Security Deposit Rules
in Your Lease
What it actually means, what Ohio law says, what's specific to Columbus - and exactly what to do. In plain English.
Quick Summary - What You Need to Know
- No section our Ohio record read in Chapter 5321 states a maximum security deposit. The record covered the bodies of § 5321.01 through § 5321.20, and none of those twenty sections sets a ceiling on the amount.
- The figure people mistake for a cap is a pricing rule. § 5321.16(A) makes a deposit "in excess of fifty dollars or one month's periodic rent, whichever is greater" bear interest on the excess at five per cent per annum once the tenant has been in possession for six months or more, computed and paid annually.
- § 5321.16(B) requires every deduction to be "itemized and identified by the landlord in a written notice delivered to the tenant together with the amount due, within thirty days after termination of the rental agreement and delivery of possession".
- That same division puts one duty on you. The tenant "shall provide the landlord in writing with a forwarding address or new address", and a tenant who does not "shall not be entitled to damages or attorneys fees under division (C) of this section".
- § 5321.16(C) is the remedy: a landlord who fails division (B) owes "the property and money due him, together with damages in an amount equal to the amount wrongfully withheld, and reasonable attorneys fees". Read the current text of § 5321.16 yourself before you rely on any figure here, because the version behind this page was read on a republisher's copy rather than on the state's own publication.
Understanding the Security Deposit Rules
A security deposit clause answers three separate questions, and Ohio answers only two of them. How much can be taken, what happens to the money while it is held, and how fast it has to come back.
On the first question our Ohio record is silent by design. No section it read in Chapter 5321 caps the amount, so the size of a Columbus deposit is a term of your rental agreement rather than a number the state hands you.
On the other two the statute is specific. § 5321.16(A) puts interest on the part of a large deposit that exceeds fifty dollars or one month's rent, and § 5321.16(B) gives the landlord thirty days after the tenancy ends and possession is delivered to send an itemized written notice with the money due.
Our copy of that text came from a republisher's page marked current as of January 01, 2026. Read the current wording of § 5321.16 on Ohio's own published Code before you quote a number in a dispute.
What renters assume
The one month's periodic rent in § 5321.16(A) reads like a limit, so a Columbus renter asked for two or three months' rent up front assumes the demand is unlawful and that refusing it is the whole argument.
What is actually true
The subsection prices a large deposit instead of forbidding it. It says a deposit "in excess of fifty dollars or one month's periodic rent, whichever is greater, shall bear interest on the excess at the rate of five per cent per annum if the tenant remains in possession of the premises for six months or more". A landlord holding three months' rent complies with § 5321.16(A) as long as that interest is computed and paid annually, so the argument to make is about the unpaid interest, not about an amount no section our record read prohibits.
Columbus joins the group with no cap on the amount, and that group is the largest one on the chart. Eight of those sixteen rows carry no ceiling: Austin, Miami, Chicago, Seattle, Denver, Nashville, Portland and Columbus. The other eight rows carry a figure, with Las Vegas highest at 3 months, Atlanta and Philadelphia at 2, Phoenix at 1.5, and Los Angeles, New York City, Boston and Washington at 1 month.
The bar draws the ceiling and nothing else, which is exactly what makes Ohio look emptier than it is. Neither the five per cent interest that § 5321.16(A) puts on the excess, nor the thirty day itemize-and-return clock in § 5321.16(B), nor the instalment option Columbus adds in § 4551.04 can appear on a chart whose only measure is the number of months a landlord may collect.
Plain English Version
Ohio does not tell your landlord how big the deposit may be. It tells them what it costs to hold a big one and how fast it has to come back. Anything above fifty dollars or a month's rent earns five per cent a year on the excess once you have lived there six months, and once the tenancy ends and you have handed back possession, an itemized list and the balance are due within thirty days. Columbus adds two things on top: a written receipt for any deposit, and an instalment option an operator has to offer, unless that operator has fewer than 5 rental units.
Ohio Law on Security Deposit Rules
- The figure most often mistaken for an Ohio deposit cap sits in § 5321.16(A): "Any security deposit in excess of fifty dollars or one month's periodic rent, whichever is greater, shall bear interest on the excess at the rate of five per cent per annum if the tenant remains in possession of the premises for six months or more, and shall be computed and paid annually by the landlord to the tenant." That sentence prices a large deposit. It does not forbid one. A landlord charging two or three months rent is complying with § 5321.16(A) so long as the interest is computed and paid annually.
- The return deadline is separate and is stated as a number. Section 5321.16(B) says that "Any deduction from the security deposit shall be itemized and identified by the landlord in a written notice delivered to the tenant together with the amount due, within thirty days after termination of the rental agreement and delivery of possession." The same division puts a condition on the tenant: "The tenant shall provide the landlord in writing with a forwarding address or new address to which the written notice and amount due from the landlord may be sent."
- Failing that thirty day duty is expensive. Section 5321.16(C) provides that "If the landlord fails to comply with division (B) of this section, the tenant may recover the property and money due him, together with damages in an amount equal to the amount wrongfully withheld, and reasonable attorneys fees." The tenant who never gave a forwarding address loses that remedy, because § 5321.16(B) says that tenant "shall not be entitled to damages or attorneys fees under division (C) of this section."
- Columbus regulates the payment schedule rather than the amount. Section 4551.04(a) says that where an operator requires a deposit, the tenant "shall either pay the required security deposit in full or select and subsequently fulfill one of the following rental security deposit payment alternatives", being instalments over "no fewer than 3 monthly installment payments" or "no fewer than 6 monthly installment payments". Section 4551.04(b) exempts "any operator with fewer than 5 rental units". Section 4551.05(a) separately requires a written receipt for any deposit.
Ohio Rev. Code § 5321.16(A), (B), (C); Columbus City Codes § 4551.04; Columbus City Codes § 4551.05 - statutes change; verify the current text for your situation.
The section that governs a Columbus deposit is Ohio Rev. Code § 5321.16, and it runs in three divisions that do three different jobs.
Division (A) is the interest rule. "Any security deposit in excess of fifty dollars or one month's periodic rent, whichever is greater, shall bear interest on the excess at the rate of five per cent per annum if the tenant remains in possession of the premises for six months or more, and shall be computed and paid annually by the landlord to the tenant."
Read that as a price rather than a prohibition. It attaches a consequence to a large deposit and never says a deposit may not be large, which is why our record scores Ohio as setting no maximum. A landlord asking for two months' rent is inside § 5321.16(A); a landlord asking for two months' rent and never computing the interest is not.
Two conditions have to line up before any interest is owed. The deposit has to exceed the greater of fifty dollars or one month's periodic rent, and you have to remain in possession for six months or more. Only the excess earns, not the whole deposit.
Division (B) is the return clock. "Any deduction from the security deposit shall be itemized and identified by the landlord in a written notice delivered to the tenant together with the amount due, within thirty days after termination of the rental agreement and delivery of possession."
Both events have to happen for the count to start. The rental agreement has to have terminated and possession has to have been delivered, so the day you hand back the keys can matter as much as the date printed on the lease.
The same division puts a duty on the tenant, and it is the one that decides how much a late landlord ends up owing. "The tenant shall provide the landlord in writing with a forwarding address or new address to which the written notice and amount due from the landlord may be sent." A tenant who fails to do so "shall not be entitled to damages or attorneys fees under division (C) of this section".
Division (C) is what the deadline is worth. "If the landlord fails to comply with division (B) of this section, the tenant may recover the property and money due him, together with damages in an amount equal to the amount wrongfully withheld, and reasonable attorneys fees." Damages equal to the sum wrongfully withheld sit on top of the sum itself, and the attorney fee award is what makes a small deposit worth arguing over.
The two halves of division (B) work together, so the practical order is to send the forwarding address in writing first and keep proof that you did, then start counting the thirty days.
Our reading of these divisions came from a republisher's copy of the Revised Code carrying the line current as of January 01, 2026. Check § 5321.16 as it is published today before you write to a landlord about the money, since which division you are relying on decides what you can claim.
Ohio Tenant Protections
Ohio Rev. Code § 5321.16 gives a Columbus tenant three things, and none of them is a ceiling on the amount. First, a deposit in excess of fifty dollars or one month's periodic rent, whichever is greater, bears interest on the excess at the rate of five per cent per annum where the tenant remains in possession of the premises for six months or more, and that interest is to be computed and paid annually by the landlord to the tenant.
Second, any deduction from the deposit must be itemized and identified in a written notice delivered to the tenant together with the amount due, within thirty days after termination of the rental agreement and delivery of possession. Third, where the landlord fails that duty, the tenant may recover the property and money due him, together with damages in an amount equal to the amount wrongfully withheld, and reasonable attorneys fees.
That third protection is conditional on your own step: § 5321.16(B) requires the tenant to provide the landlord in writing with a forwarding address or new address to which the written notice and amount due may be sent, and a tenant who does not is not entitled to damages or attorneys fees under division (C).
On the Columbus layer, Columbus City Codes § 4551.04(a) requires an operator who requires a security deposit to let the tenant either pay it in full or select and fulfill an instalment alternative of no fewer than 3 monthly installment payments or no fewer than 6 monthly installment payments, with § 4551.04(b) exempting any operator with fewer than 5 rental units, and § 4551.05(a) separately requiring a written receipt for any deposit.
What's Specific to Columbus
Figures are the state rule, or the stronger city ordinance where one exists. Verify the current law for your own situation before relying on it.
Columbus is a city inside a state, so a renter here has two layers of text to read rather than one. The state layer is Ohio Rev. Code Chapter 5321. The city layer is Columbus City Codes Title 45, the Housing Code, and within it Chapter 4551.
The city layer does not add a cap. § 4551.04 regulates how a deposit may be paid rather than how large it may be. Under § 4551.04(a), where an operator requires a deposit the tenant "shall either pay the required security deposit in full or select and subsequently fulfill one of the following rental security deposit payment alternatives", those alternatives being instalments over "no fewer than 3 monthly installment payments" or "no fewer than 6 monthly installment payments".
That option has a size limit attached to the landlord, not to the deposit. § 4551.04(b) exempts "any operator with fewer than 5 rental units", so whether the instalment choice is available to you depends on how many units your operator has rather than on the building you live in.
A second ordinance covers the paperwork. § 4551.05(a) requires a written receipt for any deposit, which is the document that later settles what was paid and when.
There is a live question sitting over the whole city layer, and it is honest to name it rather than answer it. Ohio Rev. Code § 5321.19(A) bars a political subdivision from regulating the rights and obligations that Chapter 5321 already regulates, and § 5321.20 is a legislative finding that the subject is one of statewide interest. Half a rule is worse than none here, so the rest of § 5321.19 belongs beside it. The bar in (A) is written to operate only "Except as provided in division (B) of this section", and (B)(1) says the chapter does not preempt a housing, building, health or safety code of a political subdivision. The instalment and receipt sections above are in Chapter 4551, part of Title 45, which the Columbus code calls the Housing Code. Whether a particular Columbus ordinance is reached by the first division or saved by the second is a question for a court reading all of them. This page describes the ordinances as they are enacted in the city code and makes no prediction, in either direction, about whether they are enforceable against a challenge.
What that means in practice is worth being plain about. Ask for the instalment choice and ask for the receipt, keep the written record either way, and build the money argument on § 5321.16, which is state law and is not exposed to the same question.
Our reading of the city layer came from the Columbus City Codes as published on Municode, labelled Supplement 85 and codified through Ordinance No. 0923-2026 enacted April 20, 2026, covering § 4551.01 through § 4551.081 and Chapter 4509. Ordinances get amended, so treat this as an account of that supplement and check the chapter as it reads today.
§ 5321.16(B) already requires an itemized written notice and the amount due within thirty days after termination and delivery of possession. A clause repeating that was drafted against the statute.
§ 5321.16(A) puts five per cent per annum on the excess over fifty dollars or one month's rent, computed and paid annually, once you have been in possession six months or more. A clause naming that is a clause you can hold them to.
§ 5321.16(B) requires every deduction to be itemized and identified in writing with the amount due. A sum described as non-refundable before anything has been deducted is a sum nobody has itemized.
The statutory count in § 5321.16(B) runs thirty days from termination of the rental agreement and delivery of possession. A longer window written into a lease is asking you to wait past the day division (C) damages start to matter.
Sources
The law this guide relies on, and where to read it. Statutes change, so confirm the current text before you act on it.
- Ohio Rev. Code § 5321.16(A), (B), (C); Columbus City Codes § 4551.04; Columbus City Codes § 4551.05; Ohio Rev. Code § 5321.19(A); Ohio Rev. Code § 5321.19(B)(1), read on codes.findlaw.com. Ohio publishes the official text at codes.ohio.gov.
Red Flags to Watch Out For
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A large deposit and no mention of interest
§ 5321.16(A) puts five per cent per annum on the part above fifty dollars or one month's rent. A lease collecting two or three months and saying nothing about interest has left out the one thing Ohio attaches to a big deposit.
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A clause that treats one month as the legal maximum
No section our Ohio record read in Chapter 5321 sets a maximum. Wording that presents one month as a statutory ceiling misstates § 5321.16(A), which is an interest trigger.
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No place to give a forwarding address
§ 5321.16(B) requires the tenant to give a forwarding or new address in writing, and a tenant who does not is not entitled to damages or attorneys fees under division (C). Send it yourself and keep the proof.
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Deposit taken with no receipt
Columbus City Codes § 4551.05(a) requires a written receipt for any deposit. A payment with no receipt leaves you proving the amount from a bank record later.
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The instalment option never offered
§ 4551.04(a) requires an operator who requires a deposit to offer payment in full or an instalment alternative of no fewer than 3 or no fewer than 6 monthly payments. § 4551.04(b) exempts an operator with fewer than 5 rental units, so ask which applies before you sign.
Your Rights as a Columbus Tenant
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Interest on a deposit above the trigger
§ 5321.16(A) makes the excess over fifty dollars or one month's periodic rent bear five per cent per annum, computed and paid annually, where you remain in possession six months or more.
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An itemized notice within thirty days
§ 5321.16(B) requires deductions to be itemized and identified in a written notice delivered with the amount due, within thirty days after termination of the rental agreement and delivery of possession.
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Damages and attorney fees for a missed deadline
§ 5321.16(C) lets you recover the property and money due, damages equal to the amount wrongfully withheld, and reasonable attorneys fees where the landlord fails division (B).
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Instalments and a receipt in Columbus
Columbus City Codes § 4551.04(a) requires an instalment alternative of no fewer than 3 or no fewer than 6 monthly payments, and § 4551.05(a) requires a written receipt for any deposit.
What To Do - Step by Step
Read what you actually agreed to pay
Find the deposit figure in the lease and compare it with one month's periodic rent. Anything above the greater of that or fifty dollars is the part § 5321.16(A) puts five per cent per annum on once you pass six months in possession.
Ask for the receipt and the payment choice in writing
Columbus City Codes § 4551.05(a) requires a written receipt, and § 4551.04(a) requires an operator who requires a deposit to offer instalments of no fewer than 3 or no fewer than 6 monthly payments. Ask before you pay, not after.
Photograph the unit at move-in and again at move-out
Division (B) turns on what was deducted and why, so the two sets of dated images are what an itemized notice gets compared against. Do it room by room and keep the originals with their timestamps.
Send the forwarding address in writing
§ 5321.16(B) makes this your duty, and a tenant who skips it is not entitled to damages or attorneys fees under division (C). Email is fine as long as you keep the sent copy.
Count thirty days from termination and delivery of possession
Both events start the clock in § 5321.16(B), so write down the date the tenancy ended and the date you returned the keys. If no itemized notice and no money has arrived by day thirty, the deadline has passed.
Put the demand in writing, then take it to a court
Name the amount, the date possession was delivered, and § 5321.16(B) and (C). Ohio legal aid offices and the Franklin County municipal small claims process both handle deposit claims, and division (C)'s attorney fee award is part of what you are claiming.