Security Deposit Return in Ohio: The Forwarding Address

An Ohio landlord has 30 days after the lease ends and you hand back possession to return your deposit, with an itemized written notice of anything kept. One thing you do in the meantime decides not whether you get the deposit, but whether the landlord pays a penalty for keeping it.

Give the landlord a written forwarding address and you keep the whole remedy in Ohio Rev. Code § 5321.16(C): the amount wrongfully withheld, damages equal to that same amount, and your attorney fees. Fail to give one and the deposit is still yours to claim — but the damages and the fees are gone.

The address decides the penalty, not the deposit

§ 5321.16(B) asks you for one thing in return: a written forwarding or new address where the notice and the money can be sent. A tenant who does not is not entitled to the damages or the attorney fees that division (C) otherwise provides.

Read that carefully, because it is narrower than it looks. What the address protects is the penalty. Your claim to the deposit itself does not depend on it: you can still ask for the money and still sue for it. What you give up is the part that makes the letter work — the doubling, and the fees that let a tenant hire someone over a few hundred dollars.

So send it in writing the day you hand over the keys, and keep proof you sent it. If you have already moved out without one, send it now anyway — the alternative is a landlord with nowhere to mail the notice and 30 days nobody is counting.

When the 30 days actually start

A lot of guides say the 30 days begin when you give the forwarding address. They do not. The clock in § 5321.16(B) runs from termination of the rental agreement and delivery of possession — the lease ending and you giving the place back.

The difference matters when you move out and send your address a week later. On the version in those guides the landlord’s 30 days have barely begun; on the statute, a quarter of them is already gone. Count from the day you handed back possession, not from the day you wrote the letter.

The interest almost nobody claims

Ohio pays 5% a year on a security deposit under § 5321.16(A) — but only on the part above the greater of $50 or one month’s rent, and only if you stayed six months or more.

That pair of conditions is why most Ohio tenants are owed nothing. Rent of $1,100 with a deposit of $1,100 has no excess at all, so it earns nothing however long you stay. Rent of $1,100 with a deposit of $2,200 has $1,100 above the line, which earns $55 a year. The statute has the landlord work it out and pay it annually, so two years in the place comes to $110 in instalments rather than a lump sum at the end.

Work out your own figure with the security deposit interest calculator, which carries the Ohio rule and the handful of other states that pay interest at all.

Ohio does not cap the deposit

There is no statewide limit on what an Ohio landlord may ask for. The statute governs what happens to the money, not how much of it there is. The practical brake is the interest rule above: every dollar above one month’s rent is a dollar the landlord owes 5% a year on once you pass six months. Some cities and counties set their own limits, so if the figure in front of you looks steep, check the local ordinance as well as the state code.

The 30 days have passed

1. Fix the two dates: when the lease terminated, and when you gave back possession. The later one starts the 30 days.
2. Confirm whether you gave a written forwarding address, and keep whatever shows you sent it. That decides what you can ask for.
3. Send one written demand naming § 5321.16, the date the 30 days ran out, and the amount. Send it so you can prove delivery.
4. State the remedy: the amount wrongfully withheld, damages equal to it, and attorney fees. Landlords read that sentence differently from the rest of the letter.
5. Municipal court small claims is the normal route, and no lawyer is needed to file.

What can legitimately be deducted

Unpaid rent, damage past ordinary wear and tear, and other amounts you owe under the lease. Not wear: faded paint, worn carpet, small nail holes, light scuffs. The itemized notice is the landlord’s own account of what they kept and why, which makes it the thing to argue with line by line.

What your lease controls

Not the 30 days, not the interest, not the remedy — a lease cannot sign those away. It does control the size of the deposit, what you agreed to be responsible for, and the cleaning standard you promised. A clause calling the deposit non-refundable, or a “redecorating fee” that behaves like one, does not escape § 5321.16 by being named something else.

When this needs a lawyer

Seldom, for a deposit — though the fees in division (C) are what make a claim this size worth a lawyer’s time at all, which is the other reason the forwarding address matters. Get advice if the landlord claims damages well beyond the deposit, if there is a rent counterclaim, or if you gave no address and the landlord is treating that as the end of it. Ohio legal aid offices handle deposits constantly.

Sources

Ohio Rev. Code § 5321.16 — codes.ohio.gov. Checked November 2026. Statutes change; open the section before relying on a date.

Leaving Ohio for somewhere else? The deposit return deadline for all 50 states and DC is in one table, each row citing its own statute.