relative to regulated conditional deposits.

Version label updated from 'As Amended by the House' to 'As Amended by the Senate' in all page headers and the title block.

A new timestamp (05/14/2026 1724s) was added to record when the Senate version was produced.

The bill no longer amends the base security deposit cap in RSA 540-A:6. Instead, it creates a new standalone section (540-A:9) for 'regulated conditional deposits' that are treated as part of the security deposit under existing law. The title changed from 'exceptions to the cap on residential security deposits' to 'relative to regulated conditional deposits.'

A new defined term 'regulated conditional deposit' is added (RSA 540-A:5, V), meaning an amount accepted by a landlord under RSA 540-A:9, up to an additional one month's rent beyond the standard cap.

The provision is now voluntary: 'An applicant may offer, and a landlord may accept or suggest' a regulated conditional deposit. The introduced version allowed landlords to 'require' the higher deposit.

The income criterion now requires that the applicant's combined verifiable household gross income exceeds 350 percent of the federal poverty guidelines for a household size of 2. This sets a floor below which the regulated conditional deposit mechanism cannot be invoked, protecting very low-income applicants.

The eviction history criterion now excludes not just dismissed cases but also evictions based on lead abatement, lease expiration, or 'other good cause' where the reason was landlord-driven (renovation, removal from market, sale, leasing to relatives) or the applicant's refusal to accept a rent increase, or other reasons clearly not due to the applicant's fault.

The judgment criterion now has a 7-year lookback period and an exception: applicants who can show they are in compliance with payment plans for at least 12 months (or until paid in full) are no longer subject to this criterion.

The 'no rental history' criterion was changed from 'has no prior rental history and is unable to provide a landlord reference' to 'the prospective landlord was unable to verify the present landlord reference and the most recent prior landlord reference,' shifting the focus to verification failure rather than absence of history.

Landlords may accept payment of a regulated conditional deposit in installments, which was not addressed in the introduced version.

A specific notice format requirement was added (Section V) requiring landlords to use prescribed language in at least 12-point type before accepting a regulated conditional deposit, listing which criteria the applicant failed to meet.

The introduced version's re-screening provision (once every 6 months, at tenant's expense, with refund within 30 days) is referenced but appears to have been moved or restructured under a new subsection VI. The amended version also clarifies that if no condition under the new section applies, the standard security deposit limits in RSA 540-A:6, I apply.