Rental deposit rules in the Maldives

Which law applies, and to what

Act 21/2021 covers private residential letting between two parties, and units handed out under government housing schemes. It says plainly that it takes precedence over any other law or regulation covering residential letting in the Maldives, and it repealed the older rules that used to sit in the Land Act.

Some things sit outside it entirely. Tourist hotels and guesthouses, staff accommodation provided by an employer, college and university hostels, rooms let by the day, and property let for anything other than living in. Reside is a long-term residential platform, so the homes you see here fall inside the Act.

Six regulations were made under it in February 2022. Two matter here. The general regulation on residential letting, 2022/R-23, and the regulation on how councils hear complaints, 2022/R-24.

The deposit cap is two months' rent

Section 18(a) gives the landlord the discretion to set a security deposit of no more than two months' rent. Two points follow from how that is written.

Two months is a ceiling, not a standard. There is no floor either. A landlord can ask for one month, or half a month, or nothing at all. A landlord asking for three months is asking for something the law does not allow.

Section 18(b) says the deposit is paid into an account the landlord names, or handed to the landlord directly. Nobody else holds it. There is no escrow, no council custody and no tenancy board. A draft version of this law in 2020 did propose a board holding deposits in a designated account, and that idea did not survive into the Act. If you have read otherwise, you have read a summary of the bill rather than the law.

This is why Reside's own listing form will not accept a security deposit above two months' rent, in either currency and for every type of property. The cap is checked on the number of months and on the amount, so a custom figure cannot walk around it. Listings posted before the cap was switched on can still show more than two months. We have left those figures as the landlord wrote them rather than rewriting them, so check the deposit on any listing against the rent.

The receipt you are owed

Section 18(c) is short and it is mandatory. The landlord must give the tenant a written document evidencing receipt of the security deposit. No particular form is prescribed. A dated note naming the property, the amount and the date it was paid is enough. Ask for it at the moment you hand the money over, because it is much harder to ask for a year later.

Two neighbouring duties are worth knowing, because they produce the evidence you will want if there is ever a dispute.

• Both sides must keep a written record of rent payments for the whole term. If rent is paid in cash, the landlord must give a written receipt. If it is paid into the landlord's account, you keep the deposit slip and send the landlord a copy (s.21).
• An inventory list of the contents of the premises must be attached to the tenancy agreement and forms part of it (s.15(b)(5)). This is the document that settles arguments about a damaged item later. Read it before you sign, and correct it if it is wrong.

For any letting longer than six months, a written agreement signed by both parties in front of two witnesses is required (s.14(a)). The landlord must also notify the city or island council within 10 days of signing (s.14(c)).

Getting the deposit back: 15 days

Section 18(d) says that when the tenancy agreement comes to an end, for any reason, the deposit must be returned within a maximum of 15 days. The text says days, not working days. The clock starts when the tenancy ends, whether it ended by agreement, by expiry, or by a notice of termination running out.

Before returning it, the landlord may deduct for four things, and only these four (s.18(e)):

1. Unpaid utility or service bills for the property as at the day you leave.
2. The cost of renewing or repairing fixtures and installed items damaged through your negligence.
3. Repair of movable property handed to you for use, excluding deterioration that arises generally from long ordinary use. That exclusion is what people mean by fair wear and tear, and it is written into the Act.
4. Unpaid rent as at the day you leave.

If none of those applies, section 18(f) requires the entire deposit to be returned in a single payment inside the 15 days. Not in instalments, and not partly held back for a while.

A clause in the agreement saying the deposit will not be returned is a prohibited clause (s.16(e)). It does not become lawful because you signed it.

One honest limit. The Act does not require the landlord to give you an itemised statement of deductions, does not require interest, and sets no penalty aimed specifically at returning a deposit late. So ask for a breakdown in writing rather than waiting for one to arrive.

A deposit and advance rent are not the same thing

This is the most common confusion, and it is the one that costs renters money. A deposit is security you expect back. Advance rent is rent, paid early. It pays for months you are going to live there, so it is not money you get back at the end.

Advance rent is often described online as illegal in the Maldives. It is not. That ban was in the 2020 bill. The Act allows rent to be taken in advance where it is the whole term in one payment, or where it is for a period the two parties agreed. What the Act does prohibit is advance money taken outside the agreement. Section 22(b) says no clause taking advance rent contrary to that may be written in, and that the landlord must not ask you to pay money in advance outside the agreement. So if a figure was never written down and agreed, you are entitled to ask why it is being requested.

The gap to watch is what happens if you leave before the advance runs out. Unless the agreement says otherwise, a tenant can end a tenancy early on at least one month's notice (s.29(a)), so this is not a rare situation. The Act does not say whether the unused part of an advance comes back. Settle it in writing before you pay, in the agreement itself.

Rent cannot change during the term

Section 20(a) is unusually blunt. The rent stated in the tenancy agreement cannot be changed during the term of that agreement. There is no notice period for a rent increase in Maldivian law, because there is no lawful mid-term increase to give notice of.

Section 20(b) allows different rents for different parts of the term, but only where that was agreed when the agreement took effect. A staggered rent has to be in the agreement from the start. It cannot be introduced later.

The law is weaker than people expect in the other direction, and it is fairer to say so. There is no rent ceiling. There is no cap or percentage limit on how much rent can rise at renewal. There is no indexation, and there is no statutory right to renew. Section 31 allows the term to be extended as agreed between the two parties before it expires, which is permission, not entitlement. When a term ends without an agreement to renew, the tenancy simply ends.

What else you can be asked to pay

A tenancy agreement cannot require the tenant to pay any money beyond the rent and the security deposit, other than things such as utility bills and repairs that necessarily have to be done on termination (s.16(d)). Section 14(f) puts the cost of concluding the tenancy agreement on the landlord, not on you.

Agent fees need care, and we will not overstate this. The Act and the general regulation do not mention agents, brokers or commission at all. Neither the Act nor the general regulation sets up a licensing regime for letting agents, and we have not found one elsewhere in Maldivian law. Section 16(d) governs what may be written into the tenancy agreement, so a tenant-paid commission cannot lawfully be a term of that agreement. Whether a fee charged separately by a third party under its own engagement is caught is untested, and we found no case, council decision or ministry guidance either way. Treat "agent fees are illegal" as unsettled rather than as a rule you can rely on.

If your deposit is withheld

Work through it in order.

1. Ask in writing. State the date the tenancy ended, the amount paid, and the 15 day period in section 18(d). Keep it short and factual.
2. Gather the evidence. The deposit receipt, the inventory list attached to your agreement, rent records and receipts, final utility bills, and photographs from the day you moved in and the day you left.
3. If a deduction is claimed, ask what it is for and which of the four heads in section 18(e) it falls under. Wear and tear is not one of them.
4. Complain to the city or island council. The council is the first forum, not the court, and it must decide within seven days of receiving the complaint (s.40, s.41(b)). Each council is required to have a complaints committee of at least three people under 2022/R-24.
5. A council decision can be challenged in court, and a council can go to court to enforce a decision that was not challenged. The window for a challenge is understood to be 30 official working days. We hold that last figure with less confidence than the rest of this page.

Set your expectations honestly. The general penalties a council can impose are MVR 1,000 for a first breach and MVR 3,000 for each repeat (s.52). A former Malé City councillor wrote in August 2026 that councils were handed these duties without budget, staff or resources, and that he was not aware of a single council able to answer for the process today. The mechanism exists in law. Whether it works where you live is a separate question, so keep your own records either way.

Renting without an agent, directly from the owner

Plenty of people look for a flat without an agent, or try to rent directly from the owner, and the reason is usually money. A commission on top of a deposit and an advance is what turns a manageable move into an impossible one.

Two things make going direct simpler than it sounds. The landlord bears the cost of putting the agreement in place (s.14(f)), and the agreement itself cannot ask you for money beyond rent and deposit, apart from utilities and necessary end-of-tenancy repairs (s.16(d)). Dealing with the owner removes a layer, and with it the question of who is charging whom for what.

That is how Reside works. You contact the landlord yourself, by WhatsApp or by phone. Every listing names the monthly rent and the deposit before you get in touch, and advance rent is shown on its own line when a landlord asks for it. A person reads every listing before it goes live. Listing is free. The one thing a landlord can pay for is a Featured listing, which gives it a gold badge and turns at the top of search and on the homepage. It does not change the rent, the deposit, or who you deal with. Reside is not an agent and takes no share of your rent.

Ask an owner for the same things you would ask an agent for. The written agreement with the inventory attached, a receipt for the deposit, and a clear statement of what is due upfront and what of it is rent.

What people get wrong

A note on this page

This is general information about Act 21/2021, not legal advice about your tenancy. The Act is in Dhivehi, the English here is our own translation, and section numbers are given so you can check the original. Where the law is silent or untested, we have said so rather than filling the gap. If something here looks wrong, tell us and we will check it against the text.

Ready to look? Browse rentals with the rent and the deposit on every listing, read how Reside works, or if you are a landlord, post a listing and get verified.