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 July 11, 2026 Correction August 5, 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 2 more Nebraska statutes · Verified July 11, 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.
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	Expressly authorized and separately capped: a pet deposit may not exceed one-fourth of one month's periodic rent, on top of the one-month general cap (76-1416(1)). It is part of the 'security' scheme, so the same 14-day return, itemization, and penalty rules apply.
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 July 11, 2026), landlordatlas.com/laws/security-deposits/nebraska/" — free to cite and quote with a link (how these records are verified). Every figure above is cited to the Nebraska statute in the citations section below.

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

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.
Nonrefundable fees: the act is silent, and silence is not permission — The act neither authorizes nor prohibits nonrefundable fees, which is why that question is left blank here rather than answered yes or no. The cap's "security, however denominated" language pulls anything functioning as security under the one-month 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.

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.

Changes since last full verification

The Verified date above (July 11, 2026) marks the last time every figure on this page was verified end-to-end against official state sources. The changes below were published since then, each verified against the official source it names (what these dates mean).

Correction, August 5, 2026 — Corrected the description of the statutory range checked for Nebraska's late-fee and deposit-interest findings: the Uniform Residential Landlord and Tenant Act runs 76-1401 through 76-1449, and sections 76-1450 through 76-14,111 are the separate Mobile Home Landlord and Tenant Act. The findings themselves are unchanged — no late-fee cap, no grace period, and no deposit-interest requirement in the act.

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

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). FindLaw mirror (current through 2024) matched 76-1423 verbatim. 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.