Oregon's deposit statute (ORS 90.300, in the Residential Landlord and Tenant Act) runs on one clock, one document, and a clean doubling penalty — with a few Oregon-specific wrinkles around fees and carpet cleaning that trip up both sides.
How much can a landlord charge?
No statutory cap — but Oregon polices the structure: a landlord may not charge a new deposit or raise one during the first year of tenancy (except by agreement for a new pet), and the statute distinguishes refundable deposits from fees, which are separately regulated and can't be freely invented. Anything labeled a deposit is refundable by law.
The 31-day clock
Within 31 days of the tenancy ending and delivery of possession, the landlord must return the deposit or provide a written accounting itemizing each claim against it, with the refund of the balance. The accounting must state the basis for every dollar — a lump sum is not an accounting.
What can be deducted
Unpaid rent and the cost of repairing damage or restoring the unit beyond ordinary wear and tear — including labor at a reasonable rate, which Oregon explicitly allows landlords to charge for their own work. Carpet cleaning is deductible only under specific conditions (professionally cleaned before tenancy or provision in the agreement, and beyond ordinary use). Ordinary wear — traffic patterns, faded finishes, aging fixtures — is never chargeable.
The penalty
Fail to return or account within 31 days, or withhold in bad faith, and the landlord owes twice the amount wrongfully withheld. Oregon small claims (up to $10,000) handles most of it; the accounting requirement means procedural failures alone frequently decide cases.
Why Oregon deposit disputes are documentation disputes
The written accounting is a list of factual claims about condition — every line implicitly asserts "this wasn't like this at move-in, and it's beyond ordinary wear." Neither assertion can be proven or rebutted by the accounting itself. That's the evidence gap, and it's the whole case.
SealMove closes it. Every photo and video is cryptographically sealed the instant it's captured, independently timestamped, and locked with Face ID into a tamper-evident archive. At move-out, your walkthrough lines up room-by-room against the sealed baseline — and either party can send the other a report to review and acknowledge, no app required.