Most state deposit caps are a single number. Pennsylvania's is a schedule, and the part landlords most often miss is that the cap drops after the first year — which can leave a landlord holding more deposit than the law now allows.
The two tiers (68 P.S. § 250.511a)
- Year one: no more than two months' rent may be required in escrow (§ 250.511a(a)).
- Year two and beyond: the deposit may not exceed one month's rent — and the statute says this expressly includes "any renewal of the original lease" (§ 250.511a(b)). The tier is anchored to how long the tenancy has run, not to which lease document is currently in force. Signing a fresh one-year renewal with the same tenant does not reset you to the two-month tier.
So a landlord who collected two months up front is over the cap once the tenancy enters its second year. The practical fix is to return the excess (or credit it) at the anniversary — § 250.511a(c) ties the retained one-month escrow into the interest and return machinery of §§ 511.2 and 512.
The five-year freeze
After a tenant has been in possession for five years or more, rent increases no longer permit any increase in the deposit (§ 250.511a(d)). The deposit is frozen at its then-current amount even as rent rises.
Three more things worth knowing
- Residential only, and non-waivable. The cap applies only to residential rentals (§ 250.511a(e)), and a tenant's waiver of the section — in the lease or otherwise — is "void and unenforceable" (§ 250.511a(f)). You cannot draft around it.
- The section has been stable for over 50 years. § 511.1 was added in December 1972 and has not been amended since — we verified this against the official compilation of the Act, which is current through the 2024 session's amendments to other sections. (A 2025–26 bill, HB 573, proposes changes around pet deposits; as of this writing it is sitting in committee and is not law.)
- Late return is expensive. Failing to return the deposit or provide the itemized damage list within 30 days exposes the landlord to double the amount wrongfully withheld (§ 250.512(c)).
Check your exact numbers — including the year-two step-down — with our Pennsylvania Security Deposit Limit Calculator.