Landlord Atlas

What are the security deposit rules in Indiana?

Verified July 10, 2026 All Indiana topics →

Indiana sets no cap on residential security deposits, but a landlord must deliver an itemized written accounting — with any refund — within 45 days after the tenancy ends and possession is returned, and owes nothing under the statute until the tenant supplies a forwarding address in writing.

Cited to IC 32-31-3-12 (a)-(d) and 5 more Indiana statutes · Verified July 10, 2026

The deposit may only be applied to unpaid rent, damage beyond ordinary wear and tear, rent owed for breaking the lease early, and unpaid utility or sewer charges the lease put on the tenant; the itemized list must state the estimated repair cost for each damaged item and come with a check or money order for the balance. The penalty structure is what makes the 45-day letter famous in Indiana practice: a landlord who misses it is deemed to have agreed that no damages are due, must immediately return the entire deposit, and is on the hook for the tenant's reasonable attorney's fees and court costs. There is no interest, escrow, or separate-account requirement, and no statutory limit on deposit size — the leverage is all in the return procedure.

Indiana security deposits at a glance

Maximum deposit No statutory cap
Return deadline 45 days
Deadline conditions

The clock starts when the tenancy ends and the tenant returns possession, not when the tenant gives a forwarding address. But the landlord owes nothing under the statute until the tenant supplies a mailing address in writing, so a tenant who never sends one cannot enforce the deadline.

The itemized written notice (with the amount due) must be delivered not more than 45 days after 'termination of the rental agreement and delivery of possession' (IC 32-31-3-12(a)); the parallel mailing duty in IC 32-31-3-14 runs 45 days from 'termination of occupancy'. The forwarding address is a liability precondition, not the clock trigger: 'The landlord is not liable under this chapter until the tenant supplies the landlord in writing with a mailing address to which to deliver the notice and amount' (12(a)).

Popular summaries collapse this into '45 days after the tenant provides a forwarding address' — a serviceable practical reading, but the statutory trigger is termination plus delivery of possession, with the duty suspended until the written address arrives.
Itemization required Yes
Itemization rules Two overlapping duties: (1) under IC 32-31-3-12(a), all deductions (accrued rent, damages the landlord has suffered or will reasonably suffer from the tenant's noncompliance, and unpaid utility/sewer charges the tenant owed under the lease) must be itemized with the amount due in a written notice delivered within 45 days; (2) under IC 32-31-3-14, the landlord must MAIL an itemized list of damages claimed, setting forth 'the estimated cost of repair for each damaged item' and 'the amounts and lease on which the landlord intends to assess the tenant' (that odd phrase is the actual statutory text), together with a check or money order for the difference. Deductions are limited to the purposes in IC 32-31-3-13: actual damages beyond ordinary wear and tear, rent in arrearage and rent due for premature termination, last-period rent if a written agreement so stipulates, and unpaid tenant-obligation utility/sewer charges.
Separate account required No
Interest owed to tenant No
Account & interest rules

Indiana's residential security-deposit chapter (IC 32-31-3, §§ 1.1–19) contains no escrow, trust-account, or interest provision of any kind.

Fifty-state charts that import other states' interest or separate-account rules into Indiana are wrong, and a tenant-advocacy proposal to require interest on deposits held over a year (circulating in 2026 blog roundups) has never been enacted.
Pet deposits No pet-deposit statute. 'Security deposit' is defined broadly (IC 32-31-3-9) to include any 'amount of money or property returnable to the tenant on condition of return of the rental unit' — so a refundable pet deposit is simply part of the security deposit and subject to the 45-day/itemization regime. The definition also captures required prepaid rent beyond the first full rental period and any sum required in excess of the average rent for the term (9(b)(1)-(2)).
Non-refundable fees allowed Not addressed by statute
Penalty for violation

The landlord forfeits the right to keep any of the deposit and pays the tenant's reasonable attorney's fees and court costs. There is no doubling or trebling in Indiana; the teeth are total forfeiture of the deduction claim plus fees.

The forfeiture is layered across three sections: failure to deliver the 12(a) notice lets the tenant recover 'all of the security deposit due the tenant and reasonable attorney's fees' (12(b)); failure to mail the section 14 damages notice 'constitutes agreement by the landlord that no damages are due, and the landlord must remit to the tenant immediately the full security deposit' (IC 32-31-3-15 — a total forfeiture of deduction claims); and a landlord who violates sections 14 and 15 is liable for the part of the deposit withheld plus reasonable attorney's fees and court costs (IC 32-31-3-16).

Waiver of the chapter is void (32-31-3-17), and the owner at termination is bound (12(d)); on a sale, the seller stays liable for the deposit for one year after notice of conveyance unless the buyer assumes liability and the deposit is transferred (32-31-3-19).
Tenant forwarding-address duty Yes, functionally: the landlord 'is not liable under this chapter until the tenant supplies the landlord in writing with a mailing address' (IC 32-31-3-12(a)). A tenant who never supplies a written address cannot enforce the 45-day duty; supplying it promptly at move-out is the practical trigger for the whole remedy scheme.

Cite this page: "Landlord Atlas, Indiana Security Deposit Laws (verified July 10, 2026), landlordatlas.com/laws/security-deposits/indiana/" — free to cite and quote with a link (how these records are verified). Every figure above is cited to the Indiana statute in the citations section below.

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

Notes and caveats

Common questions: Indiana 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 Indiana?
No statutory cap.
How long does a landlord have to return a security deposit in Indiana?
45 days. The clock starts when the tenancy ends and the tenant returns possession, not when the tenant gives a forwarding address. But the landlord owes nothing under the statute until the tenant supplies a mailing address in writing, so a tenant who never sends one cannot enforce the deadline.
What happens if a landlord does not return the deposit on time in Indiana?
The landlord forfeits the right to keep any of the deposit and pays the tenant's reasonable attorney's fees and court costs. There is no doubling or trebling in Indiana; the teeth are total forfeiture of the deduction claim plus fees.
Do landlords have to pay interest on security deposits in Indiana?
No — Indiana does not require interest on the security deposit to be paid to the tenant. Indiana's residential security-deposit chapter (IC 32-31-3, §§ 1.1–19) contains no escrow, trust-account, or interest provision of any kind.
Can a landlord charge a non-refundable fee in Indiana?
Not addressed by statute.

Statute citations

How this record was verified: Official-host verbatim reads on the iga.in.gov 2025 code viewer, completed 2026-07-10: IC 32-31-1-20 in full (subsections (a)-(c), the seven-item enumerated list in (c), the void-and-unenforceable clause, and the history line 'As added by P.L.2-2002, SEC.16. Amended by P.L.266-2017, SEC.1; P.L.168-2020, SEC.17; P.L.215-2021, SEC.1'), IC 32-31-1-6, and IC 32-31-1-7 — all matching the previously recorded mirror-verified text with no substantive differences. SEA 148-2020's designation was pinned from the official iga.in.gov bill record: vetoed 2020-03-25, veto overridden Senate 2021-02-08 (Roll Call 64: 30-17) and House 2021-02-17 (Roll Call 159: 67-33), 'Public Law 168' entered 2021-02-17; the code viewer cites it as P.L.168-2020. Original verification basis (2026-07-09): Indiana's official code viewer requires interactive access, so text was verified on two independent code mirrors and reconciled verbatim: FindLaw (codes.findlaw.com, 'current as of January 01, 2026') and Justia's archived official-text PDFs of IC 32-31 chapters 1, 3, and 5 (statecodesfiles.justia.com, 2013 edition, carrying the official 'As added by P.L.' history lines). Sections double-read across both hosts with figures matching verbatim: IC 32-31-3-12, 32-31-3-14, 32-31-3-15, 32-31-3-16 (45-day deadline, forfeiture rule, attorney fees), 32-31-5-4 (30-day modification notice), 32-31-5-6 (entry, all subsections), 32-31-1-1, 32-31-1-2, and 32-31-1-4 (termination-notice periods); 32-31-3-12/-14/-15/-16 were additionally read on law.onecle.com. IC 32-31-1-20 (preemption) was read verbatim on FindLaw (current through Jan. 1, 2026) and in the pre-amendment 2013 official text; the current-text official-host read was completed 2026-07-10 (see above). Scope sections IC 32-31-2.9-1/-3/-4, 32-31-5-1, and 32-31-5-3 read on FindLaw/2013 PDF. 2025-2026 session sweeps (IGA subject list 'Landlords and Tenants', LegiScan) on 2026-07-09 found no enacted change to any answer in this record; 2026 bills SB 127 and HB 1435 died at the session's March 2026 sine die adjournment, and HEA 1001-2026 (signed) addresses zoning/permitting only.