Does a landlord have to pay interest on a security deposit in West Virginia?
West Virginia requires no interest on a residential security deposit, and no escrow, trust or separate account for it.
Cited to W. Va. Code § 37-6A-2 (Security deposits) (a), (b), (e) and 3 more cited sources · Verified August 28, 2026
This is a strong silence rather than an accident of drafting: article 6A of chapter 37 is a complete, self-contained scheme in six sections — definitions, the return and the closed list of what may be deducted, a recordkeeping duty on the landlord, a ban on waiver clauses, the remedy for noncompliance, and the article's application — and the legislature that built it never created an interest or custody duty anywhere in it. Look at where the words would have to sit and they are not there: § 37-6A-2(a) says that "any security deposit held by the landlord, minus any deductions for damages or other charges, shall be delivered to the tenant, together with a written itemization," and stops — no accompanying interest clause of the kind every interest-paying state puts at exactly that point. The word "interest" appears in the article only as an interest in property, and "escrow," "segregate," "separate account," "commingle," "bank" and "financial institution" appear not at all.
West Virginia 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 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, West Virginia Security Deposit Interest Laws (verified August 28, 2026), landlordatlas.com/laws/deposit-interest/west-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 West Virginia answer — and every state and city that differs — in the deposit interest calculator — free, no signup, built on the same verified West Virginia law as this page.
Notes and caveats
- The silence sits exactly where the words would go — § 37-6A-2(a) is the return sentence, and it delivers the deposit minus deductions and the written itemization. A state that pays deposit interest adds the interest to the thing delivered, in that same sentence. West Virginia's does not, and no other subsection supplies it.
- A complete scheme that never reaches custody — The six sections cover definitions (§ 37-6A-1), the return and the exclusive list of what a deposit may be applied to (§ 37-6A-2), the landlord's duty to keep records (§ 37-6A-3), the unenforceability of any waiver clause (§ 37-6A-4), the remedy for willful or bad-faith noncompliance (§ 37-6A-5), and the article's application (§ 37-6A-6). Not one of them says where the money is kept. Article 6, the general landlord-tenant article, contains no security-deposit provision at all, so article 6A is the whole of the law.
- The article's 'interest' words are property words — § 37-6A-2(e) binds "[t]he holder of the landlord's interest in the premises at the time of the termination of the tenancy, regardless of how the interest is acquired or transferred"; § 37-6A-1(15) defines a sublease as a transfer of "any but not all interests created by a rental agreement"; and § 37-6A-1(9) lists "business trust" among the entity types that count as a person. That is the complete list.
- What a tenant does get for a late or bad-faith refund — § 37-6A-5(a) gives a tenant whose landlord's noncompliance is willful or not in good faith a judgment for the unreturned deposit plus damages for annoyance or inconvenience equal to one and a half times the amount wrongfully withheld — reduced by any rent the tenant owes. The multiplier runs on the withheld deposit, and there is no interest component to it.
Common questions: West 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 West Virginia security deposit interest rate right now?
- No published figure exists.
- When must a landlord pay or credit deposit interest in West Virginia?
- No payment duty exists.
- Does the deposit have to be in an interest-bearing account in West Virginia?
- No statute addresses whether the account must bear interest.
- What happens if a landlord does not pay deposit interest in West Virginia?
- No statutory penalty reaches an interest violation specifically.
- Do any cities or counties in West Virginia have their own deposit-interest rules?
- None noted for this state.
Citations
- W. Va. Code § 37-6A-2 (Security deposits) · (a), (b), (e) (verified 2026) Official source
- W. Va. Code § 37-6A-1 (Definitions) · (14) (verified 2026) Official source
- W. Va. Code § 37-6A-5 (Landlord's noncompliance) · (a) (verified 2026) Official source
- W. Va. Code ch. 37, art. 6A (Residential Rental Security Deposits), whole article (verified 2026) Official source
How this record was verified: Complete read of W. Va. Code ch. 37, art. 6A (Residential Rental Security Deposits), all six sections §§ 37-6A-1 through 37-6A-6, on the Legislature's code site in two presentations — the whole-article text and the individual section pages — with § 37-6A-2 matched between them; every occurrence of 'interest', 'escrow', 'trust', 'segregate', 'separate account', 'commingle', 'bank' and 'financial institution' in the article examined in context, producing three contexts and no monetary use of 'interest'; the whole of art. 6, the general landlord-tenant article, searched for any security-deposit provision and returning none; and the complete 2026 Regular Session bill list read, in which the one landlord measure, HB 4432, died in committee and amends only the manufactured- and mobile-home article.