How do I return a security deposit in Texas? The 30-day rule
Refund the deposit, or the balance after lawful deductions with a written itemized list, on or before the 30th day after the tenant surrenders the premises (Tex. Prop. Code Sec. 92.103(a), 92.104(c)). You may deduct damages and charges the tenant is legally liable for under the lease, never normal wear and tear (Sec. 92.104(a), (b)). The clock does not start until the tenant gives you a written forwarding address, but the tenant does not forfeit the deposit by failing to give one (Sec. 92.107). Mailing the refund or accounting postmarked by the deadline counts as on time (Sec. 92.1041). A landlord who retains a deposit in bad faith owes $100 plus three times the amount wrongfully withheld plus the tenant's attorney fees, and a landlord who in bad faith fails to send the itemized list forfeits the right to withhold anything at all (Sec. 92.109). The process below is how you stay on the right side of every one of those lines. This is general information, not legal advice.
Day Zero Is Surrender, Not Lease End
The 30 days run from the date the tenant surrenders the premises, which is when they have moved out and returned possession, not the date printed on the lease. If the tenant leaves a week early and hands over keys, day zero is that day. If they hold over, it moves. Write the surrender date down the day it happens, with the keys-returned time and who received them, because every deadline in this subchapter counts from it. A lease can require advance notice of surrender as a condition of the refund, but only if that requirement is underlined or in conspicuous bold print in the lease (Sec. 92.103(b)); buried in normal type, it does not count.
What You May Deduct, and the Line You May Not Cross
The statute allows deductions for damages and charges for which the tenant is legally liable under the lease or as a result of breaching it, and forbids retaining any portion for normal wear and tear (Sec. 92.104(a), (b)). Unpaid rent, late fees the lease defines, a re-key the lease charges to the tenant, and repair of damage beyond ordinary use are the usual lawful categories. Carpet that is worn from being walked on for two years is wear and tear; carpet with a pet stain through the pad is damage. Nail holes from hanging pictures are wear; a hole through drywall is damage. The move-in condition report and dated photos are what make the difference defensible, which is why they are taken before the tenant gets keys, not remembered after.
The Itemized List Is Not Optional
If you keep any part of the deposit, the tenant gets the balance together with a written description and itemized list of all deductions (Sec. 92.104(c)). Each line: what the charge is for, the amount, and enough description that a stranger could match it to a receipt. The statute excuses the list only in a narrow case, when the tenant owes rent at surrender and there is no controversy about the amount; outside that, send it every time. This is also where most bad-faith findings come from: a landlord who in bad faith fails to provide the list forfeits the right to withhold any of the deposit and to sue the tenant for damages to the premises, and owes the tenant's attorney fees (Sec. 92.109(b)). The list protects the deduction; skipping it can cost the whole claim.
The Forwarding Address and the Mailbox Rule
You are not obligated to refund or send the accounting until the tenant gives you a written forwarding address for that purpose, but the tenant does not lose the right to the refund by failing to provide one (Sec. 92.107). Practically: ask for the address in writing at move-out, and if none comes, hold the deposit and accounting ready and send them the day an address arrives. When you do send, a refund or accounting placed in the U.S. mail and postmarked on or before the deadline is presumed timely (Sec. 92.1041). Keep the postmark evidence. Certified mail is not required by the statute, but it is the cheapest proof you will ever buy.
What Bad Faith Costs
A landlord who in bad faith retains a security deposit in violation of the subchapter is liable for $100, plus three times the portion wrongfully withheld, plus the tenant's reasonable attorney fees (Sec. 92.109(a)). In a tenant's suit the landlord carries the burden of proving the retention was reasonable (Sec. 92.109(c)), and a landlord who fails to return the deposit or send the accounting within the 30 days is presumed to have acted in bad faith (Sec. 92.109(d)). On a $2,200 deposit wrongfully held, the exposure is $100 plus $6,600 plus fees before anyone argues about the carpet. The 30-day discipline is cheap next to that.
When the Property Changes Hands, or the Manager Does
If the owner's interest ends by sale or otherwise, the new owner is liable for the deposit from the date title is acquired, and the old owner stays liable until the new owner delivers a signed statement to the tenant acknowledging receipt of the deposit (Sec. 92.105). A change of property manager does not change who owes the deposit at all; the owner does, and the manager holds it in trust. Whoever is administering the account at surrender runs this process, with the move-in record the previous manager should have handed over. A deposit that moves between managers without its condition report is the one that ends up in justice court.
How We Run It
Move-in condition report with dated photos before keys. Written forwarding-address request at notice. Walk-through against the move-in report within days of surrender, with photos. Itemized statement with invoices behind every line, mailed with the balance well inside the 30 days, certified. The same file, every time, so a dispute is a comparison of two dated records rather than two memories.