A landlord who received the deposit or rent electronically must return the balance electronically, to an account the tenant designates in writing or by another electronic method the tenant agrees to in writing, unless the landlord and tenant agreed in writing on another method of return. Otherwise the balance is returned by personal delivery or by a check mailed first-class (Civ. Code § 1950.5(h)(1), (3)).
Itemization required	Yes
Itemization rules	Itemized statement of deductions. Where repair or cleaning is deducted, the statement must come with copies of the bills, invoices or receipts (for work the landlord or an employee did, a description of the work with the time spent and the hourly rate) and the photographs the landlord took of the unit. Those documents may be left out when repair and cleaning deductions total $125 or less or the tenant signed a valid waiver, but the tenant can still ask for them within 14 days of receiving the statement. Tenant has a right to request an initial pre-move-out inspection with an itemized list of fixable issues, and the landlord must tell the tenant in writing of that option.
Separate account required	No
Interest owed to tenant	No
Account & interest rules	No California statute requires interest on a residential security deposit, but local law can. Some rent-control jurisdictions require interest by ordinance. Cities with such an ordinance include San Francisco, Los Angeles, and Berkeley.
Pet deposits	A pet deposit counts inside the general deposit cap and has no figure of its own. The pet-deposit rule, pet rent and fees, and the assistance-animal rules are on the pets and assistance animals page.
Non-refundable fees allowed	No
Penalty for violation	A landlord's bad-faith claim or retention of a deposit, or a successor owner's bad-faith demand for a replacement deposit, can lead a court to award statutory damages of up to twice the amount of the deposit, in addition to actual damages (Civ. Code § 1950.5(m)). The landlord bears the burden of proving that the deductions were reasonable.
Tenant forwarding-address duty	Not addressed by statute

Cite this page: "Landlord Atlas, California Security Deposit Laws (verified October 1, 2026), landlordatlas.com/laws/security-deposits/california/" — free to cite and quote with a link (how these records are verified). Everything above is cited in the citations section below.

Generate a California security-deposit return letter — free, no signup, built on the same verified California law as this page.

Editable California deposit kit — the deposit disposition letter, the move-in receipt with the custody and interest statements, a deposits-held register with the return deadline computed, and the rules fact sheet built on the verified California rules on this page, in Word, fillable PDF and Excel.

Notes and caveats

The one-month cap does not reach older deposits — A deposit the landlord collected or demanded before July 1, 2024 is not subject to the cap, so a larger deposit taken under an older lease does not have to be reduced. A deposit collected or demanded on or after that date must fit within the cap (Civ. Code § 1950.5(c)(6)).
Move-out photographs are required — A landlord must photograph the unit after the tenant hands it back and before any repair or cleaning they intend to charge against the deposit, and must photograph it again once that work is done. For a tenancy that began on or after July 1, 2025 the landlord must also have photographed the unit at the start (Civ. Code § 1950.5(g)).

Common questions: California security deposits

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

How much can a landlord charge for a security deposit in California?: 1 month's rent — The limit is the same whether the unit is furnished or not, and it aggregates every security-functioning charge. A small-landlord exception allows up to two months.
How long does a landlord have to return a security deposit in California?: 21 days. The clock runs in calendar days from the day the tenant vacates. The landlord must deliver an itemized statement of deductions together with any refund due.
What happens if a landlord does not return the deposit on time in California?: A landlord's bad-faith claim or retention of a deposit, or a successor owner's bad-faith demand for a replacement deposit, can lead a court to award statutory damages of up to twice the amount of the deposit, in addition to actual damages (Civ. Code § 1950.5(m)).
Do landlords have to pay interest on security deposits in California?: No — California does not require interest on the security deposit to be paid to the tenant. No California statute requires interest on a residential security deposit, but local law can. Some rent-control jurisdictions require interest by ordinance.
Can a landlord charge a non-refundable fee in California?: No — non-refundable fees are not allowed in California.

Citations

Cal. Civ. Code § 1950.5 · (c), (f), (g), (h), (m) (verified 2026) Official source
AB 12 (2023), Stats. 2023 (verified 2026) Official source

How this record was verified: Web verification against leginfo.legislature.ca.gov (Civ. Code 1950.5, 827; AB 12 bill text) with corroborating county/city government sources (SF.gov, LA County DCBA, San Mateo County) for AB 1482 and Civ. Code 1954 operation. October 1, 2026: every section the security deposit, rent increase, late fee, entry and eviction answers rest on was read again on leginfo.legislature.ca.gov, with its credit line: Civil Code sections 827, 1671, 1942.9, 1946.2, 1946.3, 1947.12, 1950.5, 1954 and 1954.50 to 1954.535 and Code of Civil Procedure sections 12, 12a, 715.010, 1013, 1161, 1162, 1167, 1169, 1170.5, 1174, 1176 and 1179, with rule 8.822 of the California Rules of Court on courts.ca.gov. The newest amendments to these sections are 2025 acts in force since January 1, 2026. All 1,040 chapters of the 2026 statutes were screened, and none amends, adds or repeals any of them.