Karen runs 140 units across two states. Denver and Sacramento, inherited from a merger eighteen months ago, both performing fine.

Her pet charges are identical in both places because she set them once. $400 pet deposit, $50 a month pet rent, standardised across the portfolio so nobody has to remember anything different.

She got the number from a state-by-state table.

Everything about that is a problem, and none of it will surface on its own. An over-cap deposit does not bounce. The ledger accepts it. The lease prints it. The tenant signs it. Every system downstream behaves exactly as it would if the number were right, and the only moment it gets tested is the one Karen would rather it did not.

So let us walk her portfolio.

Denver First

Colorado passed House Bill 23-1068, effective 1 January 2024. The enacted statute sets an additional pet security deposit at a maximum of $300, and requires it to be refundable.

Karen is charging $400.

Then there is the part almost nobody expects. Colorado also caps the pet rent itself: no more than $35 per month or 1.5% of monthly rent, whichever is greater. Most operators assume pet rent is unregulated everywhere, because in most places it is. Karen is charging $50.

Two charges, both over, in a state she thought she understood.

One more thing worth flagging before she fixes it. Do not assume either limit can simply be multiplied by the number of animals. Read the statutory wording carefully before applying the limit per pet.

Now Sacramento

Different state, and the questions come back with a completely different shape.

California has no pet-specific deposit figure at all. What it has is a general security deposit cap, and the state's own tenant guide explains that a charge called a pet deposit, key fee or cleaning fee is treated as part of the security deposit, regardless of what it is called.

That single sentence is the one that catches multi-state operators. Karen's $400 is not a separate bucket. It sits inside her security deposit, and since AB 12 took effect in July 2024, that cap is generally one month's rent for both furnished and unfurnished residences, with a limited small-landlord exception.

So on a $1,800 unit where she already holds a full month as security, the pet deposit puts her over. Not because $400 is too large on its own, but because of where it sits.

California is also explicit that security cannot be designated as nonrefundable under Civil Code §1950.5.

Her pet rent, meanwhile, is fine. California does not cap it.

Same two charges. Opposite answers.

The Question That Bites After Move-Out

Karen's problems so far are about what she collects. There is a second set of rules about what happens when she gives it back, and it is the one that turns a legitimate deduction into a loss.

California gives a landlord 21 days from move-out to return the deposit or provide an itemised statement. Where deductions exceed $125, invoices or receipts have to be attached. Where the landlord's own staff did the work, the statement has to describe the work, the time taken and the hourly rate. And a tenant can sue for the deposit plus twice the deposit in damages where a judge finds it was retained in bad faith.

Jurisdictions differ substantially on the return deadline, required documentation, and consequences for missing the deadline. What does not differ is the shape of the failure. The deadline runs from a date, and somebody has to record that date. If nobody owns the move-out date, nobody is counting, and the clock runs out while a contractor is still emailing an invoice.

Karen has never checked Colorado's deadline. She has never checked whether either state requires receipts. On the day she needs to keep $900 of a deposit, those two facts will matter more than the cap ever did.

The Five Questions Underneath All Of This

Karen's problem was not that she did not know Colorado's law. It was that she did not know what to ask.

• One. Is there a cap, and how is it expressed?
  A dollar figure, or a multiple of monthly rent.

• Two. Does the pet deposit sit inside that cap or on top of it?
  Colorado gives it its own ceiling. California folds it into the security deposit. This is the question Karen never asked.

• Three. Can the pet charge be non-refundable?
  California treats covered pet deposits as security and does not permit security to be designated nonrefundable. Colorado requires its additional pet security deposit to be refundable. Other jurisdictions treat pet fees differently.

• Four. Is pet rent regulated?
  Colorado, yes. California, no. Most operators assume the California answer applies everywhere.

• Five. What is the return deadline, and what has to be attached?
  In many jurisdictions the pet deposit follows the general security deposit rules, but confirm the specific requirements, including what documentation has to accompany a deduction.

Two more states and she would have had two more shapes. Seattle currently allows a pet damage deposit of up to 25% of the first full month's rent, subject to its local rules, with non-refundable pet fees not allowed. Check only Washington State law and you miss it entirely. Oregon does something different again, naming a "pet security deposit" at ORS 90.300(4) while ORS 90.100 defines a security deposit as a refundable payment whose primary function is to secure performance of the rental agreement, and distinguishes it from a fee.

Four jurisdictions, four different answers to the same five questions.

The Federal Rule That Changes The Analysis

One rule sits above the state variation, and it is worth knowing before you touch the others.

A qualifying assistance animal is not treated as a pet for purposes of a reasonable accommodation request under the Fair Housing Act. The Act requires reasonable accommodations in rules, policies, practices or services when necessary to afford a person with a disability equal opportunity to use and enjoy a dwelling, at 42 U.S.C. §3604(f)(3)(B).

A housing provider generally cannot impose ordinary pet fees, deposits or pet rent as a condition of granting that accommodation. The accommodation analysis is separate from the ordinary pet policy analysis, and state and local law may provide additional protections. A resident can still generally be held responsible for actual damage caused by an assistance animal, subject to applicable law.

HUD's current disability resources explain the federal framework. HUD withdrew its 2020 and 2013 assistance animal guidance documents in 2025, so those withdrawn notices should not be treated as current controlling authority, though the Fair Housing Act itself remains in force.

What Karen Should Have Done

Twenty minutes per state, and none of it involves a summary site.

Go to the legislature, not a table. Search the state name plus "landlord tenant act" or "security deposit statute" and look for the legislature's own site, usually something like leg.[state].gov or statutes.legis.[state].gov.

Use the state agency guide for orientation. California's Department of Real Estate publishes a tenant guide. New York's Attorney General publishes a Tenants' Rights Guide. They are far more readable than the code. Use them to find your way in, then let the statute be the controlling source.

Read for the five questions in order, writing each answer down with the section number beside it.

Check the city separately. Seattle and Portland both prove a municipal ordinance can add a rule the state does not have.

Date the answer. California's cap changed in 2024 and the published tables have not all caught up. Yours will change too.

Summary sites are useful for exactly one thing: telling you which section of your code to read. Use them for that, then go and read it.

If You Find A Problem

This post is designed to make you find one, so it should say what happens next.

Stop the ongoing charge first. If pet rent is running monthly above a cap, every cycle adds to the exposure. That is the piece you can act on immediately and the one that compounds.

Separate the leases signed before the change from the ones signed after. Karen's Colorado leases are not one problem. A charge that was permitted when the lease was signed sits differently from the same charge on a lease signed after a new limit took effect, and jurisdictions handle that distinction in different ways. Before you decide anything about refunds, sort the leases by signing date against the date the law changed. That sorting is also the first thing counsel will ask for, so doing it yourself saves a round trip.

Do not quietly amend a signed lease. You generally cannot change the terms of an executed lease mid-term on your own. A charge already agreed and collected is a different question from a charge you are about to start collecting, and treating them the same is how a paperwork problem becomes a bigger one.

Whether anything is owed back, how far back, and how the two groups of leases are treated is jurisdiction-specific. Some states attach penalties to over-collection, some do not. That is the question to put to counsel, and it is worth putting it before a tenant asks rather than after.

Write down the date you found it. If this ever gets examined, the difference between a problem you identified and corrected and a problem that was simply running is the difference between two very different conversations.

And fix the template, not just the lease. Karen's $400 was not a decision made 140 times. It was a decision made once and then copied. If you correct the individual leases without correcting the source, it comes back at the next renewal cycle.

Before You Close This Tab

One row per state you operate in. Fill it now while it is in front of you.

Statute: ________________ · Section: ________ · Date checked: ________

1. Cap: ________________________________

2. Does the pet deposit count inside it: ________________

3. Non-refundable charges permitted: ________________

4. Pet rent regulated: ________________

5. Return deadline and what must be attached: ________________

City ordinance, if any: ________________

Then do the thing Karen skipped. Check it against what your system is actually charging, not against your policy document. A cap you know about and a charge nobody has looked at are two different things, and the second one is where the money goes.

While you are there, two more checks worth the same afternoon. That the label in your lease matches the label in your ledger, because a deposit booked as revenue causes trouble regardless of whether the amount was legal. And that someone specific owns the return deadline. Those two catch problems a cap check alone will not, and how the charge is set up once it starts billing matters just as much as what you decided to charge.

FAQ

1. How much can I charge for a pet deposit?
It depends on your jurisdiction. Colorado limits an additional pet security deposit to $300. California has no pet-specific figure but treats the pet deposit as part of a security deposit capped at one month's rent for most landlords. In many states the starting point is the general security deposit law.

2. Can I charge a non-refundable pet fee?
It depends. Some jurisdictions do not permit charges treated as security to be designated nonrefundable, and some require a pet security deposit to be refundable outright. Check your own statute before using one.

3. Does a pet deposit count toward the security deposit cap?
In many jurisdictions, yes, and California is a clear example. This is one of the first things to establish.

4. Is pet rent regulated?
Often not, but Colorado caps it at $35 per month or 1.5% of monthly rent, whichever is greater. Do not assume it is automatically unregulated.

5. When do I have to return a pet deposit?
In many jurisdictions it follows the general security deposit deadline. California allows 21 days, with itemisation and invoices where deductions exceed $125. Other jurisdictions differ substantially.

Sources: 42 U.S.C. §3604(f)(3)(B) · California Department of Real Estate, California Tenants guide · California Courts, Guide to security deposits in California. This article describes general concepts and is not legal advice. Deposit rules are set by state and local law, vary substantially, and change. Confirm your position against your own statute before setting any charge.