What does first month, last month, and deposit mean?

First month's rent pays for the first month and is due before the keys. Last month's rent pays for the final month in advance, where the landlord requires it. The security deposit, usually one month's rent, is held against damage and returned at move-out. On a $1,200 apartment, the three are $1,200 each.

How much can a landlord charge for a security deposit?

Usually one month's rent, and in a growing list of states it cannot legally be more. California caps it at one month since July 1, 2024, under Assembly Bill 12. New York caps it at one month since 2019. Many other states cap it at two months, and a few set no cap at all.

How much is the deposit on a $1,200 apartment?

With a one-month deposit, the one-time bill is $4,150 and the savings target is $10,495. With no deposit it is $2,950 and $9,295. With a two-month deposit it is $5,350 and $11,795, and the months to save at $400 a month are 16, 19, and 22.

Do you get your security deposit back?

Yes, if the rent is paid in full, the apartment is left undamaged beyond normal wear, and the move-out procedure in the lease is followed. Most states require the landlord to return it within two to four weeks, with an itemized statement of any deductions. Photographs on move-in day are the protection.

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The first-keys ledger · Table No. 43

First Month, Last Month, and Deposit: What Moving In Really Costs

Three charges, three different jobs: first month's rent is spent, last month's rent is spent early, and the deposit is a loan to the landlord that comes back. This article prices each one, lists the state caps, and shows what the deposit does to the move-in bill.

Filed October 31, 2026 · figures checked against 2026 sources

Three charges, three different jobs

Moving in costs three kinds of money, and they do three different jobs, which is why they are charged separately and why confusing them costs money. First month's rent pays for the first month of living in the apartment, and it is due before the keys change hands, because the landlord is not extending credit for the first month. Last month's rent pays for the last month of the lease, in advance, and it is due where the landlord requires it, which is not everywhere and not in every state. The security deposit pays for nothing at all unless something goes wrong: it is the landlord's money held against damage beyond normal wear, unpaid rent, and cleaning beyond the condition the apartment was rented in, and it is returned at move-out if none of those things happened. On a $1,200 apartment, the three charges are $1,200 each, so the day the keys change hands costs $2,400 for first month plus deposit, or $3,600 if last month is also required, before the application fee, the truck, the furniture, and the utility deposits are counted.

The distinction matters because the three charges are treated differently by the law, and the law is the mover's protection. First month's rent is rent, and it is spent the moment it is paid. Last month's rent is also rent, paid early, and it cannot be charged again when the last month arrives. The deposit is not rent and not a fee, and the landlord cannot spend it as income: in many states it must be held in a separate account, it must be returned within a deadline the state sets, usually two to four weeks after move-out, and any deduction from it must be itemized. A landlord who calls the deposit a cleaning fee, a key fee, or a move-in fee has not changed what it is, and in California the statute says so explicitly: the cap applies to what the landlord demands or receives, even when the charge has a different name. The mover who knows which charge is which can ask the right question, which is not how much is due, but how much of it is rent, how much of it is the deposit, and when the deposit comes back.

How much deposit can a landlord charge?

The deposit is usually one month's rent, and in a growing list of states it cannot legally be more. California caps it at one month's rent for most landlords since July 1, 2024, under Assembly Bill 12, which replaced a system that allowed two months for unfurnished units and three months for furnished ones. The only exception is a small landlord, a natural person or an LLC whose members are all natural persons, who owns no more than two residential properties with no more than four units in total, and who may charge up to two months, and even that exception does not apply to a service member, who is always capped at one month. New York caps it at one month since the Housing Stability and Tenant Protection Act of 2019. Apartment List's 2026 survey lists the one-month states as Alabama, Delaware, the District of Columbia, Hawaii, Maryland, Massachusetts, Nebraska, New York, North Dakota, Rhode Island, South Dakota, and West Virginia, with California and New Hampshire at or near one month. Many other states cap the deposit at two months' rent, and a few set no cap at all, which is why the calculator lets the deposit run from zero to two months: the legal answer depends on the state, and the mover should check the state's cap before signing, not after paying.

The deposit also has a second job that the mover should know about, which is that it is the landlord's leverage at move-out. The deposit is returned only if the apartment is left in the condition it was rented in, minus normal wear, and the definition of normal wear is the argument most deposit disputes are about. A nail hole is normal wear in most states. A hole in the wall is not. Faded paint is normal wear. A stained carpet that needs replacing is not, though the landlord can only deduct the depreciated value of the carpet, not the cost of a new one. The practical protection is documentation: photographs of every room on move-in day, dated and sent to the landlord, and the same photographs on move-out day, with the same angles, so the condition is a record rather than a memory. The photographs cost nothing, and they are the difference between a deposit that comes back and a deposit that becomes an argument, and the argument is one the mover usually loses without them.

What the deposit does to the move-in bill

On a $1,200 apartment with the defaults in this calculator, the deposit is the swing line in the one-time bill. With no deposit, which is what a genuinely deposit-free listing offers, the one-time bill is $2,950. With a one-month deposit, it is $4,150. With a two-month deposit, it is $5,350. The target moves with it: $9,295, $10,495, and $11,795, and the months to save at $400 a month from $3,000 saved are 16, 19, and 22. The deposit is also the line that makes the last-month question matter most, because a landlord who requires last month's rent and a two-month deposit is asking for $4,800 before the first month's rent is even counted, which is four months of rent up front, and which is illegal in the one-month states and unaffordable in most others. The calculator's last-month checkbox exists for exactly this comparison: turn it on, and the one-time bill on the defaults rises from $4,150 to $5,350, and the target rises from $10,495 to $11,695, and the months to save rise from 19 to 22.

Deposit	One-time bill	Savings target	Months to save
0 months	$2,950	$9,295	16 mo
1 month	$4,150	$10,495	19 mo
2 months	$5,350	$11,795	22 mo

Read the table against the state caps, and the geography of the move becomes visible. A mover in California or New York is looking at the middle row, because the law caps the deposit at one month, and the one-time bill is $4,150. A mover in a two-month state is looking at the bottom row, and the bill is $5,350, which is $1,200 more for the same apartment, and which is three more months of saving at $400 a month. The difference is not the apartment. It is the state's law, and it is worth knowing before choosing between two apartments in two states, because the cheaper rent in the two-month state can cost more up front than the more expensive rent in the one-month state. The calculator on this site prices the deposit in months of rent, so the mover can set it to the state's cap and see the bill the law actually allows.

Last month's rent: where it is required, and where it is not

Last month's rent is the least standardized of the three charges, and the most often misunderstood. In some markets it is standard: a landlord in Massachusetts, for example, has long collected first month, last month, and a one-month deposit as the ordinary move-in, which is $3,600 on a $1,200 apartment before anything else. In California, the AB 12 cap treats last month's rent as part of the security, which means a landlord who collects it cannot also collect a full month's deposit on top of it without exceeding the cap, and the practical effect is that the old three-month move-in is gone. In New York, the 2019 law caps the deposit at one month and restricts what can be collected in advance, which has the same practical effect. The mover's question should be simple: is last month's rent required, and if it is, is it held as prepaid rent for the final month, which means it cannot be charged again when that month arrives, and does the lease say so in writing. A lease that is silent on the point is a lease that should be clarified before it is signed, because the $1,200 at stake is exactly the amount a dispute is usually about.

The new insight

The deposit is the only move-in charge that comes back, and that changes how it should be thought about. First month's rent is spent. Last month's rent is spent, just early. The deposit is a loan the mover makes to the landlord, interest-free, for the length of the tenancy, and it returns if the apartment is left undamaged. That makes the deposit the cheapest money in the whole move, in the long run, and the most expensive money in the short run, because it is due on the same day as the first month's rent, when the mover's savings are at their lowest. The practical consequence is that the deposit should be counted in the target, because the mover has to have it on moving day, and it should not be counted in the cost of living there, because it returns. The calculator does exactly that: the deposit is in the one-time bill and in the target, and it is not in the monthly run-rate, because a charge that returns is not a cost, even though it is a bill.

Getting the deposit back

The deposit comes back if three things are true: the rent is paid in full, the apartment is left undamaged beyond normal wear, and the mover follows the move-out procedure the lease requires, which usually means written notice by the deadline the lease sets, the keys returned as the lease directs, and a forwarding address given in writing. The landlord then has a deadline, set by the state, usually two to four weeks, to return the deposit with an itemized statement of any deductions, and in many states a landlord who misses the deadline forfeits the right to deduct anything, and in some states owes a penalty on top of the deposit. The mover's part is the documentation from move-in day and the condition at move-out, and the landlord's part is the itemized statement, and the dispute, when it happens, is usually about a deduction that is not itemized, a deadline that was missed, or damage that was already there. The calculator's deposit line is the amount at stake in that dispute, and the photographs are the evidence that decides it. Take them on the day the keys change hands, before a single box is unpacked, and send them to the landlord the same day, so the record is dated and shared.

Sources

Apartment List, on security deposit limits by state (one-month states: Alabama, Delaware, the District of Columbia, Hawaii, Maryland, Massachusetts, Nebraska, New York, North Dakota, Rhode Island, South Dakota, and West Virginia; California and New Hampshire at or near one month) and on California Civil Code section 1950.5 as amended by Assembly Bill 12. California Legislative Information, Assembly Bill 12 (deposit cap of one month's rent effective July 1, 2024; small-landlord exception of two months for a natural person owning no more than two properties with no more than four units; service members always capped at one month). New York Housing Stability and Tenant Protection Act of 2019 (one-month deposit cap). All calculator figures were computed by this site's calculator under the stated model.