What is the penalty if a Pennsylvania landlord wrongfully keeps a deposit?

Double the amount by which the deposit exceeds the actual damages, where the landlord fails to pay the difference within 30 days.

68 P.S. § 250.512

Pennsylvania security deposit law

Your landlord is on a clock, and most tenants never find out it exists. Here is what the statute actually says - quoted, with a link so you can read it yourself.

30days

30 days from the end of the lease or from surrender and acceptance of the premises, whichever comes first, your landlord must give you a written list of damages and pay back whatever is left over.

Itemization: Required. A landlord who does not provide the written list within 30 days forfeits all rights to withhold any part of the deposit - and forfeits the right to sue you for damage to the premises.
If they get it wrong: Double the amount by which the deposit exceeds the actual damages, where the landlord fails to pay the difference within 30 days.
Statute: 68 P.S. § 250.512

The part most people miss

Pennsylvania punishes the same landlord twice over. Missing the written list wipes out their right to keep anything or to sue you. Separately, failing to pay back the balance makes them liable for double it. Those are two independent consequences, and a landlord who simply goes quiet triggers both.

Any landlord who fails to provide a written list within thirty days as required in subsection (a), above, shall forfeit all rights to withhold any portion of sums held in escrow, including any unpaid interest thereon, or to bring suit against the tenant for damages.
68 P.S. § 250.512(b)

Where that leaves you

Work out the date you handed back possession, then count. If the deadline has passed and nothing arrived, that fact alone carries weight under Pennsylvania law - read the statute above and see where you stand.

If you are still living there, or about to move out, the most useful thing you can do takes fifteen minutes. Nearly every dispute reduces to a single question - was that damage there before you were - and the person holding dated photographs is the one who wins it.

Check your exact timeline for Pennsylvania

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