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

1 month's rent — The ceiling covers security 'however denominated.' A pet deposit of up to one-fourth of one month's periodic rent may be demanded 'when appropriate,' so a tenancy with a pet can carry up to 1.25 months total.

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

14 days. The clock runs from the date the tenancy terminates. No demand by the tenant is required, and the deadline does not wait for a forwarding address — the balance and a written itemization must be delivered or mailed within those 14 days (76-1416(2)).

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

If the landlord fails to comply with the return-and-itemization duty, the tenant may recover the property and money due, court costs, and reasonable attorney's fees (76-1416(3)). If the failure is 'willful and not in good faith,' the tenant may additionally recover liquidated damages of one month's periodic rent or two times the security deposit, whichever is LESS.

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

No — Nebraska does not require interest on the security deposit to be paid to the tenant. No section of Nebraska's Uniform Residential Landlord and Tenant Act — 76-1401 through 76-1449 — requires interest on deposits, or a separate, trust, or escrow account.

What are the security deposit rules in Nebraska?

Verified October 2, 2026 All Nebraska topics →

Nebraska caps security deposits at one month's rent, plus a pet deposit of up to one-quarter of a month's rent, and the landlord must return the balance with a written itemization within 14 days after the tenancy ends.

Cited to Neb. Rev. Stat. § 76-1416 (1)-(5) and 3 more cited sources · Verified October 2, 2026

Since a 2019 amendment (LB 433) the 14-day clock runs from the date the tenancy terminates — the tenant does not have to demand the money or supply an address first, and if no address was provided the landlord must mail the refund to the tenant's last-known address, with long-unclaimed balances going to the State Treasurer as unclaimed property. A landlord who misses the deadline owes the tenant the money due plus court costs and attorney's fees, and a willful, bad-faith failure adds liquidated damages of one month's rent or twice the deposit, whichever is less. There is no interest, escrow, or separate-account requirement, and the deposit cap does not bind public housing agencies.

Nebraska security deposits at a glance

Maximum deposit	1 month's rent — The ceiling covers security 'however denominated.' A pet deposit of up to one-fourth of one month's periodic rent may be demanded 'when appropriate,' so a tenancy with a pet can carry up to 1.25 months total. The cap does not apply to housing agencies organized or existing under the Nebraska Housing Agency Act (Neb. Rev. Stat. 76-1416(1)).
Return deadline	14 days
Deadline conditions	The clock runs from the date the tenancy terminates. No demand by the tenant is required, and the deadline does not wait for a forwarding address — the balance and a written itemization must be delivered or mailed within those 14 days (76-1416(2)). If the tenant provides no mailing address or instructions, the landlord must mail the balance and itemization by first-class mail to the tenant's last-known mailing address. If that mailing comes back undeliverable, or the returned balance stays outstanding for one year, it becomes abandoned property that must be reported and paid to the State Treasurer under the Uniform Disposition of Unclaimed Property Act. Since September 3, 2025 the balance and itemization may also travel by electronic means where the tenant has separately consented to that method, which counts as the equal of first-class, registered or certified mail (76-1413(5)-(6), as amended by 2025 LB185); if receipt is not verified, or two electronic messages bounce within thirty days, the landlord must go back to mail.
Itemization required	Yes
Itemization rules	A written itemization must accompany the returned balance within the 14-day window (76-1416(2)). The deposit and any prepaid rent may be applied only to unpaid rent and damages the landlord has suffered from the tenant's noncompliance with the rental agreement or with the tenant's maintenance duties under 76-1421.
Separate account required	No
Interest owed to tenant	No
Account & interest rules	No section of Nebraska's Uniform Residential Landlord and Tenant Act — 76-1401 through 76-1449 — requires interest on deposits, or a separate, trust, or escrow account. Charts importing other states' escrow or interest rules into Nebraska are wrong.
Pet deposits	A pet deposit is capped by statute. One-fourth of one month's periodic rent (section 76-1416, subsection 1): a landlord may not demand or receive security, however denominated, in excess of one month's periodic rent, except that a pet deposit not in excess of one-fourth of one month's periodic rent may be demanded or received when appropriate. 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	Not addressed by statute
Penalty for violation	If the landlord fails to comply with the return-and-itemization duty, the tenant may recover the property and money due, court costs, and reasonable attorney's fees (76-1416(3)). If the failure is 'willful and not in good faith,' the tenant may additionally recover liquidated damages of one month's periodic rent or two times the security deposit, whichever is LESS. The lesser-of cap is in the statutory text and is routinely dropped by secondary sources that advertise a flat '2x deposit' penalty.
Tenant forwarding-address duty	No affirmative statutory duty. If the tenant provides no mailing address or instructions, the landlord must mail the refund and itemization to the tenant's last-known address (76-1416(2)); the tenant does not forfeit the refund, which ultimately routes to the State Treasurer as unclaimed property.

Cite this page: "Landlord Atlas, Nebraska Security Deposit Laws (verified October 2, 2026), landlordatlas.com/laws/security-deposits/nebraska/" — free to cite and quote with a link (how these records are verified). Everything above is cited in the citations section below.

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

Editable Nebraska 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 Nebraska rules on this page, in Word, fillable PDF and Excel.

Notes and caveats

Stale-source trap: the "demand and designation" trigger died in 2019 — The original 1974 text required return "within fourteen days after demand and designation of the location where payment may be made or mailed." LB 433 (2019, approved May 30, 2019, no emergency clause, effective three calendar months after the 2019 session's May 31 adjournment) struck the demand-and-designation trigger, keyed the deadline to termination of the tenancy, and added the last-known-address mailing duty. Many charts and even careful secondary sources still print the demand trigger; it has been dead since 2019, and the LB 433 slip law shows the stricken text.
LB 532 (2021) rewrote what happens to an unclaimed balance — LB 532 (2021, section 7) replaced LB 433's 30/60-day State Treasurer remittance mechanics with the current one-year abandoned-property rule.
Penalty trap: it is the LESSER of one month's rent or twice the deposit — Quoting "2x the deposit" on its own overstates the landlord's exposure whenever the deposit exceeds half a month's rent. With a full one-month deposit the real ceiling is one month's rent.
What Nebraska treats as security, whatever it is called — Nebraska bars a landlord from demanding or receiving security, however denominated, above one month's periodic rent, with a pet deposit of up to one-fourth of one month's rent allowed on top of that ceiling when appropriate (Neb. Rev. Stat. § 76-1416(1)). When the tenancy ends, money held as prepaid rent and security may be applied to rent and to damages from the tenant's noncompliance, and the balance together with a written itemization must be delivered or mailed within fourteen days. Section 76-1416 permits no part of that money to be kept as a nonrefundable charge, and a failure to account that is willful and not in good faith carries the lesser of one month's rent or twice the deposit as liquidated damages on top of the money owed. Housing agencies under the Nebraska Housing Agency Act are outside the ceiling. LB 17 (2025-26), which would have banned most non-rent fees, died in committee at sine die on April 17, 2026.
The code page and the slip laws agree — The official statute page and the LB 433 and LB 532 slip laws carry these figures in identical terms.
Who owes the deposit back when the building is sold — Whoever holds the landlord's interest in the premises when the tenancy ends is bound by the deposit rules, so a tenant looks to the current owner for the return and the itemization. A landlord who sells in good faith to a bona fide purchaser is released from the rest of the rental agreement as to events after written notice of the sale reaches the tenant, but stays liable for the deposit and prepaid rent unless that money is assigned to the purchaser and the tenant is given written notice of the assignment. Both steps are needed: assigning the money without telling the tenant does not release the seller.

Common questions: Nebraska 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 Nebraska?: 1 month's rent — The ceiling covers security 'however denominated.' A pet deposit of up to one-fourth of one month's periodic rent may be demanded 'when appropriate,' so a tenancy with a pet can carry up to 1.25 months total.
How long does a landlord have to return a security deposit in Nebraska?: 14 days. The clock runs from the date the tenancy terminates. No demand by the tenant is required, and the deadline does not wait for a forwarding address — the balance and a written itemization must be delivered or mailed within those 14 days (76-1416(2)).
What happens if a landlord does not return the deposit on time in Nebraska?: If the landlord fails to comply with the return-and-itemization duty, the tenant may recover the property and money due, court costs, and reasonable attorney's fees (76-1416(3)). If the failure is 'willful and not in good faith,' the tenant may additionally recover liquidated damages of one month's periodic rent or two times the security deposit, whichever is LESS.
Do landlords have to pay interest on security deposits in Nebraska?: No — Nebraska does not require interest on the security deposit to be paid to the tenant. No section of Nebraska's Uniform Residential Landlord and Tenant Act — 76-1401 through 76-1449 — requires interest on deposits, or a separate, trust, or escrow account.
Can a landlord charge a non-refundable fee in Nebraska?: Not addressed by statute.

Citations

Neb. Rev. Stat. § 76-1416 · (1)-(5) (verified 2026) Official source
Laws 2019, LB 433, § 1 (slip law) · § 1 (verified 2026) Official source
Laws 2021, LB 532, § 7 (slip law) · § 7 (verified 2026) Official source
Neb. Rev. Stat. § 76-1420 · (1) (verified 2026) Official source

How this record was verified: Direct read of statute text on the official Nebraska Legislature site (nebraskalegislature.gov): sections 76-1416, 76-1423, 76-1437, and 13-331 each read twice independently (standard and print views) with all key figures matching verbatim (one-month deposit cap, one-quarter-month pet deposit, 14-day return keyed to the date of termination of the tenancy, lesser-of one month's rent/2x deposit penalty, 24 hours' written entry notice with purpose and anticipated-window content requirements, 30-day/7-day periodic termination notice, rent-control preemption text), and each additionally reconciled character-for-character against the official enacted slip laws downloaded from nebraskalegislature.gov/FloorDocs: LB 433 (2019) and LB 532 (2021) for 76-1416, LB 320 (2021) for 76-1423, LB 266 (2025) for 13-331 — so every amendment claim is pinned from the session law itself. Also read: 76-1408 (exclusions), 76-1414 (rent terms), 76-1432(2) (absence entry), 76-1410(13) (rent definition), 76-1412 (unconscionability), 76-1431(2) (7-day pay-or-quit). Negative checks (no late-fee or grace-period provision, no deposit interest, no escrow/trust account, no rent-increase notice or frequency rule) run twice against the full act text via the legislature's consolidated display, 76-1401 through 76-1449 — the Uniform Residential Landlord and Tenant Act's full span per its own citation section, with 76-1450 through 76-14,111 being the separate Mobile Home Landlord and Tenant Act (boundary re-verified from the official citation sections 2026-08-05). Pending-bill check 2026-07-11 on official bill pages: LB 17 (fee limits, late-fee cap) indefinitely postponed 2026-04-17; LB 587 (tenant remedies) indefinitely postponed 2026-04-17; LB 980 and LB 469 (2026 eviction-procedure bills) CONFIRMED DEAD 2026-07-12 via the site's own bill-number search: both show 'Indefinitely postponed' 2026-04-17 on their official bill pages (LB 980: URLTA jury-trial-waiver/summary-judgment procedure, died in Judiciary with FA636 pending; LB 469: eviction-notice resource form, 2025 carryover, died in Judiciary); 109th Legislature 2nd session adjourned sine die 2026-04-17. On October 2, 2026 every section the security deposit, rent increase, late fee, entry and eviction answers rest on was read again on nebraskalegislature.gov, each with its Source line: sections 76-1401 to 76-1449, the Mobile Home Landlord and Tenant Act (76-1450 to 76-14,111, where 76-1490 sets sixty days' written notice of a rent increase for a mobile home space and 76-1496 governs entry), 13-331, 25-21,219 to 25-21,221, 25-2221, 25-2728, 25-2729 and 25-1912, with the slip laws LB 433 (2019), LB 320 and LB 532 (2021), LB 80, LB 185 and LB 266 (2025) and LB 834 (2026) and the Revisor of Statutes' operative-date lists. September 5, 2026 addendum: the decisive figures touched by the 2025-2026 enactments reviewed that day were re-read on the official host — §§ 76-1413, 76-1416 and 76-1457 on nebraskalegislature.gov; the earlier reads stand as recorded.