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

31 days. The landlord must refund what is due and give a written accounting stating the basis for any claim against the deposit. The clock runs from termination of the tenancy plus delivery of possession, not from a tenant request or a forwarding address.

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

If the landlord fails to comply, the tenant may recover twice the amount withheld without a written accounting or withheld in bad faith (ORS 90.300).

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

No — Oregon does not require interest on the security deposit to be paid to the tenant. No interest is owed to the tenant. ORS 90.300 contains no trust or escrow account requirement and no obligation to hold deposits separately or to pay interest.

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

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

What are the security deposit rules in Oregon?

Verified October 1, 2026 All Oregon topics →

Oregon sets no cap on how much a landlord can charge for a security deposit, but the deposit and a written accounting for every deduction must be returned within 31 days after the tenancy ends and the tenant hands back possession.

Cited to ORS 90.300 and 2 more cited sources · Verified October 1, 2026

A landlord who withholds money in bad faith or without the written accounting owes the tenant twice the amount wrongfully withheld. The fine print favors tenants: a receipt is required for every deposit, the deposit cannot be raised during the first year of the tenancy (and after that the tenant must be given at least three months to pay a new or increased deposit), carpet cleaning may be charged only if it is done with a machine designed for cleaning carpets, the carpet was cleaned or replaced before move-in, and the written rental agreement allows the deduction, repair labor must be billed at a reasonable hourly rate, and no pet deposit may ever be charged for a disability-related service or companion animal. Oregon also effectively bans nonrefundable move-in fees: under ORS 90.302 a landlord may not collect any fee at the start of a tenancy for anticipated expenses, and a landlord who charges a fee the statute does not allow owes the tenant twice the tenant's actual damages or $300, whichever is greater.

Oregon security deposits at a glance

Maximum deposit	No statutory cap
Return deadline	31 days
Deadline conditions	The landlord must refund what is due and give a written accounting stating the basis for any claim against the deposit. The clock runs from termination of the tenancy plus delivery of possession, not from a tenant request or a forwarding address. Within 31 days after the tenancy terminates AND the tenant delivers possession to the landlord, the landlord must both refund the amount due and give that written accounting, with separate accountings for the security deposit and any prepaid rent (ORS 90.300).
Itemization required	Yes
Itemization rules	A written accounting stating the basis of any claim is mandatory within the same 31 days; deposit and prepaid (last month's) rent must be accounted for separately. Deductions are limited to amounts reasonably necessary for unpaid rent and to repair damage or clean beyond ordinary wear and tear. Carpet cleaning may be charged only if the cleaning uses a machine specifically designed for cleaning or shampooing carpets, the carpet was cleaned or replaced before the tenancy began, and the rental agreement authorizes the deduction. Labor costs charged against a deposit — including the landlord's own labor — must be based on a reasonable hourly rate (ORS 90.300).
Separate account required	No
Interest owed to tenant	No
Account & interest rules	No interest is owed to the tenant. ORS 90.300 contains no trust or escrow account requirement and no obligation to hold deposits separately or to pay interest. The landlord must, however, give the tenant a receipt for any security deposit paid.
Pet deposits	A pet deposit is expressly allowed, with no ceiling 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	If the landlord fails to comply, the tenant may recover twice the amount withheld without a written accounting or withheld in bad faith (ORS 90.300).
Tenant forwarding-address duty	Not addressed by statute

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

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

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

Notes and caveats

No cap on deposit size — ORS 90.300 sets no limit on how much a landlord may collect, which is why the maximum-deposit figure is blank rather than zero.
Nonrefundable move-in fees are closed out by a statutory list — ORS 90.302 provides that a landlord "may not charge a fee at the beginning of the tenancy for an anticipated landlord expense and may not require the payment of any fee except as provided in this section." The permitted fees are limited to late rent (ORS 90.260), dishonored checks, smoke- or CO-alarm tampering (up to $250), violation of a written pet agreement or a facility pet rule, fixed-term abandonment (up to 1.5 times rent), and repeated noncompliance with written rules after a warning notice ($50 for a second violation, then $50 plus 5% of rent; up to $250 for smoking in a designated nonsmoking area or for keeping an unauthorized pet capable of causing damage).
Screening charges are governed elsewhere — applicant screening charges are regulated separately by ORS 90.295, not by the deposit or fee rules described here.
No statutory forwarding-address duty — Oregon's deposit statute imposes no tenant duty to give the landlord a forwarding address, so the answer is left blank to record statutory silence rather than a rule in either direction.
Hold deposits come back when an applicant walks away over habitability — a 2025 act, Oregon Laws 2025, chapter 392 (HB 3521), effective January 1, 2026, amended ORS 90.297, not ORS 90.300: a landlord may not keep a deposit taken to secure the signing of a rental agreement if the applicant rejected the agreement because of material habitability defects described in ORS 90.320(1), and must return it within five business days. The change applies to deposits received on or after January 1, 2026.
The first-year lock comes straight from the statute — the official statute text carries both the first-year lock on raising a deposit and the rule that, after the first year, the tenant must be given at least three months to pay a new or increased deposit (ORS 90.300(5)).

Common questions: Oregon 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 Oregon?: No statutory cap.
How long does a landlord have to return a security deposit in Oregon?: 31 days. The landlord must refund what is due and give a written accounting stating the basis for any claim against the deposit. The clock runs from termination of the tenancy plus delivery of possession, not from a tenant request or a forwarding address.
What happens if a landlord does not return the deposit on time in Oregon?: If the landlord fails to comply, the tenant may recover twice the amount withheld without a written accounting or withheld in bad faith (ORS 90.300).
Do landlords have to pay interest on security deposits in Oregon?: No — Oregon does not require interest on the security deposit to be paid to the tenant. No interest is owed to the tenant. ORS 90.300 contains no trust or escrow account requirement and no obligation to hold deposits separately or to pay interest.
Can a landlord charge a non-refundable fee in Oregon?: No — non-refundable fees are not allowed in Oregon.

Citations

ORS 90.300 (verified 2026) Official source
ORS 90.302 (verified 2026) Official source
ORS 90.297, as amended by Oregon Laws 2025, chapter 392 (HB 3521) · (4)-(5) (verified 2026) Official source

How this record was verified: Direct read of statute text on the official Oregon Legislature site (oregonlegislature.gov) on October 1, 2026: ORS chapters 90, 91, 105 and 19 in the 2025 Edition, which takes in the 2025 regular session. The 2026 regular session's changes were read in the session laws themselves (Oregon Laws 2026, chapters 23, 60, 61 and 108), with the Legislature's tables of sections amended for the 2025 regular session, the 2025 special session and the 2026 regular session. Key numbers read: 31-day deposit return, 2x penalty, 4th-day late-fee grace, 6%/day and 5%/5-day fee caps, 24 hours' actual notice, 90-day increase notice, first-year bar, once-per-12-months limit, 15-year exemption, 3-months-rent penalty, lesser-of-10%-or-7%+CPI formula. The annually published cap was read on the Department of Administrative Services Office of Economic Analysis rent-stabilization page, in its press releases and in its calculation workbooks: 9.5% for calendar 2026 (West Region CPI change of 2.5%) and 10% for calendar 2027 (press release of September 28, 2026).