Landlord security deposit return letter

Deposit to return
$1,150
Total deductions
$300
Still owed to you if deductions exceed the deposit
-$1,150
Share of the deposit withheld
20.689655172413794

Every figure on this site comes from the numbers you enter and the method printed beside them: your rent, your months, your notice period, your deposit, your rooms and items. Where a guide names a published document it names the document and the date it was read. This site publishes no state tenancy law, no legal advice and no template that pretends to be either.

Your numbers

The figures shown are a worked example for a small landlord: $1,150. Change them for your units.

Download the Landlord security deposit return letter worked example (CSV)

The Tenantvo workspace open on Notices and references, listing three saved documents against real tenancies, with the deposit return for Unit 2 expanded. Its inputs read a $1,450 deposit held, no unpaid rent, $180 of damage beyond fair wear, $120 of cleaning, no other deductions, 21 days to return it and no interest; its worked outputs read $300.00 of total deductions, $1,150.00 to return, nothing still owed, 20.7 percent of the deposit withheld, 21 days from move-out to the deadline and 4 deduction lines to itemise. The sidebar counts 2 tenancies, 3 rent charges and 3 saved documents.
What Pro kept: the deposit return worked to $1,150.00 with its deductions itemised, filed against the unit it belongs to.

A landlord security deposit return letter is the last document of a tenancy and the one most often disputed, because it is where two people who remember the same flat differently put numbers on paper. What settles it is arithmetic and evidence: the deposit held, the rent unpaid, the damage beyond fair wear with what the repair actually cost, the cleaning beyond the lease standard, and the deadline your state gives you to send it. This worksheet works those out and itemises them, which is the form a deposit deduction has to take to survive being questioned.

Where the constants in this tool come from

Internal Revenue Service, About Publication 527, Residential rental property, on income, expenses and the records a landlord keeps.

Internal Revenue Service, Recordkeeping for small business, on keeping records that support what is reported.

What a landlord asks before running the Landlord security deposit return letter

What goes in a security deposit return letter? The deposit held, each deduction itemised with what it was for and what it cost, the balance returned, and the date. A single figure with no breakdown is the version that gets challenged.

What can I deduct from a deposit? That depends on your state and your lease, and this site publishes neither. Universally, fair wear and tear is not damage, and a deduction you cannot evidence is a deduction you may not keep. The move-in and move-out checklists are the evidence.

How long do I have to return it? Your state sets the period; the worksheet takes it as an input and counts the days from move-out so the deadline is written down before it is missed.

What if the damage exceeds the deposit? The sheet shows the shortfall as its own figure. Whether and how you pursue it is a question for your attorney, not for a worksheet.

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Keeping the ledger between tenancies

Upgrading turns the documents into a record. The tenancy you wrote a reference for is a tenancy in the ledger, with the payments that made the reference true; the notice you served has a date and sits against the unit; the inspection checklist is filed with the tenancy it opened or closed. Export is always available, so the ledger is yours whether or not you stay.

  • Take the worked document away as a file for your records.
  • Issue paperwork with your name on it and without ours.
  • Keep the document you worked and open it again at the end of the tenancy.
  • Put your own name on the notice and the reference.
  • Export every tenancy and its documents in one go, including on the way out.
  • Send the notice or the reference from the record it came from.
  • Connect your own Stripe account if you take rent by card.
  • Connect the bookkeeping you file the return from.

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