Does the deposit have to be in an interest-bearing account in Arizona?

No statute addresses whether the account must bear interest. Arizona names no place a residential deposit must be held. No escrow, trust account, separate account, bank, or financial institution appears anywhere in the Residential Landlord and Tenant Act.

What happens if a landlord does not pay deposit interest in Arizona?

No statutory penalty reaches an interest violation specifically.

Does a landlord have to pay interest on a security deposit in Arizona?

Verified August 28, 2026 All Arizona topics →

Enacted but not yet in force. This page reflects the law in force today. The following measures have been signed and take effect on the dates shown:

HB 2244 (2026), Ch. 194 — Already CHAPTERED but not yet effective: on September 12, 2026, ARS 12-1567 and 22-247 gain a tenant remedy after an eviction judgment is paid — if the tenant files a motion to compel satisfaction of the judgment and the landlord does not respond within 15 days, the filing fee is waived, no hearing is held, the judgment is deemed satisfied on the tenant's proof of payment, and the court may seal records of the eviction action under ARS 33-1379. Status: Approved 2026-06-19; effective 2026-09-12 (the session's general effective date; the chapter carries no effective-date clause of its own). The answers shown do not yet reflect it. (checked August 12, 2026).
SB 1426 (2026), Ch. 69 — Already CHAPTERED but not yet effective: on September 12, 2026, ARS 12-1173 gains a separate forcible-detainer track for unauthorized occupants of residential property. The act states it 'does not apply to or modify the rights and remedies available to landlords and tenants pursuant to title 33, chapter 10,' so the tenant eviction rules on this page are unchanged by it. Status: Approved 2026-05-29; effective 2026-09-12 (general effective date). No figure on this page changes. (checked August 12, 2026).

Arizona requires no interest on a residential security deposit — the deposit statute, A.R.S. § 33-1321, never mentions interest at all.

Cited to Ariz. Rev. Stat. § 33-1321 (residential security deposits) (A), (D), (E), (G) and 2 more cited sources · Verified August 28, 2026

The section is a complete deposit regime in eight subsections: a ceiling of one and one-half months' rent, a writing requirement for nonrefundable fees, move-in and move-out inspection rights, an itemized list of deductions within fourteen days (excluding weekends and legal holidays) of the tenancy ending and the tenant's demand, damages of twice any amount wrongfully withheld, and a successor's liability. What it does not do is say where the money sits or what it earns. Subsection (G) points the opposite way from a trust duty: 'during the term of tenancy the landlord may use refundable security deposits or other refundable deposits in accordance with any applicable provisions of the property management agreement.' Nothing anywhere in the residential act requires an escrow, a trust account, or a separate account. Mobile home park tenancies fall under a different act with the opposite answer, and a reader renting a park space should start there: A.R.S. § 33-1431(B) requires the park landlord to pay 'not less than five per cent annual interest' on damage, security, cleaning, and landscaping deposits, and to either pay it annually or compound it annually.

Arizona deposit interest at a glance

Interest owed to the tenant	No — no statute addresses it
How the rate is set	No rate exists — there is no interest duty
Current figure	No published figure exists
Rate rules	No rate rules — no duty exists
Accrual and payment	No payment duty exists
Who and what is covered	No statutory conditions stated — see the summary and notes
Statute controls where or how the deposit is held	No
Interest-bearing account required	No statute addresses whether the account must bear interest
Custody rules	Arizona names no place a residential deposit must be held. No escrow, trust account, separate account, bank, or financial institution appears anywhere in the Residential Landlord and Tenant Act. The statute goes past leaving the question open: A.R.S. § 33-1321(G) provides that 'during the term of tenancy the landlord may use refundable security deposits or other refundable deposits in accordance with any applicable provisions of the property management agreement,' and requires only that 'at the end of tenancy, all refundable deposits shall be refunded to the tenant pursuant to this section.' A landlord who may lawfully spend the money during the tenancy is under no duty to hold it apart. Whether an account bears interest is a question the act never reaches.
Penalty for violation	No statutory penalty reaches an interest violation specifically
Local rules	None noted for this state

Cite this page: "Landlord Atlas, Arizona Security Deposit Interest Laws (verified August 28, 2026), landlordatlas.com/laws/deposit-interest/arizona/" — free to cite and quote with a link (how these records are verified). Everything above is cited in the citations section below.

Check the verified Arizona answer — and every state and city that differs — in the deposit interest calculator — free, no signup, built on the same verified Arizona law as this page.

Notes and caveats

Two Arizona acts, opposite answers — The residential act (title 33, chapter 10) and the mobile home park act (chapter 11) are different statutes with different definitions, different ceilings — one and one-half months' rent for an apartment, two months for a park space — and different remedies. The five-percent interest duty belongs only to the park act. Blending them produces a claim that Arizona apartments earn five percent, which is false.
Five percent is a floor, and the landlord elects how to pay it — A.R.S. § 33-1431(B) says 'not less than five per cent annual interest,' so five percent is the minimum rather than the rate, and the landlord may 'either pay the interest annually or compound the interest annually.' The duty reaches four kinds of money: damage, security, cleaning, and landscaping deposits.
The park remedy is double, not treble — The penalty for missing the park interest duty lives in the same section and names the duty by subsection: § 33-1431(D) lets a tenant recover the property and money due 'together with damages in an amount equal to twice the amount wrongfully withheld' where the landlord fails to comply with subsections B and C. The park act's treble-damages provision, § 33-1408(D), is a separate thing — a sanction available against either party for a claim or defense that is groundless, made in bad faith, or amounts to harassment — and it is not a multiplier on an interest shortfall.
The 2026 session left both sections alone — The published statute compilation carries revisions only through the 2025 session and by its own notice will not be rebuilt until after the 2026 session closes, so the 2026 session laws are the reliable currency source for Arizona. Of the 264 acts the Governor signed in 2026, none amends § 33-1321 or § 33-1431; the three that touch chapters 10 and 11 at all concern the mobile home relocation fund. Roughly thirty-five landlord-tenant and mobile-home bills were introduced that session and none was signed.

Common questions: Arizona deposit interest

Each answer is the verified value from the table above, restated as a direct answer. Free to quote with a link to this page.

What is the Arizona security deposit interest rate right now?: No published figure exists.
When must a landlord pay or credit deposit interest in Arizona?: No payment duty exists.
Does the deposit have to be in an interest-bearing account in Arizona?: No statute addresses whether the account must bear interest. Arizona names no place a residential deposit must be held. No escrow, trust account, separate account, bank, or financial institution appears anywhere in the Residential Landlord and Tenant Act.
What happens if a landlord does not pay deposit interest in Arizona?: No statutory penalty reaches an interest violation specifically.
Do any cities or counties in Arizona have their own deposit-interest rules?: None noted for this state.

Citations

Ariz. Rev. Stat. § 33-1321 (residential security deposits) · (A), (D), (E), (G) (verified 2026) Official source
Ariz. Rev. Stat. § 33-1431 (mobile home park security deposits; the affirmative park duty) · (B), (D) (verified 2026) Official source
Ariz. Rev. Stat. title 33, section inventory and the compilation's own currency statement (verified 2026) Official source

How this record was verified: Direct read of A.R.S. § 33-1321 in the Arizona Legislature's published statute text, all eight subsections (A) through (H), together with every section of title 33, chapter 10 (the Arizona Residential Landlord and Tenant Act, §§ 33-1301 to 33-1381) and every section of chapter 11 (the Arizona Mobile Home Parks Residential Landlord and Tenant Act, §§ 33-1401 to 33-1501) — 109 sections in all, each read as statutory text and searched for interest, escrow, trust-account, separate-account and segregation terms, with all twenty-four occurrences of the word 'interest' examined in context. Because the published compilation states in terms that it carries revisions only through the 2025 session, currency was established from the session laws themselves instead: the Legislature's own bill record for the 2026 session (2,190 measures, 264 of them signed) and all 264 chaptered acts of that session were read for any amendment to § 33-1321 or § 33-1431, and there is none.