Help with calculation of interest on a security deposit on a rented house?

Question

I know you answered a similar question on another post but I am in dire need of help. I was wondering if you could help me out with my security deposit calculations? We paid $1795 for our deposit in July 2008. We moved out in July 2013 so we were there renting for 5 years.

My landlord is trying to screw us out of the interest she owes us on our deposit. I have tried to run the numbers and figure it out myself but I don't know what interest rate to use. Our lease says basically the same thing as this below info from the MD attorney general's website:

Quoted from http://www.oag.state.md.us/Consumer/landlords.htm#deposits, here is the way to calculate the interest on security deposit a landlord in Maryland pays to his tenant:

The landlord must put the security deposit in an escrow account. When returning security deposits of $50 or more, the landlord must include simple interest of 3 percent per year, accrued at six-month intervals from the date the security deposit was paid (1.5 percent every six-month period).

Math is not my thing. I don't get this whole interest thing and my landlord is trying to use some scale and chart that I don't understand one bit. Please please please help us.

Answer 1

Not addressing any particular issue with your landlord and simply going based on the numbers you provided, you want to calculate the interest on $1795 at 3% interest per year after 5 years.

This will use a simple interest formula, or I = P x r x t where P is the principal amount of $1795.00, r is the interest rate of 3% per year (or 3/100=0.03), and t is the time involved of 5 year. The interest is therefore $269.25.

So adding the interest to your principal, we get a current day deposit value of $1795.00 + $269.25 = $2064.25 so hope that helps you out.