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

No statutory deadline. Tennessee sets no fixed deadline for returning a security deposit. Instead, the landlord must send the departing tenant notice of any refund due, and a tenant who does not respond within 60 days loses the refund.

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

The only penalty is forfeiture: a landlord who neither kept the deposit in a dedicated account nor gave a listing of damages loses the right to keep any part of it. There is no damages multiplier, no bad-faith penalty, and no attorney-fee award for deposit violations.

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

No — Tennessee does not require interest on the security deposit to be paid to the tenant. No interest is owed on a Tennessee security deposit, but the deposit must still be kept in an account 'used only for that purpose' at a bank or lending institution subject to state or federal regulation (§ 66-28-301(a)).

What are the security deposit rules in Tennessee?

Verified October 2, 2026 10 statements held All Tennessee topics →

What did not become law. None of the following is law; failed bills are sometimes still described as if enacted:

SB 961 / HB 955 (114th General Assembly) — 'Affordable Housing and Tenant Protection Act' — Would repeal the residential half of the rent-control preemption in T.C.A. § 66-35-102, allowing local rent control adopted by a two-thirds vote with a local rent agency, plus a THDA gap-financing program. Would end the statewide preemption of local residential rent regulation if ever enacted. Status: Not enacted. HB 955 was deferred in the House Cities & Counties Subcommittee to the 'January 2027 calendar' on 2026-03-18, and the Senate companion, SB 961, was assigned to the General Subcommittee of the Senate State and Local Government Committee on 2026-03-24 — with the 114th GA adjourned sine die, this is effectively a soft kill; watch for a 115th GA refile. (checked October 1, 2026).

Tennessee sets no cap on security deposits and no fixed deadline for returning them: the statute instead requires the landlord to mail the departing tenant notice of any refund due, and a tenant who fails to respond within 60 days forfeits the entire refund to the landlord.

Cited to T.C.A. § 66-28-301 (a)-(h) and 2 more cited sources · Verified October 2, 2026, 10 statements held at an earlier date

The deposit must sit in a dedicated account at a regulated institution, disclosed by location (not account number) when the lease is signed, and damage charges rest on an inspection-and-listing procedure with sharp edges for tenants: skipping a scheduled inspection can waive the right to contest charges if the lease says so, and a tenant who signs the damage listing without written item-by-item dissent cannot later sue over those items. The penalty for landlord noncompliance is only forfeiture of the right to withhold — no double or treble damages, no attorney fees. Critically, all of this applies only in Tennessee's 17 large URLTA counties (those over 75,000 people as of the frozen 2010 census, including Davidson, Shelby, Knox, and Hamilton); in the other 78 counties there is no deposit statute at all and the lease alone governs.

Tennessee security deposits at a glance

Maximum deposit	No statutory cap
Return deadline	No statutory deadline
Deadline conditions	Tennessee sets no fixed deadline for returning a security deposit. Instead, the landlord must send the departing tenant notice of any refund due, and a tenant who does not respond within 60 days loses the refund. Under § 66-28-301, if the tenant leaves owing nothing and a refund is due, the landlord must send notice of the refund amount to the tenant's last known or reasonably determinable address; if the tenant does not respond within 60 days of that notice, the landlord may remove the deposit from the account and keep it free of any claim (subsection (f)). Damage costs can only be recovered if discovered before the earlier of 30 days after the tenant vacated or 7 days after a new tenant takes possession (subsection (g)).
Itemization required	Yes
Itemization rules	Retention requires a listing of damages, built through an unusual inspection scheme (§ 66-28-301(b), rewritten by 2011 Pub. Ch. 272): the landlord MAY (not must) give written notice of the tenant's right to be present at an inspection held the day the tenant fully vacates or within 4 calendar days after; if the lease so provides, a tenant who schedules and then skips the inspection WAIVES the right to contest the damages found. A tenant may request a mutual inspection, producing a comprehensive signed listing of presently ascertainable damage with estimated repair costs — a tenant who refuses to sign must state written dissent item by item, and any later lawsuit is limited to the items dissented from (subsection (d)). No inspection right exists at all if the tenant vacated without required written notice, abandoned, was judicially removed, failed to respond or appear, or never requested a mutual inspection or is otherwise inaccessible to the landlord (b)(2)(B).
Separate account required	Yes
Interest owed to tenant	No
Account & interest rules	No interest is owed on a Tennessee security deposit, but the deposit must still be kept in an account 'used only for that purpose' at a bank or lending institution subject to state or federal regulation (§ 66-28-301(a)). The landlord must also tell the tenant the location of that account — not the account number — when the lease is signed and the deposit paid (subsection (h), as rewritten by 2012 Pub. Ch. 887).
Pet deposits	No statute addresses a pet deposit, and no general deposit cap exists for one to count against. 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	The only penalty is forfeiture: a landlord who neither kept the deposit in a dedicated account nor gave a listing of damages loses the right to keep any part of it. There is no damages multiplier, no bad-faith penalty, and no attorney-fee award for deposit violations. Under § 66-28-301(c), a landlord may not retain any portion of the deposit if it was not kept in a dedicated account as required by (a) and a listing of damages was not provided as required by (b). The statute's literal 'and' leaves ambiguous whether both failures are needed, a drafting quirk recorded as written.
Tenant forwarding-address duty	No affirmative duty — the landlord's notice runs to the 'last known or reasonably determinable address' — but the incentive is severe: a tenant who fails to respond within 60 days of the refund notice forfeits the entire refund to the landlord (§ 66-28-301(f)).

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

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

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

Notes and caveats

These rules cover only 17 of Tennessee's 95 counties — § 66-28-301's own text says it binds 'all landlords of residential property,' but § 66-28-102(a) confines the entire chapter to counties over 75,000 people per the 2010 census. Consumer sites routinely present these rules as statewide; in the other 78 counties there is no deposit statute at all.
The county list is frozen at the 2010 census — 2021 Pub. Ch. 182 deleted the phrase 'or any subsequent federal census,' so a county that grows past 75,000 after 2010 does not later join the scheme.
Stale-source trap — the 10-business-day joint inspection — Sources describing a mandatory joint move-out inspection within 10 business days are describing the pre-2011 statute. 2011 Pub. Ch. 272 replaced it with the landlord-optional-notice scheme described above.
Why the cap and return-deadline fields are blank, not zero — Tennessee has no statutory provision on maximum deposit size, on a return deadline, or on nonrefundable fees, so those fields are left empty rather than filled with a number. The deadlines that actually bite are the 60-day tenant-response forfeiture and the damage-discovery window — the earlier of 30 days after the tenant vacated or 7 days after a new tenant takes possession.
No amendment since 2012 — No public chapter enacted since 2012 Pub. Ch. 887 amends § 66-28-301.

Common questions: Tennessee 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 Tennessee?: No statutory cap.
How long does a landlord have to return a security deposit in Tennessee?: No statutory deadline. Tennessee sets no fixed deadline for returning a security deposit. Instead, the landlord must send the departing tenant notice of any refund due, and a tenant who does not respond within 60 days loses the refund.
What happens if a landlord does not return the deposit on time in Tennessee?: The only penalty is forfeiture: a landlord who neither kept the deposit in a dedicated account nor gave a listing of damages loses the right to keep any part of it. There is no damages multiplier, no bad-faith penalty, and no attorney-fee award for deposit violations.
Do landlords have to pay interest on security deposits in Tennessee?: No — Tennessee does not require interest on the security deposit to be paid to the tenant. No interest is owed on a Tennessee security deposit, but the deposit must still be kept in an account 'used only for that purpose' at a bank or lending institution subject to state or federal regulation (§ 66-28-301(a)).
Can a landlord charge a non-refundable fee in Tennessee?: Not addressed by statute.

Statements held at an earlier date

Tennessee publishes its code only on a site whose terms do not allow automated reading, so this page is verified on the acts the legislature publishes and on court and agency sources. The 10 statements below rest on text only the code prints. Each keeps the date it was last verified; every other statement on this page was confirmed on October 2, 2026 ( how held statements work).

Outside the counties the Uniform Residential Landlord and Tenant Act covers, no Tennessee statute sets a deposit rule, caps a late fee, requires notice of a rent increase or governs a landlord's entry, and no provision anywhere restricts the hours of entry. T.C.A. Title 66, chapter 7 (the list of sections) · last verified July 9, 2026
The act applies only in counties with a population of more than 75,000 on the 2010 federal census. T.C.A. § 66-28-102(a) · last verified July 9, 2026
No other subsection extends the act to a smaller county or takes a larger one out of it, which leaves the 17 census counties. T.C.A. § 66-28-102 (the subsections after (a)) · last verified July 9, 2026
A refundable pet deposit held against damage is a security deposit. T.C.A. § 66-28-104 (the definition of security deposit) · last verified July 9, 2026
The deposit goes in an account used only for that purpose at a bank or lending institution subject to state or federal regulation. T.C.A. § 66-28-301(a) · last verified July 9, 2026
A tenant who refuses to sign the listing of damages must state written dissent item by item, and a later lawsuit is limited to the items dissented from. T.C.A. § 66-28-301(d) · last verified July 9, 2026
If the tenant leaves owing nothing and a refund is due, the landlord sends notice of the refund amount to the tenant's last known or reasonably determinable address; if the tenant does not respond within 60 days, the landlord may remove the deposit from the account and keep it free of any claim. T.C.A. § 66-28-301(f) · last verified July 9, 2026
The section sets no cap on a deposit, no fixed return deadline, no interest, no rule on non-refundable fees, and no damages multiplier or attorney-fee award. T.C.A. § 66-28-301 (the section as a whole) · last verified July 9, 2026
No public chapter enacted since 2012 Pub. Ch. 887 amends the section. T.C.A. § 66-28-301 (its amendment history) · last verified July 9, 2026
Nothing else in the act speaks to late fees, deposit penalties, rent-increase notice or limits, or entry hours or notice. T.C.A. Title 66, chapter 28 (the list of sections) · last verified July 9, 2026

Citations

T.C.A. § 66-28-301 · (a)-(h) (verified 2026) Official source
2011 Pub. Ch. 272, §§ 6-9 (official session law rewriting the inspection scheme, eff. 2011-10-01) (verified 2026) Official source
2012 Pub. Ch. 887 (official session law rewriting subsection (h)) (verified 2026) Official source

How this record was verified: Tennessee's official code is published via LexisNexis without stable deep links (GA-class sourcing situation), so verification pairs current code mirrors with official session-law PDFs from the Tennessee Secretary of State: T.C.A. §§ 66-28-102, 66-28-201, 66-28-301, 66-28-403, 66-28-512, and 66-35-102 read verbatim on the Justia 2024-edition and FindLaw (current through 2024-01-02) mirrors — §§ 66-28-102, 66-28-201, and 66-28-403 each read twice independently, with the reads matching — with every recent amendment traced to the official act text: 2011 Pub. Ch. 272 (inspection scheme, late-fee rule, entry rewrite), 2012 Pub. Chs. 847 and 887, 2013 Pub. Ch. 206, and 2021 Pub. Ch. 182 (census freeze + county preemption), all read from publications.tnsosfiles.com PDFs. Bill statuses (SB 961/HB 955 et al.) checked on official capitol.tn.gov pages 2026-07-09. September 5, 2026 addendum: the decisive figures touched by the 2025-2026 enactments reviewed that day were re-read on the official host — § 66-35-102 as amended by 2024 Public Chapter 1051 and § 66-28-302 as amended by 2024 Public Chapter 907, from the enrolled acts on publications.tnsosfiles.com; the earlier reads stand as recorded. October 2026: the deposit, rent increase, late fee and entry answers were read again on the public chapters the Secretary of State publishes on publications.tnsosfiles.com (2008 Pub. Ch. 1067, 2011 Pub. Ch. 272, 2012 Pub. Chs. 847 and 887, 2013 Pub. Ch. 206, 2016 Pub. Ch. 822, 2018 Pub. Ch. 685, 2019 Pub. Ch. 236, 2021 Pub. Ch. 182, 2024 Pub. Chs. 907 and 1051), with the General Assembly's Legislative Record and act lists through the 114th General Assembly for later amendments, the Census Bureau's 2010 county counts for the counties the act covers (17, not the 19 these four pages had listed), and the Metropolitan Code of Nashville. The code itself was not opened for that reading, and no public chapter sets out subsections (a), (d) and (f) of section 66-28-301, subsection (b) of section 66-28-512 or subsection (a) of section 66-35-102. The statements that rest on text only the code prints are held: each is listed with the date it was last verified. Every other statement on the deposit, rent increase, late fee and entry pages was confirmed on October 2, 2026.