阿拉巴马州的押金:法律怎么规定的
房东扣了我的押金
法条怎么规定的
- 退还/列明扣项的法定期限
- 60 天
60 days, counted from the later of the two events the statute names. Ala. Code § 35-9A-201(b) ties the period to 'termination of the tenancy and delivery of possession' — joined by 'and', so both have to happen before the clock starts.
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A tenant who hands the keys back early while the lease still runs counts from the lease's termination date; a tenant whose lease expired but who stayed on counts from the day possession actually went back to the landlord.
- 法定赔偿倍数
- 2×
- 是否必须提供扣项清单
- 是
- 小额诉讼上限
- $6,000
- 法条编号
- Ala. Code § 35-9A-201 (Alabama Uniform Residential Landlord and Tenant Act, Ala. Code §§ 35-9A-101 to 35-9A-603; enacted Act 2006-316, effective Jan. 1, 2007; § 35-9A-201 last amended by Act 2014-279)
- Deposit cap
- One month's periodic rent (Ala. Code § 35-9A-201(a)), subject to statutory exceptions that let the landlord take more 'for pets, changes to the premises, or increased liability risks to the landlord or premises.' The exceptions are not quantified, so the extra amount is open-ended on the face of the statute.
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§ 35-9A-201 states no dollar remedy for an overcharge. Related protection: a lease may not make the tenant 'waive or forego ... requirements of security deposits established by this chapter' (§ 35-9A-163(a)(1)), such a provision is unenforceable, and a landlord who seeks to enforce a provision it knows is prohibited owes actual damages plus up to one month's periodic rent and reasonable attorney's fees (§ 35-9A-163(b)).
- Local stacking
- None, and Alabama is unusually explicit about it. Ala. Code § 35-9A-121 provides that Chapter 9A 'applies to and is the exclusive remedy to regulate and determine rights, obligations, and remedies under a rental agreement, wherever made, for a dwelling unit located within this state', that no county or municipal…
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resolution or ordinance about residential landlords or the landlord-tenant relationship may be enacted or enforced, and that any such local law 'enacted both prior to or after January 1, 2007, is superseded by this chapter.' Counties and cities keep only building codes, health codes and other general laws that affect rental property provided they equally affect similarly situated owner-occupied residential property. Separately, Ala. Code § 11-80-8.1(b) forbids any local governmental unit from enacting, maintaining or enforcing rent control. Practical effect: Birmingham, Montgomery, Mobile, Huntsville and Tuscaloosa have no deposit-return ordinance that could add days, interest, escrow or penalties on top of § 35-9A-201.
- Penalty detail
- Double the original deposit. Ala. Code § 35-9A-201(f) provides that if the landlord fails to mail a timely refund or accounting within the 60-day period, 'the landlord shall pay the tenant double the amount of the tenant's original deposit'. A $500 deposit wrongfully kept therefore supports a $1,000 claim.
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Note the base, which is unusual: Alabama measures against the ORIGINAL deposit, not against the portion the landlord wrongfully withheld. Call it a penalty rather than a cap. Subsection (g) says the section does not preclude the landlord or the tenant from recovering other damages, so the double is a floor the statute guarantees, not a ceiling on everything the tenant could claim.
- County overlays
- None. Local residential landlord-tenant ordinances are superseded by Ala. Code § 35-9A-121; local rent control is barred by Ala. Code § 11-80-8.1(b).
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Any city rental-registration or housing-code program that does exist is a municipal code matter of general application and does not change the 60-day clock or the doubling remedy.
- Penalty statute
- Ala. Code § 35-9A-201(f). This is a DIFFERENT subsection from the 60-day duties in (b), (c) and (e), and § 35-9A-201 contains no attorney-fee clause at all; the fee clause of the Act sits in a different section, § 35-9A-401(b), and covers a different wrong.
- Deadline statute
- Ala. Code § 35-9A-201(b) (itemized written notice delivered together with the amount due), § 35-9A-201(c) (itemized list of amounts withheld within the 60-day period), § 35-9A-201(e) (mailing by first class mail within 60 days is sufficient compliance)
- Scope exclusions
- Ala. Code § 35-9A-122 takes eight arrangements outside the chapter (and therefore outside the 60-day rule and the doubling remedy) 'unless created to avoid the application of this chapter': institutional residence incidental to detention or medical, geriatric, educational, counseling or religious service; occupancy by…
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a purchaser under a contract of sale; occupancy by a member of a fraternal or social organization in the part of a structure run for the organization; transient occupancy in a hotel, motel or lodgings; occupancy by an employee whose right to occupy is conditioned on employment about the premises; occupancy by a condominium owner or a cooperative proprietary lessee; premises rented primarily for agricultural purposes; and a seller (or the seller's family) staying on for up to 36 months after the sale.
- Interest or escrow
- Neither is required. § 35-9A-201 imposes no escrow, trust-account or separate-account duty and no obligation to pay the tenant interest, and no other provision requiring either was found in the Act's landlord-obligation article; the landlord may hold and commingle the deposit.
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The only related protection is § 35-9A-201(h): whoever holds the landlord's interest in the premises when the tenancy ends is bound by the section, so a sale of the building does not strand the deposit. This finding rests on the absence of language rather than on an affirmative statement - see open_questions.
- Limitations detail
- Chapter 9A has no limitations clause of its own, and Alabama's general statutes point in two directions depending on how the claim is framed. Recovering the deposit itself is contract-based: six years for actions founded on promises in writing not under seal (§ 6-2-34(4)) or upon any simple contract (§ 6-2-34(9)).
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The doubling in § 35-9A-201(f) reads as a statutory penalty, and § 6-2-38(j) gives two years for 'actions qui tam or for a penalty given by statute to the party aggrieved, unless the statute imposing it prescribes a different limitation' - § 35-9A-201 prescribes none. No Alabama appellate decision applying either period to § 35-9A-201 was located, so the field is left null; treat two years as the conservative outside limit for the doubling claim until the owner verifies.
- Anti waiver statute
- Ala. Code § 35-9A-163(a)(1), (b) - a rental agreement may not make the tenant waive 'requirements of security deposits established by this chapter'; such a provision is unenforceable, and a landlord who seeks to enforce a provision it knows is prohibited owes actual damages plus up to one month's periodic rent and…
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reasonable attorney's fees.
- Attorney fees detail
- § 35-9A-201 provides no attorney's fees. § 35-9A-401(b) provides 'actual damages and reasonable attorney fees' only for material noncompliance by the landlord with the rental agreement or with § 35-9A-204 (habitability), so a fee claim in a deposit case has to be anchored in a breached lease term rather than in § 35-9A-201.
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§ 35-9A-163(a)(3) makes a lease clause requiring the tenant to pay the landlord's attorney's fees or cost of collection unenforceable, and § 35-9A-163(b) allows fees where the landlord tries to enforce a provision it knows is prohibited. On the small claims docket, no fee award is possible unless the party is represented by a licensed attorney (§ 12-12-31(c)).
- Small claims statute
- Ala. Code § 12-12-31(a) - the district court has exclusive jurisdiction over civil actions where the matter in controversy, exclusive of interest and costs, does not exceed $6,000, and those actions go on each district court's small claims docket. District court general civil jurisdiction runs to $20,000 (§ 12-12-30).
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§ 12-12-31(b) allows individuals, partnerships and corporations to appear without an attorney; § 12-12-31(c) bars any attorney-fee award on the small claims docket unless the party is represented by a licensed attorney; § 12-12-31(f) charges the ordinary district court docket fee once the claim exceeds $1,500.
- Itemized list statute
- Ala. Code § 35-9A-201(b) (damages 'all as itemized by the landlord in a written notice delivered to the tenant') and § 35-9A-201(c) ('If the landlord does not refund the entire deposit, the landlord, within the 60-day period, shall provide the tenant an itemized list of amounts withheld.')
- Attorney fees available
- 否
- Tenant forfeiture 90 days
- TRAP that runs against the tenant, not the landlord: 'Any deposit unclaimed by the tenant as well as any check outstanding shall be forfeited by the tenant after a period of 90 days' (§ 35-9A-201(d)). A refund check that is mailed and never cashed, or a deposit the tenant never claims, is forfeited after 90 days.
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The subsection does not say what event starts those 90 days (mailing? end of tenancy?), and does not say whether forfeiture also extinguishes a § 35-9A-201(f) doubling claim that had already accrued - see open_questions. A demand letter should therefore move promptly and should not sit on an uncashed check.
- Tenant forfeiture statute
- Ala. Code § 35-9A-201(d)
- Successor landlord statute
- Ala. Code § 35-9A-201(h) - 'The holder of the landlord's interest in the premises at the time of the termination of the tenancy is bound by this section.'
- Adopting jurisdictions detail
- Not applicable - unlike Kentucky's URLTA, Alabama's Act needs no local opt-in. It applies statewide of its own force to every rental agreement for a dwelling unit located in Alabama (§ 35-9A-121), for tenancies from January 1, 2007 onward.
- Tenant forwarding address required
- 是
- Applies only in adopting jurisdictions
- 否
看完上面的数字,请务必读这一段
Alabama's residential security deposit rule lives in one section of the Alabama Uniform Residential Landlord and Tenant Act: Ala. Code § 35-9A-201, in force since January 1, 2007 and last amended in 2014. The landlord may not take more than one month's periodic rent as a deposit, except for pets, changes to the premises, or increased liability risks (§ 35-9A-201(a)). When the tenancy ends, the landlord has 60 days - measured from termination of the tenancy and delivery of possession - to mail the refund and, if anything is kept back, an itemized list of the amounts withheld (§ 35-9A-201(b), (c)). The Act cares about mailing, not delivery: first class mail to the address the tenant gave in writing is 'sufficient compliance' (§ 35-9A-201(e)). That cuts both ways, because the tenant carries a duty too - on vacating, give the landlord a valid forwarding address in writing, or the landlord may lawfully mail everything to your last known address, or even to the unit you just left (§ 35-9A-201(d)).
The penalty is in a different subsection from the deadline, and it is measured in a way that surprises people. Under § 35-9A-201(f), a landlord who fails to mail either a timely refund or a timely accounting within the 60-day period 'shall pay the tenant double the amount of the tenant's original deposit.' The base is the original deposit, not the amount wrongly withheld, and the text contains no bad-faith, willfulness or 'reasonable basis' escape hatch - missing the deadline is the violation. What the statute does not do is award attorney's fees. § 35-9A-201 has no fee clause; the Act's fee clause is § 35-9A-401(b) and it applies to a landlord's material breach of the lease or of the habitability duty in § 35-9A-204, not to a bare deposit violation. § 35-9A-201(g) does leave room for 'other damages' on top. Two more traps deserve attention: § 35-9A-201(d) says a deposit left unclaimed, or a refund check left outstanding, is forfeited by the tenant after 90 days - so do not sit on an uncashed check; and § 35-9A-122 pulls whole categories out of the Act, including hotels, motels and transient lodging, employer-provided housing, condominium and co-op owners, and rentals primarily for agricultural use, none of which get the 60 days or the doubling.
One thing Alabama makes simple: there is nothing local to check. § 35-9A-121 declares the Act 'the exclusive remedy' statewide and supersedes any county or municipal ordinance about residential landlords or the landlord-tenant relationship, whether it was passed before or after January 1, 2007; cities keep only building and health codes that apply equally to owner-occupied property, and § 11-80-8.1(b) separately bans local rent control. So Birmingham, Montgomery, Mobile, Huntsville and Tuscaloosa add no extra days, no interest and no extra penalties. Alabama also requires no escrow account and pays no interest on deposits - the landlord may hold the money in its own account - though § 35-9A-201(h) binds whoever owns the building when the tenancy ends, so a sale mid-lease does not make the deposit disappear. Enforcement is in court, not before an agency: the district court's small claims docket covers claims up to $6,000 exclusive of interest and costs (§ 12-12-31(a)) and you may appear without a lawyer, with the district court's ordinary civil jurisdiction reaching $20,000 (§ 12-12-30). Note that no attorney-fee award is available on the small claims docket unless you are actually represented (§ 12-12-31(c)). The Attorney General's Consumer Interest Division takes complaints but states that filing one is not a legal action and that it gives no legal advice.
自己去读原文
官方来源。如果下面某个数字对你的案子有影响,请打开法条自己读一遍 —— 法律会修订,而且很多城市会在州法之上叠加更严的地方条例。
- Ala. Code § 35-9A-201(a) — Deposit cap: one month's periodic rent, except for pets, changes to the premises, or increased liability risks. OFFICIAL Alabama Legislature (ALISON) code page; it is a JavaScript app, so WebFetch returns HTTP 200 with an empty shell - the section text was read in a rendering browser on 2026-09-04 and the top-level document request returned 200 OK.
- Ala. Code § 35-9A-201(b) — The 60-day clock and the itemization duty: deductions for accrued rent and § 35-9A-301 damages must be itemized in a written notice delivered with the amount due, 60 days after termination of the tenancy and delivery of possession (browser-rendered official page)
- Ala. Code § 35-9A-201(c) — Itemized list of amounts withheld required within the same 60-day period whenever the deposit is not refunded in full (browser-rendered official page)
- Ala. Code § 35-9A-201(d) — Tenant must give a written forwarding address on vacating; otherwise the landlord mails to the last known address or the unit. Also the 90-day forfeiture of an unclaimed deposit or outstanding check (browser-rendered official page)
- Ala. Code § 35-9A-201(e) — Mailing, not receipt, is what counts: first class mail to the address the tenant provided in writing, within 60 days, is sufficient compliance (browser-rendered official page)
- Ala. Code § 35-9A-201(f) — PENALTY SUBSECTION - double the tenant's ORIGINAL deposit for failing to mail a timely refund or accounting within the 60-day period; no bad-faith element, no attorney's fees in this section (browser-rendered official page)
- Ala. Code § 35-9A-201(g) — The doubling is not exclusive: other damages remain recoverable by either side (browser-rendered official page)
- Ala. Code § 35-9A-201(h) — Successor liability: whoever holds the landlord's interest when the tenancy ends is bound (browser-rendered official page)
- Ala. Code § 35-9A-121 — Territorial application: the chapter is the exclusive statewide remedy for residential landlord-tenant rights (browser-rendered official page)
- Ala. Code § 35-9A-121 — Local preemption: county and municipal residential landlord-tenant ordinances may not be enacted or enforced and are superseded, whether adopted before or after Jan. 1, 2007; building and health codes of general application survive (browser-rendered official page)
- Ala. Code § 35-9A-122 — Exclusions from the chapter (hotels/motels and transient lodging, employee-conditioned occupancy, contract-of-sale occupancy, condo/co-op owners, agricultural rentals, institutional residence, fraternal or social organizations, seller holdover up to 36 months) (browser-rendered official page)
- Ala. Code § 35-9A-163(a)(1) — Anti-waiver: a lease may not make the tenant waive the chapter's security-deposit requirements (browser-rendered official page)
- Ala. Code § 35-9A-163(b) — Remedy where the landlord seeks to enforce a lease provision it knows is prohibited: actual damages plus up to one month's periodic rent plus reasonable attorney's fees (browser-rendered official page)
- Ala. Code § 35-9A-401(b) — The Act's attorney-fee clause - it covers noncompliance with the rental agreement or with § 35-9A-204 (habitability), NOT a bare § 35-9A-201 deposit violation (browser-rendered official page)
- Ala. Code § 12-12-31(a) — Small claims docket: district court exclusive jurisdiction where the matter in controversy, exclusive of interest and costs, does not exceed $6,000 (browser-rendered official page)
- Ala. Code § 12-12-31(c) — No attorney-fee award on the small claims docket unless the party is represented by a licensed attorney (browser-rendered official page)
- Ala. Code § 12-12-30 — District court general civil jurisdiction to $20,000 - the ceiling if a doubled deposit claim exceeds the $6,000 small claims limit (browser-rendered official page)
- Ala. Code § 6-2-38(j) — Two-year limitation for an action on a statutory penalty given to the aggrieved party where the statute prescribes none - the likely period for the § 35-9A-201(f) doubling (browser-rendered official page)
- Ala. Code § 6-2-34(4), (9) — Six-year limitation for actions on written promises not under seal and on any simple contract - the likely period for recovering the deposit itself (browser-rendered official page)
- Ala. Code § 11-80-8.1(b) — Statewide ban on local rent control - part of why no Alabama city layers its own rules on top of § 35-9A-201 (browser-rendered official page)
- Ala. Code § 35-9A-201 - UNOFFICIAL MIRROR — Fetchable copy used to corroborate the official ALISON text word-for-word (all of (a)-(h) plus the credit line 'Act 2006-316, p. 668, §1; Act 2014-279, §1'), because the official site renders only in a browser. Not authority.
- Ala. Code § 35-9A-201 - UNOFFICIAL REPRODUCTION (FindLaw, currency date December 30, 2024) — Second fetchable corroboration of the same text; also fixes a currency date. Cited only as a cross-check on the official ALISON page, not as authority. Justia's copy of the same section returned HTTP 403 to the fetcher.
- Alabama Attorney General, Consumer Interest Division - Consumer Complaint — The only state-level complaint channel located. It accepts written complaints (hotline 1-800-392-5658 / 334-242-7335; 501 Washington Avenue, Montgomery, AL 36104) but does not adjudicate, does not give legal advice, and the page does not list landlord-tenant or deposit disputes among the matters it handles.
最近核实: 2026-09-04
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