States/North Carolina
✓ Primary statutes verified
North Carolina renter billing guide

North Carolina Rental Charges & Security Deposit Guide

Plain-English guidance built directly from North Carolina’s Tenant Security Deposit Act: deposit caps by lease type, permitted deductions, trust-account rules and the 30/60-day accounting timeline.

Last reviewed: August 30, 2026Primary law: Chapter 42, Article 6 ↗
North Carolina highlights: deposit caps depend on the tenancy term—two weeks for week-to-week, one and one-half months for month-to-month, and two months for longer terms. The normal accounting deadline is 30 days, with an interim accounting plus final accounting by day 60 when the claim cannot yet be determined.
Week-to-week cap2 weeks’ rent

N.C.G.S. § 42-51(b).

Month-to-month cap1.5 months’ rent

N.C.G.S. § 42-51(b).

Longer-term cap2 months’ rent

For terms greater than month-to-month.

Accounting30 / 60 days

Day 60 is for the unresolved-claim scenario after a required interim accounting by day 30.

North Carolina charge guides

These pages are indexable because the legal layer is built directly from current North Carolina General Assembly statute pages.

Two rules make North Carolina especially useful to check

First, the maximum deposit changes with the rental term, so the lease classification matters. Second, the 60-day final accounting is not simply an automatic extension: when the claim cannot be determined within 30 days, § 42-52 requires an interim accounting by day 30.

Primary sources