Security deposits in Massachusetts
Free. Last updated 10 October 2026
In Massachusetts a security deposit is the tenant's money, held under a procedure set out in one statute — General Laws chapter 186, section 15B — with a date on every step and a consequence for every missed one. This is Massachusetts law, the state the episode's story is set in. Every state handles deposits differently, and none of the deadlines or penalties below apply anywhere else.
Fifteen days that almost nobody uses
A landlord who takes a deposit must give the tenant a signed statement of condition listing the damage already in the apartment. The tenant then has fifteen days — from receiving it or from moving in, whichever is later — to sign it if it is right, or attach a separate signed list of the damage it leaves out.
That second list is the part tenants skip, and the one that matters later. The statute's own notice warns that if you return nothing, a court may treat your silence as agreement that the landlord's list was complete. Damage on that list cannot be charged to you at the end.
Step 1 — what a landlord may collect at the start
The list is short. At the start of a tenancy a landlord may require no more than:
- the first full month's rent;
- the last full month's rent, at the same rate;
- a security deposit no larger than one month's rent;
- the cost of buying and installing a lock and key.
When the deposit is paid, the tenant is owed a signed receipt showing the amount, the date, who received it, and a description of the apartment.
Step 2 — the statement of condition
The landlord must hand it over when the deposit is received or within ten days after the tenancy begins, whichever is later. It must be signed by the landlord or an agent, list in full any damage then existing — including any certified or adjudicated sanitary or building code violations — and carry a required notice in bold at the top telling the tenant what to do with it.
What to do with it:
- Walk the apartment with the form in hand. Write down what it leaves out, room by room.
- Sign it and attach your own signed list within the fifteen days. Keep a copy of both.
- Send it in a way that leaves a dated record that the landlord received it. A certified-mail receipt is a record somebody else made.
The landlord then has fifteen days to return a copy of your list with either a signed agreement or a clear statement of disagreement. The statute bars deductions for damage on the landlord's statement, and for damage on your separate list once the landlord has signed it — unless the landlord later repaired that damage and can prove the new damage was unrelated and caused by the tenant. If the landlord disagrees and does not sign, your dated list is still evidence of what was there on day one.
Step 3 — the bank and the receipt
The deposit must be held in a separate, interest-bearing account in a bank located in Massachusetts, beyond the reach of the landlord's creditors. Within thirty days of receiving it, the landlord must give the tenant a receipt naming the bank and its location, the amount and the account number. If the landlord does not comply, the tenant is entitled to the immediate return of the deposit.
The deposit earns interest for the tenant: five percent a year, or the lower rate the bank actually paid, with a statement at the end of each year of the tenancy. If the interest has not arrived thirty days after the year ends, the tenant may deduct it from the next rent payment.
Step 4 — the end of the tenancy
Within thirty days after the tenancy ends, the landlord must return the deposit with interest. The only deductions allowed are unpaid rent or water charges, an unpaid tax increase under a valid tax-escalation clause, and a reasonable amount to repair damage the tenant caused — reasonable wear and tear excluded.
A deduction for damage needs two things, delivered within the same thirty days:
- an itemized list of the damage, sworn to under the pains and penalties of perjury, describing the damage and the repairs in precise detail;
- written evidence of the cost — estimates, bills, invoices or receipts.
What happens when a step is missed
Losing the right to keep anything. The landlord forfeits the right to keep any part of the deposit, and to counterclaim for damage in a suit over it, if he fails to put the deposit in a proper account; fails to deliver a compliant itemized list within thirty days; puts a clause in the lease that conflicts with the statute and tries to enforce it; fails to pass the deposit to a new owner; or fails to return what the tenant is owed within thirty days.
Three times the amount. Only three of those five failures carry the triple penalty: not holding the deposit in an account as the statute requires, not transferring it to a new owner, and not returning what the tenant is owed within thirty days. Then the court must award three times the deposit, or the part of it the tenant was owed, plus five percent interest from the day it was due, court costs and reasonable attorney's fees.
Two Supreme Judicial Court decisions mark the edges:
- Good faith is not a defense. In Mellor v. Berman, 390 Mass. 275 (1983), the court held that the triple award does not depend on a finding of bad faith or a willful violation.
- A defective list is not the same as no list. In Phillips v. Equity Residential Management, 478 Mass. 251 (2017), it held that an itemized list that is unsworn or lacks the written evidence makes the landlord forfeit the deposit, but does not by itself trigger triple damages. Trebling under the thirty-day clause applies where the landlord fails to return or account for the deposit within thirty days, or deducts for something the statute does not allow — and then only on the amount improperly withheld.
So the clock is the strongest point. A landlord who neither returns the deposit nor accounts for it within thirty days of the end of the tenancy is in triple territory: on a $3,300 deposit, three times is $9,900, before interest and fees. A missing bank receipt, on its own, entitles the tenant to the deposit back — not to three times it. The court in Phillips also noted that tenants may have separate rights under the consumer protection law, chapter 93A.
Why the law is built this way
A deposit is a small sum and a lawyer is an expensive one. The fixed multiple and the fee award are what make a claim over a few thousand dollars worth bringing at all.
If you are the landlord
The same procedure protects you, and it costs nothing to follow. A thorough statement of condition, written by you in the first ten days, is what separates the stain that was already there from the one that was not. Add a Massachusetts account, a receipt within thirty days, and a sworn, documented list within thirty days of move-out. The expensive cases are usually about a missed date, not a carpet.
Where to read the primary sources
- M.G.L. c. 186, §15B — the statute itself: subsection (2) for the receipt and the statement of condition, (3) for the bank and interest, (4) for the thirty days and the sworn list, (6) and (7) for forfeiture and triple damages.
- The Attorney General's Guide to Landlord and Tenant Rights — the state's own summary, including the statement of condition and the fifteen days.
The two court decisions are cited above by volume and page, which is how a law library or a lawyer will find them.
What this page is not
It is not legal advice. Outside Massachusetts the rules are different, and inside it a court decides what was wear and tear on the facts of each apartment. What this page can do is show you which dates the statute turns on, so that you have the right papers on the days that matter.
