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.
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 - but only if you did your part first. See below.
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
The date you handed back possession, plus the 30-day window above, is the number that matters. If that date has passed and nothing arrived, that fact carries weight under Pennsylvania law - the statute is quoted above, and the conditions attached to it (if any) are noted on this page too.
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 dated photographs are the strongest evidence you can bring to that question.
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Last reviewed: 23 Aug 2026 · How this was sourced: Statutory text read at codes.findlaw.com (68 P.S. § 250.512), 19 Aug 2026. Independently re-verified 23 Aug 2026: confirmed § 250.512(e) - an unqualified 'relieve[s] the landlord from any liability under this section' if the tenant never gave a written forwarding address - against FindLaw and a scanned copy of the original 1951 Act text at readingpa.gov. A prior version of this page and the /check/ calculator omitted this precondition entirely. Fixed in both places.