Norway Rent Deposit Calculator (Depositum)

In Norway a deposit (depositum) is money you hand over as security when you rent a home. It covers unpaid rent, damage to the property, costs if you have to be moved out and other claims under the tenancy contract. The rules are in sections 3-5 to 3-7 of the Tenancy Act (husleieloven) and protect the tenant. This calculator checks that a deposit, and any guarantee on top of it, stays within the legal limit, and shows how much interest you can expect on the account while you live there.

The rules in short

• Maximum 6 months' rent. Deposit and guarantee (garanti) are counted together. It can be agreed that the deposit follows changes in the rent.
• A locked account in your name. The money goes into a special account (depositumskonto) at a financial institution allowed to offer this in Norway. Neither you nor the landlord can take money out alone while the tenancy lasts.
• The landlord pays for opening the account. The landlord can name the bank if that is not a significant inconvenience for you, and you do not have to open an account abroad.
• The interest is yours. You can ask the bank to pay out the interest earned at any time during the tenancy.
• No other payments. For a home, the landlord cannot require amounts other than rent, an agreed share of electricity and water, and the deposit or guarantee. Anything paid beyond that can be claimed back with interest (section 3-7).

Worked example

The rent is NOK 14,000 a month and the landlord asks for NOK 42,000, which is 3months' rent. The limit is NOK 84,000 (about EUR 7,750 or USD 8,840), so the request is lawful. At 3% interest the account holds NOK 45,895 after 3 years. The NOK 3,895 of interest is yours, and after 22% tax you keep NOK 3,038.

Maximum deposit by monthly rent

Euro and dollar figures are approximate, converted at Norges Bank mid-market rates of 25 September 2026 (EUR 1 = NOK 10.84, USD 1 = NOK 9.51).

Deposit or guarantee?

A guarantee is a promise from someone other than you, for example an insurance company or NAV (the Norwegian Labour and Welfare Administration), to cover the landlord's claims. It means you do not have to lock up a large sum, but read the terms carefully: the provider may charge a fee and may claim back from you anything it pays out to the landlord. A deposit costs nothing except that the money is locked, and it earns interest. If the landlord asks for both, the total is still capped at 6months' rent.

When you move out

Clean the home, photograph its condition and ask the landlord for written consent to release the deposit. If you ask the bank to pay it out without that consent, the bank notifies the landlord, who has 5 weeks to make a claim or go to court. If nothing happens, the bank pays you. The landlord can also claim unpaid rent from the account after the tenancy has ended, under conditions set out in the Act, and you then have 5weeks to show you have started legal proceedings. The landlord's claims must fall within what the deposit secures: unpaid rent, damage to the property, costs of moving you out and other claims under the contract.

If you are new to Norway

• Do not transfer the deposit to the landlord's private account or pay in cash. Ask for a deposit account and keep the bank's confirmation.
• Banks set their own identification requirements for opening an account, so ask early what they need from you.
• Get the tenancy contract in writing. The amount of the deposit, the guarantee and the rent should all be stated.

What this calculator does not cover

It applies the Tenancy Act rules for an ordinary home rental. It does not cover commercial leases, and the ministry can make exceptions to section 3-5 by regulation, which are not modelled. The interest rate is your own assumption, not a bank quote, and the calculation assumes interest is added once a year and taxed in Norway. For what happens to the rent itself, see the Norway rent increase calculator. If you are thinking of buying instead, the cost of buying a home in Norway shows what comes on top of the price, and the income tax calculator shows how the interest fits into your tax.