Does a landlord have to pay interest on a security deposit in Virginia?
Virginia required interest on security deposits for nearly forty years and then abolished it: since January 1, 2015 no interest is due or payable on a deposit held under the Virginia Residential Landlord and Tenant Act.
Cited to 2014 Acts of Assembly c. 651 (HB 273) — enactment clause 4, the uncodified no-interest rule, and the strikethrough text of former §§ 55-248.15:1 and 55-248.15:2 enactment clauses 1 through 4 and 3 more cited sources · Verified August 28, 2026
The rule that abolished it is not in the Code at all — it is the fourth enactment clause of 2014 Acts of Assembly c. 651, which was never codified, and that is why a reader searching today's Code finds silence rather than a prohibition. Section 55.1-1226, the current security-deposit section, says nothing about interest. Two dates matter and they are not the same: the duty to accrue interest was struck effective July 1, 2014, and the statutory rate schedule was repealed effective January 1, 2015. The old formula was the Federal Reserve Board discount rate as of January 1 minus four percentage points, owed only where the deposit had been held more than thirteen months — and once that threshold was crossed, interest ran from the first day of the lease rather than from month fourteen. In practical terms the repeal ended a rule that had already stopped paying: the published rate was 0.00% for every year from 2009 through 2014.
Virginia deposit interest at a glance
| Interest owed to the tenant | No longer — a past duty was repealed |
|---|---|
| How the rate is set | No rate exists — there is no interest duty |
| Current figure | No published figure exists |
| Rate rules | There is no current rate because there is no current duty. Until 2014 the rule lived in former § 55-248.15:1(B)(1), which required the landlord to "accrue interest at an annual rate equal to four percentage points below the Federal Reserve Board discount rate as of January 1 of each year on all property or money held as a security deposit." A companion section, former § 55-248.15:2, did nothing but restate that formula and tabulate the resulting figure for every period from July 1, 1975 onward; the General Assembly extended the table one line at a time. Interest was owed only where the deposit had been held more than thirteen months, counted from the commencement date of the rental agreement or the effective date of a prior agreement with the same tenant, for continuous occupancy of the same dwelling unit. Once that period was crossed, the money was "earning interest which begins accruing from the effective date of the rental agreement" — back to day one, not from month fourteen. Payment came at the end: "such interest shall be paid only upon termination of the tenancy, delivery of possession and return of the security deposit," inside the same forty-five-day window as the deposit itself. Two dates ended it, and they are different dates. The accrual duty was struck effective July 1, 2014. The rate schedule was repealed effective January 1, 2015. In their place stands the fourth enactment clause of 2014 Acts of Assembly c. 651: "That on or after January 1, 2015, there shall be no interest due and payable on security deposits of a tenant held under the Virginia Residential Landlord Tenant Act." Its second sentence winds down what had already accrued — interest due and payable as of December 31, 2014 was still to be paid no later than forty-five days after termination of the tenancy and delivery of possession. |
| 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 statute addresses how the deposit is held |
| Interest-bearing account required | No statute addresses whether the account must bear interest |
| Custody rules | No statute addresses custody of the deposit |
| Penalty for violation | No statutory penalty reaches an interest violation specifically |
| Local rules | None noted for this state |
Cite this page: "Landlord Atlas, Virginia Security Deposit Interest Laws (verified August 28, 2026), landlordatlas.com/laws/deposit-interest/virginia/" — 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 Virginia answer — and every state and city that differs — in the deposit interest calculator — free, no signup, built on the same verified Virginia law as this page.
Published rate tables
Virginia statutory deposit-interest schedule, 1975 through 2014 (former § 55-248.15:2(B))
The figures the statute itself published for each period, set as the Federal Reserve Board discount rate as of January 1 minus four percentage points. Interest was owed only on a deposit held more than thirteen months of continuous occupancy, and once that threshold was crossed it ran from the first day of the rental agreement. The series is closed: the schedule was repealed effective January 1, 2015, and no figure exists for any period after December 31, 2014.
| Period | Rate | Note |
|---|---|---|
| July 1, 1975 through December 31, 1979 | 3% | |
| January 1, 1980 through December 31, 1981 | 4% | |
| January 1, 1982 through December 31, 1984 | 4.5% | |
| January 1, 1985 through December 31, 1994 | 5% | |
| calendar year 1995 | 4.75% | |
| calendar year 1996 | 5.25% | |
| January 1, 1997 through December 31, 1998 | 5% | |
| January 1, 1999 through June 30, 1999 | 4.5% | The schedule splits 1999: the rate changed at mid-year. |
| July 1, 1999 through December 31, 1999 | 3.5% | |
| calendar year 2000 | 4% | |
| calendar year 2001 | 5% | |
| calendar year 2002 | 0.25% | |
| calendar year 2003 | 0% | Printed in the statute as 0%, the schedule's first zero year. |
| calendar year 2004 | 1% | |
| calendar year 2005 | 2.25% | |
| calendar year 2006 | 4.25% | |
| calendar year 2007 | 5.25% | |
| calendar year 2008 | 0.75% | The last period that produced any money for a tenant. |
| calendar year 2009 | 0% | First of six consecutive years published at 0.00%. |
| calendar year 2010 | 0% | |
| calendar year 2011 | 0% | |
| calendar year 2012 | 0% | |
| calendar year 2013 | 0% | |
| calendar year 2014 | 0% | The last line the General Assembly ever added, inserted by the same 2014 act that struck the sentence providing for rates thereafter. The schedule was repealed effective January 1, 2015 and no figure exists for any later period. |
A closed series that will not grow. Source: official source · verified August 28, 2026.
Notes and caveats
- Cite the act, not a Code section — The no-interest rule reads: "That on or after January 1, 2015, there shall be no interest due and payable on security deposits of a tenant held under the Virginia Residential Landlord Tenant Act." It is an uncodified enactment clause of 2014 Acts of Assembly c. 651. The 2019 recodification that created Title 55.1 repealed Code sections and by its terms could not reach an uncodified clause, which therefore stands as free-standing Virginia law. Anyone hunting for the prohibition inside § 55.1-1226 will not find it there, and should not conclude from that silence that interest is owed.
- Two repeal dates, never collapsed into one — The accrual duty in former § 55-248.15:1(B)(1) was struck effective July 1, 2014. The rate schedule in former § 55-248.15:2 was repealed effective January 1, 2015, under enactment clauses 2 and 3 of the same act. The "no interest due and payable" rule runs from January 1, 2015. Merging the dates misstates which rule ended when, and matters for any tenancy that straddled the second half of 2014.
- Thirteen months was a qualifying period, not a waiting period — The old rule owed nothing unless the deposit had been held more than thirteen months of continuous occupancy — but once it had, the deposit was "earning interest which begins accruing from the effective date of the rental agreement." Sources describing a tenant as starting to earn interest in month fourteen have it backwards: month fourteen is when the entitlement vested, and it reached back to day one. The threshold's own wording changed on July 1, 2010, from thirteen months after the effective date of the rental agreement to thirteen months beginning from its commencement date.
- The repeal ended a rule that was already paying nothing — The schedule's last six lines — 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013 and 2014 — each read 0.00%. The 2014 act added the 2014 line and struck the sentence saying the rate would thereafter be set by the formula, the drafting signal that no line 25 would follow. A tenant whose deposit was held across those years earned nothing under a rule that was still on the books, so the honest account of 2015 is that Virginia removed a dormant rule rather than taking money out of tenants' pockets.
- Three "accrued interest" references survive in the Code and create no duty — Section 55.1-1213 and § 55.1-1317 require an owner selling the property to transfer "any security deposits and any accrued interest on the deposits" to the new owner, and § 55.1-1240 refers to deposits and prepaid rent "plus accrued interest, recoverable by law" after fire or casualty damage. Each presupposes interest that some other law might make recoverable; none creates the obligation, and since 2015 no Virginia law does. The 2014 act's fingerprint is visible in § 55.1-1226 itself, whose successor-landlord sentence once read "and any accrued interest" and no longer does.
- The wind-down clause is permanent, and nearly empty — The same enactment clause provides that interest due and payable as of December 31, 2014 must still be paid no later than forty-five days after termination of the tenancy and delivery of possession. Because the published rate was 0.00% from 2009 onward, the clause can only reach interest accrued through December 31, 2008 on a tenancy still running today — a very small population, but the clause has never been repealed.
- Manufactured home lots follow the same answer — The Manufactured Home Lot Rental Act provides that § 55.1-1226 governs the terms and conditions of security deposits for rental agreements under that chapter, subject to one limit stated there. Lot deposits therefore inherit the same result: no interest is due.
Common questions: Virginia 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 Virginia security deposit interest rate right now?
- No published figure exists. There is no current rate because there is no current duty. Until 2014 the rule lived in former § 55-248.15:1(B)(1), which required the landlord to "accrue interest at an annual rate equal to four percentage points below the Federal Reserve Board discount rate as of January 1 of each year on all property or money held as a security deposit."
- When must a landlord pay or credit deposit interest in Virginia?
- No payment duty exists.
- Does the deposit have to be in an interest-bearing account in Virginia?
- No statute addresses whether the account must bear interest.
- What happens if a landlord does not pay deposit interest in Virginia?
- No statutory penalty reaches an interest violation specifically.
- Do any cities or counties in Virginia have their own deposit-interest rules?
- None noted for this state.
Citations
- 2014 Acts of Assembly c. 651 (HB 273) — enactment clause 4, the uncodified no-interest rule, and the strikethrough text of former §§ 55-248.15:1 and 55-248.15:2 · enactment clauses 1 through 4 (verified 2026) Official source
- Va. Code § 55.1-1226 (Security deposits) — the successor section, which contains no interest provision (verified 2026) Official source
- Va. Code tit. 55.1 ch. 12 (Virginia Residential Landlord and Tenant Act), full chapter text — including §§ 55.1-1213 and 55.1-1240 (verified 2026) Official source
- 2010 Acts of Assembly c. 550 (HB 407) — the 2010 rewording of the thirteen-month clause and the addition of the 2010 rate line (verified 2026) Official source
How this record was verified: Direct read of Va. Code § 55.1-1226 (Security deposits) on the Virginia Law Portal in two official presentations — the section view and the full-text view of Title 55.1 chapter 12 — together with § 55.1-1200's definition of a security deposit, and the whole of chapter 12 (the Virginia Residential Landlord and Tenant Act) and chapter 13 (the Manufactured Home Lot Rental Act) read for any provision creating an interest duty, which located the three surviving "accrued interest" references at §§ 55.1-1213, 55.1-1240 and 55.1-1317. The chaptered text of 2014 Acts of Assembly c. 651 (HB 273, approved April 6, 2014) was read in full on the Legislative Information System, including its four enactment clauses and its strikethrough markup of former §§ 55-248.15:1 and 55-248.15:2, from two official hosts serving byte-identical text; the same paragraphs were read un-struck in the chaptered texts of 2013 Acts c. 563 and 2010 Acts c. 550 as an independent confirmation of the pre-repeal wording and of the 2010 change to the thirteen-month clause. The caption and repeal clause of 2019 Acts c. 712, the Title 55.1 recodification, were read for its reach. Section 55.1-1226's amendment history ends at 2023, cc. 433, 434, and the portal publishes no future-effective version of it.