Published 2026-09-27 · 8 min read

Louisiana Security Deposit Law 2026: Limits, Deadlines & Deductions

Louisiana keeps it simple on the amount — no state cap — and strict on timing and paperwork: the deposit comes back within one month after the lease terminates, with an itemized statement for anything you keep. Get it willfully wrong and the tenant recovers the amount wrongfully retained plus $300 or twice that amount, whichever is greater (La. R.S. 9:3252, as amended in 2018). A 2026 change (Act 63, HB 292) also gives landlords a second, later date for the itemized statement itself. Every section below is from Louisiana Revised Statutes 9:3251–3254.

The short version: Charge what the market bears (no cap). Return the deposit within one month after the lease terminates. If you retain any portion, send an itemized statement accounting for it within that month — or, under the 2026 amendment, within 15 days after the one-month date. The tenant must furnish a forwarding address at termination. No separate-account or interest rule appears in the deposit statutes. Ignore a written refund demand for 30 days and the failure is treated as willful by law.

Correction to older summaries: Some secondary sources (and earlier versions of this page) describe the penalty as actual damages or $200. That was the pre-2019 text. Act 416 of 2018, effective January 1, 2019, replaced it with the current formula in §3252: the wrongfully retained portion, plus $300 or twice that portion, whichever is greater. Use the current formula.

The statute table

Limits: how much can you charge?

No state maximum. §3251 caps nothing, and Louisiana's deposit statutes do not separately regulate pet deposits, nonrefundable fees, or application fees. Price against the market with the Security Deposit Max Checker. The absence of a cap cuts both ways, though: because the §3252 penalty is calculated from the amount wrongfully retained, a larger deposit means a larger base for the double-damages calculation if a withholding is later found wrongful. The bigger the deposit you collect, the more exact your itemization and your deadline discipline need to be.

The one-month deadline, precisely

Return the deposit within one month after the lease terminates (§3251(A)). The itemized statement for any retained portion is due on the same one-month date — and under Act 63 of 2026 (HB 292), the statement may instead be sent within 15 days after the date that is one month after the tenancy terminates. Note what the 2026 amendment does and does not do: it extends the statement date only. It does not extend the one-month date for returning the money itself, so calendar the two dates separately with the Security Deposit Deadline Finder.

Two related duties frame the deadline:

1. Forwarding address — the tenant must furnish one at termination, to which the statements may be sent (§3251(A)). Ask for it in writing at move-out; without it, your proof of sending is only as good as the address you used.

2. Abandonment — Subsection A does not apply when the tenant abandons the premises without giving the required notice or before the lease terminates (§3251(C)). That exception is narrow and fact-specific; do not treat an ordinary early move-out with proper notice as abandonment.

When the clocks actually start

Louisiana runs three distinct clocks, and confusing them is how landlords become "willful" by accident. The return clock runs from termination of the lease — one month, full stop; the current text of §§3251–3252 does not pause it for possession or for a missing forwarding address, so do not import that pause rule from other states' statutes. The statement clock runs from the same termination date, with the Act 63 alternative of 15 days past the one-month date. The willfulness clock is separate again: it runs from a tenant's written demand for a refund, and a failure to remit within 30 days after that demand constitutes willful failure under §3252(A) — even if the original miss looked like a paperwork dispute. Log three dates in the deposit file: the termination date, the mailing date of the return and statement (with proof), and the date any written demand arrived. The third date is the one that converts a late refund into a penalty case.

A worked example

Say a tenant renting for $1,200 a month vacates and the lease terminates on Monday, March 2, 2026, leaving a $1,800 deposit on file — lawful, because Louisiana sets no cap — and furnishes a forwarding address that day. You inspect that week and find $650 in charges reasonably necessary to remedy defaults and unreasonable wear, leaving a $1,150 balance. The balance is due within one month — Thursday, April 2, 2026. The itemized statement accounting for the $650 is due the same day, or by Friday, April 17, 2026 under the Act 63 extension. Now suppose instead you send nothing, the tenant makes a written demand on April 2, and you still have not remitted by Saturday, May 2, 2026 — 30 days after the demand. At that point §3252(A) treats the failure as willful as a matter of law, and the argument is no longer about whether you meant well; it is about how much of the retention was wrongful.

Louisiana's demand clock makes silence expensive: the Security Deposit Disposition & Deadline Tracker ($14.95) keeps your return date, statement date, and any written-demand date in one spreadsheet, so a 30-day willfulness trigger never sneaks up on you.

Deductions and the itemized list

You may retain only what is reasonably necessary to remedy a default of the tenant or to remedy unreasonable wear to the premises (§3251(A)). Ordinary wear is not a default and not unreasonable wear — if a charge cannot be tied to one of those two grounds, it does not belong on the list. For every dollar retained, forward an itemized statement accounting for the proceeds and giving the reasons they were not returned, to the forwarding address the tenant supplied, by the one-month date or the Act 63 extended statement date. Generate one with the Security Deposit Deduction Letter Generator.

Move-out compliance checklist

1. Get the forwarding address in writing at termination. §3251(A) makes it the tenant's duty to furnish one — your job is to ask, record it, and send everything to exactly that address.

2. Inspect and photograph the unit promptly after termination. Louisiana's retention standard is "reasonably necessary" — dated photos and invoices are what prove necessity, amount by amount.

3. Separate defaults and unreasonable wear from ordinary wear. Only the first two categories may be retained; drop anything you cannot defend under §3251(A).

4. Return the undisputed balance within one month. Do not hold the whole deposit hostage to one disputed line — the penalty base is the portion wrongfully retained, so returning what is clearly owed shrinks your exposure.

5. Send the itemized statement by the one-month date, or by the Act 63 date at the latest. Statement within one month after termination, or within 15 days after that date — and keep mailing proof with the deposit file.

6. Treat any written demand as a hard 30-day deadline. Calendar the demand date the day it arrives; remitting inside 30 days keeps a dispute from becoming statutory willfulness (§3252(A)).

7. If you sell the property mid-lease, transfer the deposit with it. The successor becomes responsible for the return and you are relieved of further liability only when the deposit is actually transferred (§3251(B)).

Interest and where the money sits

The deposit statutes (§§3251–3254) contain no separate-account requirement and no interest requirement — read them yourself in the primary sources below before relying on any summary that claims otherwise. Ordinary bookkeeping still matters: you must be able to account for the proceeds you retained, and a tenant's claim, if it reaches court, is judged on the records you kept. And a lease clause that tries to waive the tenant's rights under this Part in advance is null and void (§3254), so no drafting trick removes the one-month duty.

The penalty, spelled out

Under §3252(A), willful failure to comply with §3251 gives the tenant the right to recover, from the landlord or the successor in interest:

• the portion of the deposit wrongfully retained, plus
• $300 or twice the portion wrongfully retained, whichever is greater.

The court may also award costs and attorney fees to the prevailing party in its discretion (§3253), and the tenant may sue in the parish of the lessor's domicile or where the property sits (§3252(B)).

Run the worked example through that formula. If the $650 in charges was wrongful — say it was ordinary wear dressed up as damage — the tenant recovers the $650 back plus the greater of $300 or $1,300 (twice $650), for $1,950 total on a $650 mistake, before any fees. If the entire $1,800 had been wrongfully retained, the recovery is $1,800 plus $3,600, or $5,400. At the small end the $300 floor is what bites: wrongfully keep just $100 and the recovery is $100 plus $300, or $400 — four times the amount kept. There is no de minimis withholding in Louisiana; the formula punishes small careless retentions proportionally harder than large ones.

FAQ

How long does a Louisiana landlord have to return a security deposit?

One month after the lease terminates (§3251(A)).

Is there a limit on security deposits in Louisiana?

No state cap (§3251).

Does Louisiana require an itemized list of deductions?

Yes — an itemized statement accounting for retained proceeds and the reasons, within one month after termination, or within 15 days after the one-month date under Act 63 of 2026 (§3251(A)).

What is the penalty for wrongfully withholding a deposit in Louisiana?

For a willful failure, the tenant recovers the portion wrongfully retained plus $300 or twice that portion, whichever is greater; ignoring a written demand for 30 days counts as willful (§3252(A)).

Does Louisiana require a separate account or interest?

No such requirement appears in §§3251–3254. Keep clean records anyway — you must account for anything retained, and a waiver of the tenant's rights is void (§3254).

What did Act 63 (HB 292) change in 2026?

It amended §3251(A) so the itemized statement for a retained portion may be sent within one month after termination or within 15 days after that one-month date. It did not extend the one-month deadline for returning the money.

What happens if I sell the property during the lease?

Transfer the deposit to your successor in interest; the successor is then responsible for returning it and you are relieved of further liability (§3251(B)).

What if the tenant abandoned the unit?

Subsection A of §3251 does not apply when the tenant abandons the premises without the required notice or before the lease terminates (§3251(C)) — a narrow, fact-specific exception, not a general early-move-out rule.

Read the statute yourself

Everything on this page traces back to La. R.S. 9:3251–3254. If a deadline, a deduction, or a penalty is ever disputed, the primary sources — not a summary — are what control:

• La. R.S. 9:3251 (Justia) — the return deadline, the retention standard, the forwarding-address duty, the transfer rule, and the abandonment exception.
• La. R.S. 9:3252 (Justia) — the willful-failure penalty in its current, post-2018 form, plus the venue rule.
• Act 63 of 2026 / HB 292 (Louisiana Legislature, official enrolled act) — the enrolled amendment to §3251(A) adding the 15-day statement window.

Louisiana's one-month return clock and $300-or-double penalty for willful withholding leave no room for sloppy bookkeeping. The Security Deposit Disposition & Deadline Tracker ($14.95) keeps your return deadlines, itemized deductions, and mailing dates in one spreadsheet so the clock never sneaks up on you.

More security deposit guides

• Security deposit laws by state
• Kentucky security deposit law
• Maine security deposit law
• Kansas security deposit law
• Maryland security deposit law

Last verified: October 15, 2026. This is general information, not legal advice. Verify with a licensed Louisiana attorney before acting.