Security Deposit Return in Maryland: The 45-Day Rule

A Maryland landlord has 45 days after the tenancy ends to return your deposit with interest, or send you an itemized list of what they kept. Miss the 45 days without a reasonable basis and Md. Code Real Prop. § 8-203 lets you recover up to three times the withheld amount plus your attorney fees.

Maryland also has a trap that most summaries get wrong: the cap on your deposit depends on the date you signed, not on today’s law.

Which cap applies to you depends on when you signed

The Renters’ Rights and Stabilization Act of 2024 cut the maximum deposit from two months’ rent to one, effective 1 October 2024. It is not retroactive, so a lease signed in September 2024 is still under the two-month rule and a lease signed in November is not.

There is one narrow exception: a landlord may still take up to two months where you receive qualifying utility assistance and pay your utilities directly to them.

If you were charged over the limit that applied to your lease, the remedy is the same multiplier: up to three times the excess, plus attorney fees. That is worth checking before you move out rather than after, and it applies to a surety bond demanded in place of a deposit too.

The interest is part of what you are owed

Held longer than six months, your deposit earns 3% simple interest, and that interest comes back with the money. The deposit also has to sit in an escrow account kept separate from the landlord’s own funds — an interest-bearing account, a certificate of deposit, or a treasury surety bond devoted only to deposits, placed within 30 days. So the figure to ask for is not the round number you handed over.

The 45 days have passed

1. Work out the total: deposit plus 3% simple interest for the months it was held, if that was longer than six.
2. Send one written demand naming § 8-203(e), the date the 45 days expired, and the figure including interest. Send it so you can prove delivery.
3. Name the multiplier. Up to three times the withheld amount plus attorney fees is what the statute allows, and it changes how the letter reads.
4. You have time. A claim can be brought during the tenancy or within two years of its end, so a deposit from a lease that ended last year is not lost.

What can legitimately be deducted

Unpaid rent and damage beyond ordinary wear and tear, and only what the itemized list actually sets out, sent by first-class mail. No list inside 45 days and the right to withhold anything is forfeited, however real the damage was. The practical test for wear is whether the next tenant would read it as damage or as age.

What your lease controls

Not the cap, the 45 days, the interest or the escrow duty — all statutory, and the lease may serve as your deposit receipt but cannot waive any of them. A clause calling the deposit non-refundable does not survive contact with § 8-203.

When this needs a lawyer

Maryland is one of the states where it can be worth it, because the statute awards attorney fees and the multiplier is high. For a straightforward late return, District Court small claims and a written demand usually do the job. Get advice where the damage claim dwarfs the deposit, where you were over-charged and want the threefold remedy, or where there is a disputed counterclaim for rent. Maryland legal aid and the People’s Law Library cover deposits in detail and cost nothing.

Sources

Md. Code, Real Property § 8-203 — mgaleg.maryland.gov. Renters’ Rights and Stabilization Act of 2024 (HB 693), in force from 1 October 2024. Checked October 2026. Statutes change; open the section before relying on a date.

Moving out of Maryland to somewhere else? The deposit return deadline for all 50 states and DC is in one table, each row citing its own statute.