What are the security deposit rules in Alabama?
Alabama caps security deposits at one month's rent, but lets landlords charge extra for pets, tenant changes to the premises, or increased liability risks — and those add-on deposits have no statutory limit.
After the tenancy ends and the tenant moves out, the landlord has 60 days to mail the refund with a written itemization of anything withheld; missing that deadline costs the landlord double the original deposit, with no bad-faith requirement in the statute. Tenants have duties too: provide a written forwarding address when vacating, and claim the refund — a deposit that goes unclaimed (or a refund check left outstanding) is forfeited to the landlord after 90 days. There is no requirement that the deposit earn interest or sit in a separate account. Beware stale guides quoting a 35-day return deadline or a 180-day forfeiture window: those numbers come from the original 2006 act and were changed to 60 and 90 days in 2014. The deposit rules cannot be waived in the lease.
Alabama security deposits at a glance
| Maximum deposit | 1 month's rent — One month's periodic rent, EXCEPT additional amounts 'for pets, changes to the premises, or increased liability risks to the landlord or premises' (35-9A-201(a)) — pet deposits, alteration deposits, and increased-risk deposits sit outside the cap and are statutorily uncapped. The 2006 Alabama Comment confirms the landlord may hold only cash (not property) as security. |
|---|---|
| Return deadline | 60 days |
| Deadline conditions | Written itemized notice delivered to the tenant together with the amount due within 60 days after termination of the tenancy and delivery of possession (35-9A-201(b)); mailing the refund/accounting first-class within the 60 days to the tenant's written forwarding address is sufficient compliance (35-9A-201(e)). No tenant-demand trigger — the clock runs from termination plus delivery of possession alone. Under 35-9A-141(3) 'day' means calendar day, but if the last day falls on a weekend or official holiday the period extends to the next business day. |
| Itemization required | Yes |
| Itemization rules | Deductions are limited to accrued rent and damages from the tenant's noncompliance with the 35-9A-301 tenant-maintenance obligations, 'all as itemized by the landlord in a written notice' (35-9A-201(b)); if less than the entire deposit is refunded, an itemized list of amounts withheld is required within the 60-day period (35-9A-201(c)). |
| Separate account required | No |
| Interest owed to tenant | No |
| Account & interest rules | No interest, escrow, trust-account, or receipt requirement exists anywhere in chapter 9A (negative check run against the full text of Act 2006-316 plus all amendment credit lines through the 2025 code). Fifty-state charts importing other states' escrow or interest rules into Alabama are wrong. |
| Pet deposits | Pet deposits are expressly excepted from the one-month cap (35-9A-201(a)) and are uncapped, but they remain 'money held by the landlord as security,' so the same 60-day return, itemization, and double-penalty machinery applies. |
| Non-refundable fees allowed | Not addressed by statute |
| Penalty for violation | If the landlord fails to mail a timely refund or accounting within the 60-day period, the landlord 'shall pay the tenant double the amount of the tenant's original deposit' (35-9A-201(f)) — a flat doubling of the ORIGINAL deposit (not the amount wrongfully withheld) with no bad-faith element. Subsection (g) preserves other damages for either party; subsection (h) binds the current holder of the landlord's interest. |
| Tenant forwarding-address duty | Affirmative statutory duty: upon vacating, the tenant 'shall provide to the landlord a valid forwarding address, in writing' (35-9A-201(d)). If none is provided the landlord mails first-class to the last known address or, if none, to the rental unit itself — and any deposit unclaimed by the tenant, as well as any check outstanding, is forfeited to the landlord after 90 days. |
Notes and caveats
Statute citations
- Ala. Code § 35-9A-201 (current-code mirror, 2025 ed.) (a)-(h) Unofficial mirror
- Ala. Code § 35-9A-201 (official ALISON code viewer — JS-rendered page) (a)-(h) Official source
- HB 287 / Act 2006-316 (official as-enacted URLTA text with Alabama Comments; § 201 figures later amended by Act 2014-279) Official source
How this record was verified: Alabama's code is LexisNexis-published and the official ALISON code viewer serves JavaScript-rendered pages a fetcher cannot read (legacy alisondb host is dead), so verification pairs independent current-code mirrors with official as-enacted session-law text: Ala. Code §§ 35-9A-121, 35-9A-122, 35-9A-141, 35-9A-143, 35-9A-161, 35-9A-163, 35-9A-201, 35-9A-303, 35-9A-421, 35-9A-441, and 11-80-8.1 each read verbatim on at least two independent hosts (Justia 2025-code edition via direct HTTP, FindLaw current through 2024-12-30, al.elaws.us) with every load-bearing figure matching (one-month cap and its three exceptions, 60-day return, 90-day forfeiture, double-deposit penalty, two days' entry notice, 30-day/7-day periodic termination notice, seven-business-day cure windows), and the full text of HB 287/Act 2006-316 (the URLTA enactment, with Alabama Comments) read from the state judiciary host macon.alacourt.gov, against which whole-chapter negative checks were run (no late-fee cap, no grace period, no deposit interest, no escrow requirement). Act 2014-279 (SB291, eff. 2014-07-01, 35->60-day and 180->90-day changes) verified via matching credit lines on three mirrors; no official act PDF fetchable. Pending-bill check 2026-07-09: 2026 Regular Session adjourned sine die; only adjacent bill HB80 (eviction writ procedure, passed House 103-0, Senate fate unverifiable) — no bill touching the four topics.