Landlord Atlas

What are the security deposit rules in North Dakota?

Verified July 11, 2026 All North Dakota topics →

North Dakota caps security deposits at one month's rent, with three carve-outs: up to two months' rent may be accepted from a tenant convicted of a felony (as an incentive to rent to them), up to two months' rent may be demanded from a tenant who has a court judgment against them for violating a previous rental agreement, and a separate pet security deposit of up to the greater of $2,500 or two months' rent may be charged for a pet that is not a disability-related service or companion animal.

The deposit must be held in a federally insured interest-bearing savings or checking account for the tenant's benefit, and the deposit plus its accrued interest must be returned — with a written itemization of any deductions and a statement of any amount still owed or refunded — within 30 days after the lease ends and the tenant delivers possession; no interest is owed if the tenant lived there less than nine months. Deductions are limited to pet or negligence damage, unpaid rent, and cleaning or repairs needed to restore the unit to its move-in condition (normal wear and tear excepted), and the landlord must have given the tenant a signed move-in condition statement when the lease was signed. A landlord who withholds deposit money without reasonable justification owes the tenant treble (three times) damages.

North Dakota security deposits at a glance

Maximum deposit 1 month's rent — Two exceptions, added in different sessions with different verbs: a landlord may ACCEPT up to two months' rent as security from an individual convicted of a felony offense, framed as an incentive to rent to the individual (47-16-07.1(1)(a), added 2017); and a landlord may DEMAND up to two months' rent as security from an individual who has had a judgment entered against them for violating the terms of a previous rental agreement (47-16-07.1(1)(b), added 2019). A pet security deposit under subsection 2 is separate and has its own higher limit.
Return deadline 30 days
Deadline conditions The itemization of any amounts applied, together with the amount due and a written notice stating any amount still owed the landlord or the refund due the tenant, must be delivered or mailed to the tenant at the last address furnished to the landlord within 30 days after termination of the lease AND delivery of possession by the tenant (47-16-07.1(3)). For a domestic-violence termination under 47-16-17.1, the deposit clock is triggered on the first day of the month after the victim-tenant vacates if the victim (with minor children) is the only tenant, or at expiration of the lease if other tenants remain bound (47-16-17.1(8)). Amounts unclaimed by the tenant within one year of termination become reportable unclaimed property under 47-30.2-04.
Itemization required Yes
Itemization rules Any portion of the deposit (and accrued interest) not paid back must be itemized by the landlord, and the deposit may be applied only to: damages from deterioration or injury to the property caused by the tenant's pet or by the negligence of the tenant or the tenant's guest; unpaid rent; and costs of cleaning or other repairs that were the tenant's responsibility and are necessary to return the unit to its original state when the tenant took possession, reasonable wear and tear excepted (47-16-07.1(3)). At move-in, the landlord must provide a condition statement signed by both parties, which is prima facie proof of the premises' condition at the start of the tenancy (47-16-07.2).
Separate account required Yes
Interest owed to tenant Yes
Account & interest rules The landlord must deposit the money in a federally insured interest-bearing savings or checking account for the benefit of the tenant, and the deposit plus accrued interest must be paid to the tenant at termination — but no interest is owed if the period of occupancy was less than nine months (47-16-07.1(1), (3)). No statutory interest rate: the account's actual accrued interest is what is owed. The statute does not use the word 'separate'; the account requirement is that the funds be held in a federally insured interest-bearing account 'for the benefit of the tenant.' On sale of the property, deposit and accrued interest must be transferred to the new owner, and the seller stays liable until the transfer is made (47-16-07.1(5)).
Pet deposits For a tenant keeping an animal that is not a service animal or companion animal required by a tenant with a disability as a fair-housing reasonable accommodation, the landlord may charge a pet security deposit of up to the GREATER of $2,500 or two months' rent, in addition to the ordinary one-month security deposit (47-16-07.1(2), added by 2015 HB 1192). Deposit money may be applied to damage caused by the tenant's pet (47-16-07.1(3)(a)).
Non-refundable fees allowed Not addressed by statute
Penalty for violation Treble damages: the landlord is liable for three times any security deposit money withheld without reasonable justification (47-16-07.1(4)).
Tenant forwarding-address duty No statutory duty and no forfeiture: the landlord must deliver or mail the itemization and refund notice to the tenant at the last address furnished to the landlord (47-16-07.1(3)); amounts left unclaimed for one year become reportable unclaimed property rather than the landlord's money (47-30.2-04 reference in 47-16-07.1(3)).

Notes and caveats

All figures double-read: official ndlegis.gov chapter PDF (current through the 69th Assembly per the official currency page) reconciled verbatim with the FindLaw mirror and with the current-law baseline reprinted in introduced HB 1272 (2025). DRAFTING TRAP: 47-16-07.1(1) still says deposit and interest are payable 'subject to the conditions of subsection 2,' but subsection 2 has been the PET-DEPOSIT subsection since 2015 HB 1192 renumbered the application/itemization subsection from 2 to 3 without conforming the cross-reference — the sensible reading is the application subsection (now subsec. 3). DEAD-BILL DEBUNK: HB 1272 (2025) would have mandated move-in AND move-out inspections, re-keyed the 30-day return clock to the move-out inspection, deemed a landlord no-show a full-deposit forfeiture, and fixed the subsection numbering — it FAILED the House 41-47 on 2025-02-07; current law requires only the 47-16-07.2 move-in condition statement. nonrefundable_fees_allowed null: no statute addresses nonrefundable fees, but the cap applies to security 'however denominated,' so a deposit-like charge cannot be structured around the cap by relabeling; genuinely non-security fees (e.g., application fees) are unregulated. separate_account_required encoded true on the statute's federally-insured interest-bearing account 'for the benefit of the tenant' language; note the statute never uses the word 'separate.' The exceptions use different verbs — 'may accept' (felony, 2017 ch. 316) vs. 'may demand' (prior judgment, 2019 ch. 379) — pinned from the official session laws. Unclaimed-property cross-reference is 47-30.2-04 in current text (older sources say 47-30.1-08 — stale).

Statute citations

How this record was verified: Direct read of statute text in the official North Dakota Century Code chapter PDFs on ndlegis.gov (t47c16.pdf read in full, t47c32.pdf sections 47-32-01/-02/-05, t09c08.pdf section 9-08-04), whose official currency page states the posted code reflects all changes approved by the 69th Legislative Assembly, current as of 2025-07-01. Every load-bearing figure (1-month deposit cap; 2-month felony and prior-judgment exceptions; pet deposit greater of $2,500 or 2 months; 30-day itemized return; 9-month interest threshold; treble damages; 30-day written change-of-terms notice covering rent; 25-day tenant termination after a change notice; one-calendar-month m2m termination; no entry-hour figure) was read twice independently — official PDF pass plus codes.findlaw.com mirror pass (current through 2024-01-01), reconciled verbatim, with deposit figures additionally matched against the current-law baseline reprinted in introduced HB 1272 (2025). Amendment history pinned from official session-law PDFs: 2015 ch. 312 (HB 1192, pet deposit subsection), 2017 ch. 316 (HB 1220, felony exception), 2019 ch. 379 (HB 1150, prior-judgment exception). 2025 regular-session sweep via official bill-overview pages: HB 1272 (inspections/deposits) failed House 41-47 on 2025-02-07; SB 2236 (late-fee cap amending 47-16-20) failed Senate 7-39 on 2025-02-04; SB 2237 (labor-commissioner oversight) failed 5-41; SB 2366 (notice of intention to evict) failed 8-37; SB 2238 (eviction-record sealing, now 47-32-05) enacted, signed 2025-03-26 — out of v1 topic scope. January 2026 special session (3 days) was Rural Health Transformation Program only; no regular session in 2026, next regular session January 2027. Negative findings (no late-fee statute, no entry-hour figure, no deposit-interest rate figure, no frequency limits) verified against the complete section-heading list of ch. 47-16 read from the official chapter PDF, run twice.