Who Gets the Interest on a Security Deposit? Six Rules Compared

A security deposit sits somewhere for months, sometimes years, and what happens to it during that time depends entirely on which country’s law applies. Some countries say plainly that no interest is owed. Others require it every year, without exception, and a few say nothing that we could find at all. Here is what six European rules actually say, not what most people assume they say, and where the answer simply is not written down anywhere we could source.

1. France: no interest owed to the tenant

Article 22 of the French law of 6 July 1989 (loi 89-462) is explicit: the deposit does not earn interest for the tenant’s benefit. It is capped at one month’s rent, excluding charges, for an unfurnished lease. The landlord has two months to return it, reduced to one month if the move-out inspection matches the move-in inspection, and owes a penalty for each month of delay past that deadline. Whatever happens to the money while it sits with the landlord, none of it is legally due to the tenant.

2. Belgium: interest capitalised for the tenant

All three Belgian regions point the same way, with slightly different wording. Brussels’ Housing Code and the Walloon decree of 15 March 2018 both require the deposit to sit in an individualised account, with interest capitalised in favour of the tenant. The Flemish Woninghuurdecreet sets the same principle, on a deposit capped at three months’ rent instead of two. In every region, release still needs both parties to agree, or a court order.

3. Italy: annual legal interest, non-waivable

Article 11 of law 392/1978 goes further than Belgium: it requires the landlord to pay legal interest every year, not just at the end of the lease, on a deposit capped at three months’ rent. The obligation cannot be excluded by contract: a clause that tries to waive it has no legal effect, even if the tenant signed it. It also extends to non-residential leases, through article 41 of the same law.

4. The Netherlands, Spain and Portugal: capped, but the interest question stays open

The Dutch Wet goed verhuurderschap, in force since July 2023, caps the deposit at two months’ rent, but we found no sourced obligation for the landlord to pay interest on it during the tenancy. Spain adds a structural twist: the residential fianza under article 36 of the LAU must be deposited with the relevant regional authority, not held by the landlord or by any private party, which is a separate question from interest altogether. In Madrid, failing to deposit it can draw a fine of up to 90,151 euros under regional law. Portugal caps the caução at two months’ rent under article 1076 of the Código Civil, and again, we found no sourced obligation to pay interest on it. Where our sources stop, we say so rather than guess.

5. Why almost nobody actually claims what is owed

Even where the law is unambiguous, like in Italy, most tenants never see this money, because claiming it means writing to the landlord and, if nothing happens, pursuing it separately from the tenancy itself, often long after the lease has already ended. Nobody tracks a deposit closely enough to notice the interest is missing. That gap is not a loophole, it is a paperwork problem: the obligation exists on paper, but nothing forces it into view while the tenancy is still running.

A deposit held by an independent third party, with a running record of where it sits and what it earns, makes this visible instead of invisible. SafeYield shows both sides, in real time, without ever holding the residential deposits that must legally stay with a public authority, such as the Spanish fianza.

Frequently asked questions

For a closer look at how this plays out in France specifically, see our article on how long a landlord can hold your deposit in France, learn how a deposit between individuals can be held by a neutral third party, or browse our other guides on deposits between individuals.