{
  "meta": {
    "name": "Deposit Record ruleset: North Carolina",
    "description": "The verified North Carolina security-deposit rules that https://deposit.orygn.tech/north-carolina is built from: each rule as a machine payload, its plain-English summary, its exact citation, the verbatim text of its source where quoted (sourceType says when that is not statute text), the official source URL it was verified against, and the date a human last checked it.",
    "state": "NC",
    "page": "https://deposit.orygn.tech/north-carolina",
    "dataUrl": "https://deposit.orygn.tech/data/north-carolina.json",
    "lastReviewed": "2026-11-09",
    "citeAs": "Deposit Record, North Carolina Security Deposit Return (verified November 9, 2026), https://deposit.orygn.tech/north-carolina",
    "publisher": {
      "name": "Orygn LLC",
      "url": "https://orygn.tech/"
    },
    "license": "CC BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/): free to reuse and quote with attribution to Deposit Record and a link to the page. The statutes themselves are public law.",
    "disclaimer": "General information, not legal advice. Every rule cites the source it was verified against; rely on the source, and on a lawyer for your situation.",
    "fields": {
      "summary": "plain-English statement of the rule, as rendered on the page",
      "value": "the machine payload the calculator uses (days, triggers, caps, multipliers); its keys are named for what they hold and explained by the summary",
      "citation": "exact pin-cite for the rule: a statute, an enacting act, a case or agency guidance (see sourceType)",
      "statuteQuote": "verbatim text quoted from the document at sourceUrl. Despite the name, not every quote is statute text: sourceType says what it is. An automated weekly check compares each quote with its source.",
      "statuteQuoteCitation": "pin-cite for statuteQuote alone, when the quote is narrower than the rule's citation",
      "sourceType": "what statuteQuote is. Absent or 'codified': codified statute text. 'session-law': a clause of the enacting act that was never codified. 'case': a court's words. 'agency': an agency's reading of the statute, which shows how the law is enforced in practice but is not what the statute says.",
      "sourceUrl": "the official source the rule was verified against, and where its quote is found. Some official hosts block automated clients.",
      "readableUrl": "an unofficial, easier-to-read copy of the same text, for people; rely on sourceUrl",
      "derivation": "'verbatim' for a literal statutory rule; 'synthesized' for our reading across sections, which the page labels as our interpretation. Absent means the rule is not labelled either way.",
      "effectiveDate": "when the rule's current text took effect, recorded as provenance. Read effectiveDateIsFloor before using it.",
      "effectiveDateIsFloor": "true means effectiveDate is only the earliest date we could prove this text was already in force. The real effective date is earlier and unverified, so do not present it as 'effective <date>'.",
      "lastVerified": "the date a human last checked this rule against sourceUrl",
      "confidence": "'high', 'medium' or 'low': our confidence in the rule as stated",
      "amendedBy": "the most recent notable amending act",
      "notes": "traps and edge cases, as rendered on the page"
    },
    "stateFields": {
      "stateCode": "two-letter state code",
      "stateName": "state name",
      "slug": "the state page is https://deposit.orygn.tech/{slug}",
      "lastReviewed": "when a human last reviewed this ruleset as a whole. Single rules are re-verified between reviews, so a rule's lastVerified can be later.",
      "summary": "plain-English summary of the state's return rules, as on the page",
      "letterFooter": "the source line printed at the foot of the generated letter",
      "cities": "city-level records; see meta.cityFields",
      "localLaw": "the state's position on local deposit rules. preempted is true only where a statute forecloses them, and citation then carries it; summary says what we have and have not read.",
      "sources": "the primary sources the page is built on",
      "pendingLegislation": "law signed but not yet in force (status 'enacted-not-in-force') or a bill a reader deciding today should know about ('pending'). The rule objects describe the law as it stands; this is the one forward-looking field. citySlug is set when the act is a city ordinance.",
      "stabilized": "New York only: the separate Gen. Oblig. Law 7-107 rules for rent-stabilized units, which reach leases entered into on or after appliesToLeasesFromISO. Each member that has a citation is a rule object."
    },
    "cityFields": {
      "city": "city name",
      "citySlug": "stable machine key for the city",
      "applies": "true if the city adds a rule on top of state law. false is an explicit record that we found no city rule, and only for the kinds of rule listed in checkedFor.",
      "summary": "plain-English statement of the city rule, as rendered on the page",
      "coverageQuestion": "asked before any city math: whether the ordinance covers this rental at all. Absent means it applies citywide.",
      "interest": "the city deposit-interest rule and its rate data (machine payload)",
      "cap": "a city ceiling on the deposit. Absent means not recorded, which is not the same as none: see checkedFor.",
      "returnRules": "a local return clock (machine payload): days after the tenant vacates to return the deposit, any separate statement and receipts clocks, faster returns after particular events, and whether the code has its own rule for deadlines that land on a weekend or holiday. Where state and local clocks both apply, the earlier one governs. Absent means the city does not change the state's return rules.",
      "layersOn": "the citySlug of another row whose rules also apply in this city (for example a suburb inside a county ordinance's reach)",
      "ownerOccupiedExclusionMaxUnits": "the local ordinance does not reach owner-occupied premises with this many units or fewer; state law still applies there",
      "checkedFor": "the kinds of deposit rule we actually searched for in this city ('interest', 'cap', 'deadline', 'itemization'). A row says nothing about kinds it does not list.",
      "citation": "exact pin-cite for the city rule",
      "sourceUrl": "the official source the city rule was verified against",
      "lastVerified": "the date a human last checked this city rule against sourceUrl",
      "confidence": "'high', 'medium' or 'low': our confidence in the city rule as stated",
      "notes": "what to re-check and where the rule stops, as rendered on the page"
    },
    "schema": "Every published key is described here: meta.fields for rule objects, meta.stateFields for the other keys of rules, meta.cityFields for each entry of rules.cities. Every key of rules not in meta.stateFields is one rule object, named for what it governs (deadline, cap, penalty and so on).",
    "version": "4ea74ab",
    "dataHash": "9567b7f7f108c5b6",
    "about": "version is the git commit these files were built from, ending in -dirty if the tree had uncommitted changes. dataHash is a fingerprint of a state's rules object and changes when, and only when, that object changes: poll it, not version or lastReviewed, to detect new data."
  },
  "rules": {
    "stateCode": "NC",
    "stateName": "North Carolina",
    "slug": "north-carolina",
    "lastReviewed": "2026-11-09",
    "summary": "North Carolina landlords have 30 days after the tenancy has ended AND the tenant has delivered possession back to mail or deliver a written itemization of any damage together with the balance of the deposit. If the claim cannot be worked out in that time, an interim accounting is still due by day 30 and a final one by day 60. A deposit may be used only for eight listed purposes and is capped at two weeks’ rent on a week-to-week tenancy, one and a half months’ on a month-to-month, and two months’ on a longer term. The deposit belongs in a trust account or under a bond, and the tenant must be told where within 30 days of the lease starting: a willful failure of those duties voids the right to keep any of it.",
    "letterFooter": {
      "label": "North Carolina General Statutes, Chapter 42, Article 6",
      "url": "https://www.ncleg.gov/EnactedLegislation/Statutes/HTML/ByArticle/Chapter_42/Article_6.html"
    },
    "deadline": {
      "summary": "The landlord has 30 days after the LATER of two events: the tenancy terminating and the tenant delivering possession of the premises back to the landlord. By that day a written itemization of any damage and the balance of the deposit must both be mailed or delivered.",
      "value": {
        "days": 30,
        "dayType": "calendar",
        "triggerBasis": "later-of",
        "triggerEvents": [
          "termination-of-tenancy",
          "delivery-of-possession"
        ],
        "suspendUntilForwardingAddress": false,
        "complianceRequires": [
          "itemized-statement",
          "deposit-balance"
        ]
      },
      "citation": "N.C. Gen. Stat. § 42-52",
      "statuteQuote": "In either case the landlord in writing shall itemize any damage and mail or deliver same to the tenant, together with the balance of the security deposit, no later than 30 days after termination of the tenancy and delivery of possession of the premises to the landlord.",
      "sourceUrl": "https://www.ncleg.gov/EnactedLegislation/Statutes/HTML/BySection/Chapter_42/GS_42-52.html",
      "derivation": "verbatim",
      "sourceType": "codified",
      "effectiveDate": "2009-10-01",
      "lastVerified": "2026-11-09",
      "confidence": "high",
      "amendedBy": "S.L. 2009-279, s. 5",
      "notes": "The two events are joined by \"and\", so the clock waits for whichever happens last: a tenant who hands the keys back three weeks before the lease ends has not started it (unless the tenancy itself ended that day, as it does where you and the tenant agree to end it early), and a tenant who stays past the end date does not start it on the end date. THAT IS HOW THE SENTENCE READS, NOT A DECIDED QUESTION: we found no North Carolina appellate decision on which day starts the 30 days, or on what counts as \"delivery of possession\" when a tenant leaves without returning keys. If the gap between your two dates is what decides whether you are on time, work from the earlier one. (The Real Estate Commission’s tenant brochure describes the clock as running from \"the termination of your tenancy\" alone.) The words are \"mail or deliver\", so putting it in the mail by day 30 is what the text asks for; keep proof of the date. \"In either case\" refers to both outcomes, the deposit applied or refunded: the balance is due by day 30 either way. If day 30 is a Saturday or Sunday, North Carolina’s general time-counting statute carries a period fixed by law to the next day that is not a weekend or a courthouse holiday (G.S. 1-593, through Rule 6(a)); we found no decision applying it to this deadline, so the tool shows the strict date first and the later one as a reading."
    },
    "forwardingAddress": {
      "summary": "North Carolina does not make the tenant give a forwarding address and does not let the landlord wait for one. Where the tenant’s address is unknown, the statute says what to do instead: apply the deposit to what it lawfully covers after 30 days, and hold the balance for the tenant to collect for at least six months.",
      "value": {
        "required": false,
        "mustBeWritten": false,
        "suspendsObligation": false,
        "forfeitsRightIfNotProvided": false
      },
      "citation": "N.C. Gen. Stat. § 42-52",
      "statuteQuote": "If the tenant's address is unknown the landlord shall apply the deposit as permitted in G.S. 42-51 after a period of 30 days and the landlord shall hold the balance of the deposit for collection by the tenant for at least six months.",
      "sourceUrl": "https://www.ncleg.gov/EnactedLegislation/Statutes/HTML/BySection/Chapter_42/GS_42-52.html",
      "derivation": "verbatim",
      "sourceType": "codified",
      "effectiveDate": "1977-10-01",
      "lastVerified": "2026-11-09",
      "confidence": "high",
      "notes": "Nothing in the Act says a tenant who gives no address loses the deposit, and nothing says where to send the accounting when you do have one. \"Unknown\" is not defined, and we found no appellate decision on how hard a landlord must look; the rental application, an emergency contact, an email address and a phone number are the obvious places, and a record that you tried is worth keeping. The North Carolina Judicial Branch’s public guidance reads this sentence as lifting the accounting duty where the forwarding address is unknown. The statute’s own words are narrower (apply the deposit after 30 days, hold the balance), so preparing the itemization anyway and keeping it with the money is the course that holds up under either reading. \"At least six months\" is a minimum, and the statute does not say the balance becomes yours afterwards: a security deposit is listed as property under the State’s unclaimed property law (G.S. 116B-52(11))."
    },
    "itemization": {
      "summary": "Whether you keep part of the deposit or return all of it, you must itemize any damage in writing and mail or deliver it together with the balance, inside the same 30 days.",
      "value": {
        "required": true,
        "mustBeWritten": true,
        "excusedWhen": "Nothing in the Act excuses it. Where the claim cannot be determined within 30 days, an interim accounting is due by day 30 and a final accounting within 60 days. Where the tenant’s address is unknown, G.S. 42-52 instead directs the landlord to apply the deposit after 30 days and hold the balance for at least six months."
      },
      "citation": "N.C. Gen. Stat. § 42-52",
      "statuteQuote": "the landlord in writing shall itemize any damage and mail or deliver same to the tenant, together with the balance of the security deposit",
      "sourceUrl": "https://www.ncleg.gov/EnactedLegislation/Statutes/HTML/BySection/Chapter_42/GS_42-52.html",
      "derivation": "verbatim",
      "sourceType": "codified",
      "effectiveDate": "1977-10-01",
      "lastVerified": "2026-11-09",
      "confidence": "high",
      "notes": "The statute asks for an itemization of \"any damage\" and says nothing else about its form: no required headings, no receipts, no photographs. Two other phrases point the same way and wider: the cap subsection says deposits \"must be fully accounted for by the landlord as set forth in G.S. 42-52\", and the remedy section speaks of \"the accounting\". A statement that lists every amount applied (rent, fees and costs as well as damage) and shows the arithmetic down to the balance satisfies all three. The itemization and the money travel together: a complete statement on day 12 with the cheque posted on day 34 is late. Where nothing is kept there is no damage to itemize, and the Real Estate Commission’s brochure describes a full refund as the alternative to an itemized accounting; the balance is still due by day 30, and a short letter saying the whole deposit is returned leaves a record."
    },
    "deductions": {
      "summary": "A deposit may be used only for the eight purposes G.S. 42-51(a) lists. A charge outside the list may not come out of the deposit; whether the tenant owes it separately depends on the lease and other law. Nothing may be kept for normal wear and tear, and nothing beyond your actual damages.",
      "value": {
        "allowed": [
          "The tenant’s possible nonpayment of rent, and costs for water or sewer service under G.S. 62-110(g) and electric service under G.S. 62-110(h)",
          "Damage to the premises, including damage to or destruction of smoke alarms or carbon monoxide alarms",
          "Damages from the nonfulfillment of the rental period, except where the tenant ended the agreement under G.S. 42-45 or 42-45.1, was forced to leave by the landlord’s violation of Article 2A, or was constructively evicted by the landlord’s violation of G.S. 42-42(a)",
          "Unpaid bills that become a lien against the property because of the tenant’s occupancy",
          "The costs of re-renting after a breach by the tenant, including reasonable fees or commissions paid to a licensed real estate broker to re-rent",
          "The costs of removing and storing the tenant’s property after a summary ejectment proceeding",
          "Court costs",
          "Any fee permitted by G.S. 42-46"
        ],
        "disallowed": [
          "Conditions that are due to normal wear and tear (G.S. 42-52)",
          "Any amount above the landlord’s actual damages (G.S. 42-52)",
          "Any charge that is not on the G.S. 42-51(a) list, such as a fine for breaking a lease rule: the Court of Appeals has said the Act bars taking such amounts out of the deposit and does not itself stop a landlord billing them separately (Neil v. Kuester, 2014)"
        ],
        "documentationThresholdUsd": null,
        "photosRequiredWhenDeducting": false
      },
      "citation": "N.C. Gen. Stat. §§ 42-51(a), 42-52",
      "statuteQuote": "Security deposits for residential dwelling units shall be permitted only for the following: (1) The tenant's possible nonpayment of rent and costs for water or sewer services provided pursuant to G.S. 62-110(g) and electric service pursuant to G.S. 62-110(h). (2) Damage to the premises, including damage to or destruction of smoke alarms or carbon monoxide alarms. (3) Damages as the result of the nonfulfillment of the rental period, except where the tenant terminated the rental agreement under G.S. 42-45, G.S. 42-45.1, or because the tenant was forced to leave the property because of the landlord's violation of Article 2A of Chapter 42 of the General Statutes or was constructively evicted by the landlord's violation of G.S. 42-42(a). (4) Any unpaid bills that become a lien against the demised property due to the tenant's occupancy. (5) The costs of re-renting the premises after breach by the tenant, including any reasonable fees or commissions paid by the landlord to a licensed real estate broker to re-rent the premises. (6) The costs of removal and storage of the tenant's property after a summary ejectment proceeding. (7) Court costs. (8) Any fee permitted by G.S. 42-46.",
      "statuteQuoteCitation": "N.C. Gen. Stat. § 42-51(a)",
      "sourceUrl": "https://www.ncleg.gov/EnactedLegislation/Statutes/HTML/BySection/Chapter_42/GS_42-51.html",
      "derivation": "verbatim",
      "sourceType": "codified",
      "effectiveDate": "2012-12-01",
      "lastVerified": "2026-11-09",
      "confidence": "high",
      "amendedBy": "S.L. 2012-17, s. 4; S.L. 2012-194, s. 59",
      "notes": "\"Shall be permitted only for the following\" makes this a closed list, and the Court of Appeals has treated it as one. Of a $40 lease \"administrative fee\" charged for breaking lease rules, it said that withholding money for something not on the list calls for a refund of it, that the Act \"simply bars landlords from taking those amounts out of security deposits\", and that nothing in the Act stops a landlord billing such a charge separately (Neil v. Kuester, 2014). It did not decide whether that fee had in fact been deducted, and whether a charge can be collected at all depends on the lease and other law. CLEANING IS NOT ON THE LIST BY NAME. We found no North Carolina appellate decision on whether routine cleaning can be charged as \"damage to the premises\"; Neil had carpet-cleaning and painting charges in front of it and did not rule on them. The Real Estate Commission’s brochure tells tenants that costs for \"routine cleaning and maintenance (painting, carpet cleaning, etc.)\" ordinarily may not be deducted, and that the cost of cleaning a unit left \"so filthy that unusual or extraordinary measures are necessary\" may be. That is the Commission’s reading, not a court’s. Item (3) covers rent lost when a tenant leaves early, with the exceptions it names: a tenant who ended the agreement under G.S. 42-45 (which now covers military technicians under 10 U.S.C. 10216) or G.S. 42-45.1 (victims of domestic violence, sexual assault or stalking), a tenant forced to leave by the landlord’s violation of Article 2A (the article that requires an eviction to go through the courts), and a tenant constructively evicted by the landlord’s violation of G.S. 42-42(a). Servicemembers generally end a lease under the federal Servicemembers Civil Relief Act instead, which the list does not name: it bars an early termination charge and makes it a crime to knowingly hold a servicemember’s deposit to cover rent accruing after a lawful termination (50 U.S.C. § 3955(e), (h)). North Carolina incorporates that Act into state law, and a knowing violation is an unfair or deceptive trade practice under Chapter 75 (G.S. 127B-28, 127B-34). A landlord whose tenant leaves early also has a duty to mitigate: only the loss that reasonable diligence in re-letting would not have avoided is recoverable (Isbey v. Crews, 1981, a commercial lease in which the court stated the rule for leases generally and put on the tenant the burden of proving that the landlord did not mitigate). Item (8) reaches only what G.S. 42-46 itself authorizes, such as a late fee the lease provides for, within that section’s limits; a fee that section does not permit is not made deductible by writing it into the lease. Neil was decided on the list as it stood before October 2012, which had no item (8)."
    },
    "interest": {
      "summary": "North Carolina does not require a landlord to pay the tenant interest on a security deposit. The Act says where the deposit must be held and is silent on interest.",
      "value": {
        "required": false
      },
      "citation": "N.C. Gen. Stat. § 42-50",
      "statuteQuote": "Security deposits from the tenant in residential dwelling units shall be deposited in a trust account with a licensed and federally insured depository institution or a trust institution authorized to do business in this State, or the landlord may, at the landlord's option, furnish a bond from an insurance company licensed to do business in North Carolina.",
      "sourceUrl": "https://www.ncleg.gov/EnactedLegislation/Statutes/HTML/BySection/Chapter_42/GS_42-50.html",
      "derivation": "synthesized",
      "sourceType": "codified",
      "effectiveDate": "2017-06-02",
      "lastVerified": "2026-11-09",
      "confidence": "high",
      "amendedBy": "S.L. 2015-93, s. 2; S.L. 2017-25, s. 2(a)",
      "notes": "Nothing in the seven sections of the Act mentions interest in either direction: it neither requires interest to be paid to the tenant nor says who keeps what a trust account earns. If a licensed real estate broker holds the deposit, a Real Estate Commission rule adds a condition: trust money may go into an interest-bearing account only with the written authorization of everyone with an interest in it, stating conspicuously how and to whom the interest is paid (21 NCAC 58A .0116(c))."
    },
    "cap": {
      "summary": "The ceiling depends on the kind of tenancy: two weeks’ rent if the tenancy is week to week, one and one-half months’ rent if it is month to month, and two months’ rent for a term longer than month to month.",
      "value": {
        "hasCap": true,
        "capMonths": 2,
        "tiersByTenancy": [
          {
            "tenancy": "week-to-week",
            "multiple": 2,
            "rentPeriod": "week"
          },
          {
            "tenancy": "month-to-month",
            "multiple": 1.5,
            "rentPeriod": "month"
          },
          {
            "tenancy": "longer-than-month-to-month",
            "multiple": 2,
            "rentPeriod": "month"
          }
        ]
      },
      "citation": "N.C. Gen. Stat. § 42-51(b)",
      "statuteQuote": "The security deposit shall not exceed an amount equal to two weeks' rent if a tenancy is week to week, one and one-half months' rent if a tenancy is month to month, and two months' rent for terms greater than month to month.",
      "sourceUrl": "https://www.ncleg.gov/EnactedLegislation/Statutes/HTML/BySection/Chapter_42/GS_42-51.html",
      "derivation": "verbatim",
      "sourceType": "codified",
      "effectiveDate": "1977-10-01",
      "lastVerified": "2026-11-09",
      "confidence": "high",
      "notes": "A one-year lease can carry two months’ rent; a month-to-month tenancy only one and a half. A fixed-term lease that has rolled over into a month-to-month tenancy is worth a second look: the statute does not say whether the ceiling follows the tenancy as it changes, and we found no appellate decision on it. The ceiling is measured against the rent under the lease the deposit secures: a $150 deposit taken for a new lease at $145 a month was lawful although the old rent had been $66 (Cla-Mar Management v. Harris, 1985, a mobile home lot lease, decided in one paragraph). The Act does not say what follows from a deposit above the ceiling, and we found no decision on it. On our reading of Neil v. Kuester (an improper-deductions case), a tenant’s claim would be for the excess and any damages rather than the whole deposit; we found no decision saying so, and a tenant may also plead the unfair-practices statute. A reasonable non-refundable pet fee is separate (G.S. 42-53). The Act does not define \"security deposit\", so its text does not answer whether a refundable pet deposit or prepaid last month’s rent counts toward the ceiling; counting every refundable sum you hold as security is the safe reading."
    },
    "penalty": {
      "summary": "A North Carolina tenant can sue for the accounting and the balance of the deposit and for damages the landlord’s noncompliance caused, and the court may award attorney’s fees if it finds the noncompliance willful. The Act has no multiplier. On the Court of Appeals’ reading (Neil v. Kuester, 2014) the whole deposit is lost only for a willful failure of the trust-account, bond or notice duties of G.S. 42-50; that case was not about a late accounting, and the Real Estate Commission’s brochure says a missed accounting forfeits the deposit. A separate claim under the State’s unfair-practices statute can treble damages, and we found no appellate decision on whether a deposit violation alone supports one.",
      "value": {
        "standard": "mixed",
        "badFaithFlatUsd": null,
        "multiplier": null,
        "multiplierBase": null,
        "multiplierIsDiscretionaryCeiling": false,
        "attorneyFees": true,
        "attorneyFeesBasis": "tenant-only",
        "forfeitureForFailureToItemize": false,
        "deadlinePresumptionDays": null,
        "burdenOnLandlord": false
      },
      "citation": "N.C. Gen. Stat. § 42-55",
      "statuteQuote": "If the landlord or the landlord's successor in interest fails to account for and refund the balance of the tenant's security deposit as required by this Article, the tenant may institute a civil action to require the accounting of and the recovery of the balance of the deposit. The willful failure of a landlord to comply with the deposit, bond, or notice requirements of this Article shall void the landlord's right to retain any portion of the tenant's security deposit as otherwise permitted under G.S. 42-51. In addition to other remedies at law and equity, the tenant may recover damages resulting from noncompliance by the landlord; and upon a finding by the court that the party against whom judgment is rendered was in willful noncompliance with this Article, such willful noncompliance is against the public policy of this State and the court may award attorney's fees to be taxed as part of the costs of court.",
      "sourceUrl": "https://www.ncleg.gov/EnactedLegislation/Statutes/HTML/BySection/Chapter_42/GS_42-55.html",
      "derivation": "synthesized",
      "sourceType": "codified",
      "effectiveDate": "2009-10-01",
      "lastVerified": "2026-11-09",
      "confidence": "high",
      "amendedBy": "S.L. 2009-279, s. 6",
      "notes": "The Court of Appeals reads this section as four separate remedies (Neil v. Kuester, 2014): a suit for the accounting and the refund due; a full refund where the landlord willfully failed the deposit, bond or notice requirements, which the court confined to G.S. 42-50; damages; and attorney’s fees on a finding of willful noncompliance. On that reading a late or missing itemization is answered by the first, third and fourth, not by losing the deposit. Neil was about improper deductions, not a missed deadline, and we found no appellate decision applying its reading to a landlord who was simply late. The North Carolina Real Estate Commission’s tenant brochure says, in one sentence, that failing to make the accounting forfeits the right to keep any of the deposit; expect a tenant to cite it. Sending the accounting and the balance by day 30 is the course that holds up under either reading. \"Willful\" is not defined in the Act, and we found no appellate decision that defines it there or says who must prove it. The fee award is discretionary (\"may\"), and it turns on the losing party having been in willful noncompliance with the Article, which puts duties on landlords and their agents and none on tenants. We found no appellate decision fixing the time limit for a tenant’s claim. On their words, three years applies to a liability created by statute (G.S. 1-52(2)), one year to an action on a statute for a penalty or forfeiture (G.S. 1-54(2)), and four years to a claim under the unfair-practices statute (G.S. 75-16.2); which of the first two governs a claim under this Act is not settled by any decision we found."
    },
    "scope": {
      "summary": "The Act applies to \"all persons, firms, or corporations engaged in the business of renting or managing residential dwelling units, excluding single rooms, on a weekly, monthly or annual basis\". A single room is outside it, and a vacation rental runs on a different chapter.",
      "value": {
        "residentialOnly": true
      },
      "citation": "N.C. Gen. Stat. § 42-56",
      "statuteQuote": "The provisions of this Article shall apply to all persons, firms, or corporations engaged in the business of renting or managing residential dwelling units, excluding single rooms, on a weekly, monthly or annual basis.",
      "sourceUrl": "https://www.ncleg.gov/EnactedLegislation/Statutes/HTML/BySection/Chapter_42/GS_42-56.html",
      "derivation": "verbatim",
      "sourceType": "codified",
      "effectiveDate": "1977-10-01",
      "lastVerified": "2026-11-09",
      "confidence": "high",
      "notes": "SINGLE ROOMS are excluded. The Act does not define the term and we found no appellate decision that does; the tool’s \"single room\" choice is meant for a room in a shared house or a rooming house, which it does not compute. Whether a self-contained studio is a \"single room\" is not answered by the statute, and treating it as a dwelling unit is the cautious course. VACATION RENTALS run on Chapter 42A, with a 45-day period. And the Act speaks of those \"engaged in the business of renting or managing\" dwellings; it does not say whether an owner renting out one house is in that business, and we found no appellate decision that construes the phrase. This tool treats the Act as applying, which is the cautious course; whether it reaches an owner renting out one house is a question for a North Carolina attorney. Managers are named alongside owners, so a property manager holding the deposit is within it. Federally subsidized housing programs carry deposit rules of their own on top of state law; this tool does not cover them."
    },
    "ownershipChange": {
      "summary": "When the landlord’s interest in the unit ends, by sale, assignment, death, appointment of a receiver or otherwise, the landlord or the landlord’s agent has 30 days to do one of two things: transfer what remains of the deposit to the successor and then notify the tenant by mail of the transfer and of the transferee’s name and address, or return it to the tenant.",
      "value": {
        "liabilityShiftsToNewOwner": true,
        "transferOrReturnWithinDays": 30,
        "tenantNoticeByMailRequired": true
      },
      "citation": "N.C. Gen. Stat. § 42-54",
      "statuteQuote": "Upon termination of the landlord's interest in the dwelling unit in question, whether by sale, assignment, death, appointment of receiver or otherwise, the landlord or his agent shall, within 30 days, do one of the following acts, either of which shall relieve him of further liability with respect to such payment or deposit: (1) Transfer the portion of such payment or deposit remaining after any lawful deductions made under this section to the landlord's successor in interest and thereafter notify the tenant by mail of such transfer and of the transferee's name and address; or (2) Return the portion of such payment or deposit remaining after any lawful deductions made under this section to the tenant.",
      "sourceUrl": "https://www.ncleg.gov/EnactedLegislation/Statutes/HTML/BySection/Chapter_42/GS_42-54.html",
      "derivation": "verbatim",
      "sourceType": "codified",
      "effectiveDate": "1977-10-01",
      "lastVerified": "2026-11-09",
      "confidence": "high",
      "notes": "Either act \"shall relieve him of further liability with respect to such payment or deposit\", so on its words a seller who does neither is not relieved. The notice must go by mail, and it comes after the transfer. The remedy section names \"the landlord or the landlord’s successor in interest\" as the party a tenant may sue for the accounting and the balance; the Act does not say whether that reaches a buyer who never received the money, and we found no appellate decision applying either section to a sale. Nor did we find one on whether a willful failure to give this notice comes within the forfeiture sentence of G.S. 42-55; the Court of Appeals’ opinion on that sentence speaks only of G.S. 42-50."
    },
    "trustAccount": {
      "summary": "A residential security deposit must be held in a trust account with a licensed and federally insured depository institution or a trust institution authorized to do business in North Carolina; or the landlord may instead furnish a bond from an insurance company licensed in North Carolina. A trust account outside the State is allowed only with a bond. Within 30 days after the lease term begins, the tenant must be told the name and address of the institution holding the deposit, or the name of the insurer providing the bond.",
      "value": {
        "trustAccountOrBondRequired": true,
        "depositoryMustBeLicensedAndFederallyInsured": true,
        "bondAllowedInstead": true,
        "outOfStateAccountRequiresBond": true,
        "noticeDaysAfterLeaseStart": 30,
        "noticeMustBeWrittenOnTheText": false
      },
      "citation": "N.C. Gen. Stat. § 42-50",
      "statuteQuote": "Security deposits from the tenant in residential dwelling units shall be deposited in a trust account with a licensed and federally insured depository institution or a trust institution authorized to do business in this State, or the landlord may, at the landlord's option, furnish a bond from an insurance company licensed to do business in North Carolina. The security deposits from the tenant may be held in a trust account outside of the State of North Carolina only if the landlord provides the tenant with an adequate bond in the amount of the deposits. The landlord or the landlord's agent shall notify the tenant within 30 days after the beginning of the lease term of the name and address of the bank or institution where the tenant's deposit is currently located or the name of the insurance company providing the bond.",
      "sourceUrl": "https://www.ncleg.gov/EnactedLegislation/Statutes/HTML/BySection/Chapter_42/GS_42-50.html",
      "derivation": "verbatim",
      "sourceType": "codified",
      "effectiveDate": "2017-06-02",
      "lastVerified": "2026-11-09",
      "confidence": "high",
      "amendedBy": "S.L. 2015-93, s. 2; S.L. 2017-25, s. 2(a)",
      "notes": "This is the section a North Carolina landlord can lose the whole deposit over: a WILLFUL failure of its deposit, bond or notice requirements voids the right to keep any part of the deposit, even for unpaid rent or real damage (G.S. 42-55; Neil v. Kuester, 2014). The Act does not define a trust account. The Real Estate Commission describes one as a bank account designated \"trust\" or \"escrow\" that holds none of the landlord’s or broker’s own money; an ordinary personal or business account that also holds your own money does not fit that description. The notice has a deadline (30 days after the beginning of the lease term) and required content (the name AND address of the bank or institution, or the name of the insurer); the simplest way to meet both is to put them in the lease. The statute does not say \"in writing\"; the Commission’s brochure does, and a written notice is the easiest kind to prove. The statute says where the deposit is \"currently located\", and the Commission reads the duty as continuing: move the deposit to another institution and the tenant must be told. A trust account outside North Carolina is allowed only together with a bond for the amount of the deposits. (Whether \"authorized to do business in this State\" also limits the depository institution, or only the trust institution it follows, is not clear from the wording; the out-of-state sentence gives the practical answer either way.) A licensed real estate broker holding the deposit has rules of their own: the Commission’s trust-money rule requires it to go into a trust or escrow account, as a rule within three banking days of receipt, or, for a deposit paid other than in cash with a pending offer to lease, no later than three days after the offer is accepted (21 NCAC 58A .0116(a), (b)(3)), and the Commission’s brochure describes the bond as available where the owner holds the deposits. Missing the notice does not take the deposit outside the Act (Dobbins v. Paul, 1984)."
    },
    "interimAccounting": {
      "summary": "If the extent of the claim cannot be determined within 30 days, the landlord must still send an interim accounting by day 30, and then a final accounting within 60 days. Both periods are counted from the same starting day.",
      "value": {
        "interimDays": 30,
        "finalDays": 60,
        "bothFromSameStart": true
      },
      "citation": "N.C. Gen. Stat. § 42-52",
      "statuteQuote": "If the extent of the landlord's claim against the security deposit cannot be determined within 30 days, the landlord shall provide the tenant with an interim accounting no later than 30 days after termination of the tenancy and delivery of possession of the premises to the landlord and shall provide a final accounting within 60 days after termination of the tenancy and delivery of possession of the premises to the landlord.",
      "sourceUrl": "https://www.ncleg.gov/EnactedLegislation/Statutes/HTML/BySection/Chapter_42/GS_42-52.html",
      "derivation": "verbatim",
      "sourceType": "codified",
      "effectiveDate": "2009-10-01",
      "lastVerified": "2026-11-09",
      "confidence": "high",
      "amendedBy": "S.L. 2009-279, s. 5",
      "notes": "It does not make the deadline 60 days, and it is not an extension of any kind: the interim accounting is a document of its own with the same day-30 due date. The final accounting is due 60 days after the tenancy ended and possession came back, not 30 days after you send the interim one. The statute does not say what an interim accounting must contain, and it does not say when the BALANCE is due on this path; we found no appellate decision that fills either gap. An interim accounting that states what is known, what is still being determined and why, and that returns whatever part of the deposit is plainly not in dispute, leaves the least to argue about. The path is for a claim whose extent \"cannot be determined\" in time, such as a repair still being quoted or a final utility bill not yet issued."
    },
    "addressUnknown": {
      "summary": "Where the tenant’s address is unknown: apply the deposit as G.S. 42-51 permits after a period of 30 days, and hold the balance for the tenant to collect for at least six months.",
      "value": {
        "applyAfterDays": 30,
        "holdBalanceAtLeastMonths": 6
      },
      "citation": "N.C. Gen. Stat. § 42-52",
      "statuteQuote": "If the tenant's address is unknown the landlord shall apply the deposit as permitted in G.S. 42-51 after a period of 30 days and the landlord shall hold the balance of the deposit for collection by the tenant for at least six months.",
      "sourceUrl": "https://www.ncleg.gov/EnactedLegislation/Statutes/HTML/BySection/Chapter_42/GS_42-52.html",
      "derivation": "verbatim",
      "sourceType": "codified",
      "effectiveDate": "1977-10-01",
      "lastVerified": "2026-11-09",
      "confidence": "high",
      "notes": "The six months is a minimum, and the statute does not say exactly when it starts beyond \"after a period of 30 days\". The tool counts it from the day after day 30, the first day the deposit may be applied on this path; if you applied the deposit later than that, count from the day you did."
    },
    "petFee": {
      "summary": "A landlord may charge a reasonable, non-refundable fee for pets kept on the premises. It is a fee, not part of the security deposit.",
      "value": {
        "nonrefundableFeeAllowed": true,
        "mustBeReasonable": true,
        "amountFixedByStatute": false
      },
      "citation": "N.C. Gen. Stat. § 42-53",
      "statuteQuote": "Notwithstanding the provisions of this section, the landlord may charge a reasonable, nonrefundable fee for pets kept by the tenant on the premises.",
      "sourceUrl": "https://www.ncleg.gov/EnactedLegislation/Statutes/HTML/BySection/Chapter_42/GS_42-53.html",
      "derivation": "verbatim",
      "sourceType": "codified",
      "effectiveDate": "1977-10-01",
      "lastVerified": "2026-11-09",
      "confidence": "high",
      "notes": "The section is captioned \"Pet deposits\", but what it authorizes is a FEE: reasonable, and non-refundable. No figure or percentage is set, and we found no appellate decision on what \"reasonable\" means. A REFUNDABLE pet deposit is a different thing, and the Act does not mention one. Money held to be returned if the pet does no damage is being held as security, so on our reading it is part of the security deposit: inside the ceiling, in the trust account, and accounted for at move-out. Pet damage beyond the fee can still be charged against the deposit as damage to the premises; the Real Estate Commission’s brochure says the same. An assistance animal is not a pet under federal fair housing rules, which this page does not cover."
    },
    "wearAndTear": {
      "summary": "Nothing may be withheld as damages for conditions that are due to normal wear and tear, and nothing may be kept beyond the landlord’s actual damages. The Act does not define \"normal wear and tear\", and we found no appellate decision that does.",
      "value": {
        "withholdingForNormalWearBarred": true,
        "cappedAtActualDamages": true,
        "definedByStatuteOrAppellateCourt": false
      },
      "citation": "N.C. Gen. Stat. § 42-52",
      "statuteQuote": "The landlord may not withhold as damages part of the security deposit for conditions that are due to normal wear and tear nor may the landlord retain an amount from the security deposit which exceeds his actual damages.",
      "sourceUrl": "https://www.ncleg.gov/EnactedLegislation/Statutes/HTML/BySection/Chapter_42/GS_42-52.html",
      "derivation": "verbatim",
      "sourceType": "codified",
      "effectiveDate": "1977-10-01",
      "lastVerified": "2026-11-09",
      "confidence": "high",
      "notes": "The Act gives no definition and no examples, and we found no North Carolina appellate decision that defines the phrase or applies it to particular facts. The Court of Appeals has said only that charging for normal wear and tear is a violation answered by a refund of what was wrongly kept (with damages and, if the noncompliance was willful, attorney’s fees also available), and that it has to be decided tenant by tenant (Neil v. Kuester, 2014). The Real Estate Commission’s brochure offers tenants a working description: carpet, plumbing or appliances that need replacing \"because they are old and worn out\" cannot be charged, while a tenant whose mistreatment wore an item out may be charged for \"the amount of unusual wear\" caused, \"but not the entire cost of replacement\". That is an agency’s description, not a legal test. \"Actual damages\" is a limit of its own: on its face it rules out a flat charge larger than what the work actually cost."
    },
    "willfulForfeiture": {
      "summary": "A landlord who willfully fails to comply with the deposit, bond or notice requirements loses the right to keep any portion of the deposit, including amounts G.S. 42-51 would otherwise allow.",
      "value": {
        "voidsRightToRetainAnyPortion": true,
        "requiresWillfulness": true,
        "duties": [
          "deposit",
          "bond",
          "notice"
        ],
        "willfulDefinedByAppellateCourt": false
      },
      "citation": "N.C. Gen. Stat. § 42-55",
      "statuteQuote": "The willful failure of a landlord to comply with the deposit, bond, or notice requirements of this Article shall void the landlord's right to retain any portion of the tenant's security deposit as otherwise permitted under G.S. 42-51.",
      "sourceUrl": "https://www.ncleg.gov/EnactedLegislation/Statutes/HTML/BySection/Chapter_42/GS_42-55.html",
      "derivation": "verbatim",
      "sourceType": "codified",
      "effectiveDate": "2009-10-01",
      "lastVerified": "2026-11-09",
      "confidence": "high",
      "amendedBy": "S.L. 2009-279, s. 6",
      "notes": "The sentence was added in 2009. It does not say which sections \"the deposit, bond, or notice requirements\" are; the Court of Appeals has held they are those of G.S. 42-50, \"the only section of the Act containing provisions regarding deposit, bond, and notice\". (G.S. 42-54 also requires a notice, of a transfer to a new owner; the opinion does not mention it, and we found no decision on whether a willful failure of that notice comes within the sentence.) \"Willful\" is not defined, and we found no North Carolina appellate decision on what a tenant must show to prove it under this section. What is voided is the right to RETAIN from the deposit. The Act does not say the underlying debt is extinguished, and we found no appellate decision on whether a landlord in that position can still sue separately for unpaid rent or damage."
    },
    "remediesReading": {
      "summary": "The Court of Appeals has read G.S. 42-55 as four distinct remedies and held that the full-refund remedy is available only for a willful violation of G.S. 42-50. Improper deductions, overcharging and charging for normal wear and tear are answered by an accounting and a refund of what was wrongly kept, plus damages and, if the noncompliance was willful, attorney’s fees.",
      "value": {
        "distinctRemedies": 4,
        "fullRefundLimitedToSection": "42-50",
        "refundRemediesMutuallyExclusive": true,
        "decidedOnLateAccountingFacts": false
      },
      "citation": "Neil v. Kuester Real Estate Servs., Inc., 237 N.C. App. 132, 764 S.E.2d 498 (2014)",
      "statuteQuote": "We conclude that the full refund remedy is available only for willful violations of section 42-50, the only section of the Act containing provisions regarding deposit, bond, and notice vis a vis security deposits",
      "sourceUrl": "https://appellate.nccourts.org/opinions/?c=2&pdf=32004",
      "derivation": "verbatim",
      "sourceType": "case",
      "effectiveDate": "2014-11-04",
      "lastVerified": "2026-11-09",
      "confidence": "high",
      "notes": "This is a published decision of the North Carolina Court of Appeals and the only appellate reading of the remedies section we found. Its limits: the tenants complained of improper deductions (carpet cleaning, painting and a $40 administrative fee), not of a late or missing accounting, so, as we read it, the opinion’s reasoning covers a missed deadline but its facts do not. The appeal was from a refusal to certify a class action. And the court was applying the list of permitted uses as it stood before October 2012. We found no decision of the North Carolina Supreme Court construing the section. What \"we found\" rests on: we searched the full text of North Carolina’s published appellate opinions from 1977 through November 9, 2026, and of the Court of Appeals’ unpublished opinions from 1998 on, for the Act’s name, its section numbers and repeated uses of \"security deposit\". One group was checked by title and the court’s own summary rather than opened: opinions captioned \"State v.\" or \"In re\" that are not in the digitized reports we used, which run to 2014 for the Court of Appeals and 2017 for the Supreme Court. Unpublished opinions before 1998 are not online and trial-court rulings are not reported, so neither was searched."
    },
    "unfairPractices": {
      "summary": "The Tenant Security Deposit Act contains no damages multiplier. North Carolina’s unfair and deceptive practices statute does: a person injured by a violation of Chapter 75 recovers treble damages. Renting residential housing is commerce under that chapter, so a tenant can plead a Chapter 75 claim beside a deposit claim. We found no North Carolina appellate decision on whether a violation of the deposit Act is by itself an unfair or deceptive practice.",
      "value": {
        "multiplierInDepositAct": false,
        "chapter75Multiplier": 3,
        "residentialRentingIsCommerce": true,
        "depositViolationPerSeDecided": false
      },
      "citation": "N.C. Gen. Stat. §§ 75-1.1, 75-16",
      "statuteQuote": "if damages are assessed in such case judgment shall be rendered in favor of the plaintiff and against the defendant for treble the amount fixed by the verdict",
      "statuteQuoteCitation": "N.C. Gen. Stat. § 75-16",
      "sourceUrl": "https://www.ncleg.gov/EnactedLegislation/Statutes/HTML/BySection/Chapter_75/GS_75-16.html",
      "derivation": "synthesized",
      "sourceType": "codified",
      "effectiveDate": "1977-06-23",
      "lastVerified": "2026-11-09",
      "confidence": "medium",
      "notes": "Settled: the rental of residential housing is trade or commerce under Chapter 75 (Love v. Pressley, 1977); a small-scale landlord is covered (Stolfo v. Kernodle, 1995); and good faith is not a defense to a Chapter 75 claim (Marshall v. Miller, 1981). Also settled: a mere breach of contract is not an unfair practice without substantial aggravating circumstances (Branch Banking & Trust Co. v. Thompson, 1992). Not settled: no appellate decision we found holds that keeping a deposit wrongly, or missing the Act’s deadlines, is or is not enough by itself. One 1984 decision is often cited as affirming a trebled deposit award (Borders v. Newton); the trial court there did treble $240, but the appeal was about other issues and the Court of Appeals did not review that award. Where a Chapter 75 claim succeeds, damages are trebled automatically, and the judge may award attorney’s fees on a finding that the defendant willfully engaged in the practice and that there was an unwarranted refusal to fully resolve the matter (G.S. 75-16.1)."
    },
    "timeComputation": {
      "summary": "A period fixed by statute is counted the way Rule 6(a) of the Rules of Civil Procedure counts it: the day of the event is left out, the last day is counted, and a last day that is a Saturday, a Sunday or a legal holiday on which the courthouse is closed runs to the end of the next day that is none of those.",
      "value": {
        "excludesTheDayOfTheEvent": true,
        "lastDayOnWeekendRunsToNextOpenDay": true,
        "holidayMeansCourthouseClosed": true,
        "appliedToDepositDeadlineByACourt": false
      },
      "citation": "N.C. Gen. Stat. § 1-593; N.C. Gen. Stat. § 1A-1, Rule 6(a)",
      "statuteQuote": "The time within which an act is to be done, as provided by law, shall be computed in the manner prescribed by Rule 6(a) of the Rules of Civil Procedure.",
      "statuteQuoteCitation": "N.C. Gen. Stat. § 1-593",
      "sourceUrl": "https://www.ncleg.gov/EnactedLegislation/Statutes/HTML/BySection/Chapter_1/GS_1-593.html",
      "derivation": "synthesized",
      "sourceType": "codified",
      "effectiveDate": "1970-01-01",
      "lastVerified": "2026-11-09",
      "confidence": "medium",
      "notes": "On its words G.S. 1-593 reaches the 30 and 60 days in the deposit Act. In 2026 the North Carolina Supreme Court said, in explaining why the three extra days for mail do not apply, that the section governs the counting of a statutory period for starting a contested case (Bradley Home v. N.C. Department of Health and Human Services). We found no decision applying it to a deposit deadline, which is why the tool shows the strict date first. It moves a date only for a Saturday or Sunday. A holiday counts under the rule only if the courthouse is closed that day, which is a court calendar the Judicial Branch publishes each year rather than a list in a statute, so the tool does not guess at it; the date it shows can only be earlier than the law allows, never later. The three extra days the court rules add after service by mail are about a party’s time to respond to a paper served on them and do not lengthen a landlord’s time to send one."
    },
    "vacationRental": {
      "summary": "A vacation rental (residential property rented for vacation, leisure or recreation for fewer than 90 days by someone with a permanent home to return to) runs on Chapter 42A, the Vacation Rental Act. It borrows the list of permitted uses from this Act but changes the clock to 45 days after the tenancy concludes and removes the bond option.",
      "value": {
        "accountOrRefundDays": 45,
        "bondInsteadOfTrustAccountAllowed": false,
        "fewerThanDays": 90
      },
      "citation": "N.C. Gen. Stat. §§ 42A-4(3), 42A-18(a)",
      "statuteQuote": "The landlord or real estate broker shall apply, account for, or refund tenant security deposit monies as provided in G.S. 42-51 within 45 days following the conclusion of the tenancy.",
      "statuteQuoteCitation": "N.C. Gen. Stat. § 42A-18(a)",
      "sourceUrl": "https://www.ncleg.gov/EnactedLegislation/Statutes/HTML/BySection/Chapter_42A/GS_42A-18.html",
      "derivation": "verbatim",
      "sourceType": "codified",
      "effectiveDate": "2000-01-01",
      "lastVerified": "2026-11-09",
      "confidence": "high",
      "notes": "This tool does not compute a vacation rental. There the deposit must be in a trust account with no bond alternative, unpaid long-distance and cable charges may be deducted in addition to the eight listed uses, the period is 45 days, and a vacation rental agreement may not provide for automatic forfeiture of the deposit on a breach. A vacation rental under the chapter is the rental of residential property \"for vacation, leisure, or recreation purposes for fewer than 90 days by a person who has a place of permanent residence to which he or she intends to return\"."
    },
    "agencyReading": {
      "summary": "The North Carolina Real Estate Commission’s tenant brochure says that failing to make the accounting the Act requires forfeits the landlord’s right to keep any portion of the deposit. That is broader than the Court of Appeals’ reading, which confines forfeiture to a willful failure of the trust-account, bond or notice duties.",
      "value": {
        "saysFailureToAccountForfeits": true,
        "matchesCourtOfAppealsReading": false
      },
      "citation": "N.C. Real Estate Commission, \"Questions and Answers on: Tenant Security Deposits\" (REC 3.24, 7/1/19)",
      "statuteQuote": "The failure to make the accounting as required under the Act is a forfeiture of the landlord's right to retain any portion of the deposit.",
      "sourceUrl": "https://www.ncrec.gov/Brochures/Print/TenantPrint.pdf",
      "derivation": "verbatim",
      "sourceType": "agency",
      "effectiveDate": "2019-07-01",
      "lastVerified": "2026-11-09",
      "confidence": "high",
      "notes": "A brochure is not law and does not bind a court. It matters here because the Commission licenses and disciplines every real estate broker who manages rental property in the State, so a licensed manager is answerable to the body that wrote that sentence, and because it is what a tenant is most likely to have read. The cautious course is the same on either reading: send the accounting and the balance by day 30."
    },
    "judicialBranchGuidance": {
      "summary": "The North Carolina Judicial Branch’s public guidance says a landlord whose tenant left no known forwarding address is not required to provide an accounting, but must hold any remaining money for the tenant for at least six months.",
      "value": {
        "saysNoAccountingWhenAddressUnknown": true
      },
      "citation": "N.C. Judicial Branch, Help Topics: Landlord/Tenant Issues, \"Security Deposits\"",
      "statuteQuote": "If the tenant’s forwarding address is unknown, the landlord is not required to provide an accounting but must hold any remaining money for the tenant for at least six months.",
      "sourceUrl": "https://www.nccourts.gov/help-topics/housing/landlordtenant-issues",
      "derivation": "verbatim",
      "sourceType": "agency",
      "effectiveDate": "2026-11-09",
      "effectiveDateIsFloor": true,
      "lastVerified": "2026-11-09",
      "confidence": "medium",
      "notes": "This is general public information from the court system, not a ruling. The statute’s own sentence does not say the accounting is excused; it says to apply the deposit after 30 days and hold the balance. Preparing the itemization anyway holds up under either reading."
    },
    "cities": [],
    "localLaw": {
      "preempted": false,
      "summary": "We found no North Carolina statute that expressly bars a city or county from regulating security deposits. The preemption clause in the landlord-tenant chapter covers local rules on the amount of rent and on refusing tenants whose income includes federal housing assistance (G.S. 42-14.1), not deposits. The general rule is that a city ordinance may not regulate a field where a state statute clearly shows an intent to provide a complete and integrated regulatory scheme (G.S. 160A-174(b)(5)); we found no decision on whether the Tenant Security Deposit Act is one. In practice we found nothing local to apply. We searched the online codes of 32 cities and towns and 8 counties for a tenant-deposit rule and found none: Charlotte, Raleigh, Greensboro, Durham, Winston-Salem, Fayetteville, Cary, Wilmington, High Point, Concord, Asheville, Greenville, Gastonia, Apex, Jacksonville, Huntersville, Chapel Hill, Burlington, Kannapolis, Rocky Mount, Mooresville, Wake Forest, Wilson, Holly Springs, Indian Trail, Fuquay-Varina, Salisbury, Monroe, Goldsboro, Garner, Hickory and Boone, and Wake, Guilford, Forsyth, Cumberland, Durham, Buncombe, New Hanover and Orange counties. The hits were utility deposits, permit and facility-rental deposits, fair housing and rental registration. Mecklenburg County publishes no searchable code; none of the 56 ordinances it posts online is a landlord-tenant ordinance by its title. That is a search of each code, not a read of every chapter, and a search sees only what the publisher has codified: Huntersville’s online code lists no supplement after April 2021, Cumberland County’s runs through September 2021, Wilson’s through April 2023, Durham County’s through June 2023, Wake County’s through February 2024, Wake Forest’s through August 2024 and Cary’s through December 2024. Everywhere else we have not looked, and state law is the answer as far as we know.",
      "citation": "N.C. Gen. Stat. §§ 42-14.1, 160A-174(b)",
      "sourceUrl": "https://www.ncleg.gov/EnactedLegislation/Statutes/HTML/BySection/Chapter_160A/GS_160A-174.html",
      "lastVerified": "2026-11-09"
    },
    "sources": [
      {
        "label": "N.C. Gen. Stat. ch. 42, art. 6, Tenant Security Deposit Act (North Carolina General Assembly)",
        "url": "https://www.ncleg.gov/EnactedLegislation/Statutes/HTML/ByArticle/Chapter_42/Article_6.html"
      },
      {
        "label": "G.S. 42-50, trust account or bond, and the 30-day notice",
        "url": "https://www.ncleg.gov/EnactedLegislation/Statutes/HTML/BySection/Chapter_42/GS_42-50.html"
      },
      {
        "label": "G.S. 42-51, the eight permitted uses and the deposit ceiling",
        "url": "https://www.ncleg.gov/EnactedLegislation/Statutes/HTML/BySection/Chapter_42/GS_42-51.html"
      },
      {
        "label": "G.S. 42-52, the 30-day itemization, interim and final accountings, wear and tear",
        "url": "https://www.ncleg.gov/EnactedLegislation/Statutes/HTML/BySection/Chapter_42/GS_42-52.html"
      },
      {
        "label": "G.S. 42-53, pet fee",
        "url": "https://www.ncleg.gov/EnactedLegislation/Statutes/HTML/BySection/Chapter_42/GS_42-53.html"
      },
      {
        "label": "G.S. 42-54, transfer of the dwelling unit",
        "url": "https://www.ncleg.gov/EnactedLegislation/Statutes/HTML/BySection/Chapter_42/GS_42-54.html"
      },
      {
        "label": "G.S. 42-55, remedies",
        "url": "https://www.ncleg.gov/EnactedLegislation/Statutes/HTML/BySection/Chapter_42/GS_42-55.html"
      },
      {
        "label": "G.S. 42-56, application of the Article",
        "url": "https://www.ncleg.gov/EnactedLegislation/Statutes/HTML/BySection/Chapter_42/GS_42-56.html"
      },
      {
        "label": "G.S. 42-46, authorized fees, costs and expenses",
        "url": "https://www.ncleg.gov/EnactedLegislation/Statutes/HTML/BySection/Chapter_42/GS_42-46.html"
      },
      {
        "label": "G.S. 42A-18, vacation rentals and the Tenant Security Deposit Act",
        "url": "https://www.ncleg.gov/EnactedLegislation/Statutes/HTML/BySection/Chapter_42A/GS_42A-18.html"
      },
      {
        "label": "G.S. 1-593, how time is computed",
        "url": "https://www.ncleg.gov/EnactedLegislation/Statutes/HTML/BySection/Chapter_1/GS_1-593.html"
      },
      {
        "label": "G.S. 1A-1, Rule 6, time",
        "url": "https://www.ncleg.gov/EnactedLegislation/Statutes/HTML/BySection/Chapter_1A/GS_1A-1,_Rule_6.html"
      },
      {
        "label": "G.S. 75-1.1, unfair or deceptive acts or practices",
        "url": "https://www.ncleg.gov/EnactedLegislation/Statutes/HTML/BySection/Chapter_75/GS_75-1.1.html"
      },
      {
        "label": "G.S. 75-16, civil action and treble damages",
        "url": "https://www.ncleg.gov/EnactedLegislation/Statutes/HTML/BySection/Chapter_75/GS_75-16.html"
      },
      {
        "label": "Neil v. Kuester Real Estate Servs., Inc., 237 N.C. App. 132, 764 S.E.2d 498 (2014) (N.C. Court of Appeals, official opinion)",
        "url": "https://appellate.nccourts.org/opinions/?c=2&pdf=32004"
      },
      {
        "label": "Dobbins v. Paul, 71 N.C. App. 113 (1984)"
      },
      {
        "label": "Cla-Mar Management v. Harris, 76 N.C. App. 300 (1985)"
      },
      {
        "label": "Isbey v. Crews, 55 N.C. App. 47 (1981): the duty to mitigate after a tenant leaves early (a commercial lease)"
      },
      {
        "label": "50 U.S.C. § 3955, Servicemembers Civil Relief Act: termination of residential leases",
        "url": "https://www.govinfo.gov/link/uscode/50/3955?type=usc&year=mostrecent&link-type=html"
      },
      {
        "label": "G.S. 127B-28, North Carolina Servicemembers Civil Relief Act",
        "url": "https://www.ncleg.gov/EnactedLegislation/Statutes/HTML/BySection/Chapter_127B/GS_127B-28.html"
      },
      {
        "label": "G.S. 127B-34, a knowing violation is an unfair or deceptive trade practice",
        "url": "https://www.ncleg.gov/EnactedLegislation/Statutes/HTML/BySection/Chapter_127B/GS_127B-34.html"
      },
      {
        "label": "G.S. 42-45, early termination by military technicians and their survivors",
        "url": "https://www.ncleg.gov/EnactedLegislation/Statutes/HTML/BySection/Chapter_42/GS_42-45.html"
      },
      {
        "label": "Bradley Home v. N.C. Department of Health and Human Services, No. 220PA24 (N.C. May 22, 2026)"
      },
      {
        "label": "N.C. Real Estate Commission, Questions and Answers on: Tenant Security Deposits (REC 3.24, agency brochure)",
        "url": "https://www.ncrec.gov/Brochures/Print/TenantPrint.pdf"
      },
      {
        "label": "N.C. Judicial Branch, Landlord/Tenant Issues (public guidance)",
        "url": "https://www.nccourts.gov/help-topics/housing/landlordtenant-issues"
      },
      {
        "label": "21 NCAC 58A .0116, handling of trust money by real estate brokers",
        "url": "http://reports.oah.state.nc.us/ncac/title%2021%20-%20occupational%20licensing%20boards%20and%20commissions/chapter%2058%20-%20real%20estate%20commission/subchapter%20a/21%20ncac%2058a%20.0116.pdf"
      }
    ]
  }
}