How to Fill Out and Deliver a Texas Security Deposit Itemization Form

A Texas security deposit itemization form is the written, line-by-line accounting a landlord sends a former tenant listing every deduction taken from the deposit and the remaining balance owed. Under Texas Property Code Section 92.104, you must provide this written description and itemized list whenever you keep any portion of the deposit, and it has to reach the tenant, along with any refund, on or before the 30th day after surrender.¹² Texas does not publish an official form or mandate a template; the statute requires the content, not a particular format.

What the Itemization Must Contain

The statute calls for a “written description and itemized list of all deductions.”¹ Every charge gets its own line with enough detail for the tenant to know exactly what it covers. A workable itemization includes:

Tenant name and rental property address, so the document is tied to a specific lease.
The original deposit amount collected.
Each deduction on its own line with a short, concrete description and the dollar amount.
Any unpaid rent or lease fees, listed separately from repair charges.
The total of all deductions.
The refund amount (original deposit minus total deductions), or a zero balance if the deductions equal or exceed the deposit.

Specificity is what makes a line item defensible. “Cleaning — $400” or “damages — $750” invites a dispute. “Patched and repainted south bedroom wall, 4-inch hole behind door — $175” tells the tenant what happened, where, and why the number is what it is. Sign and date the document. Keep a copy for your records.

What You Can and Cannot Deduct

You can deduct damages and charges the tenant is legally liable for under the lease, or that resulted from breaking the lease. That covers unpaid rent, cleaning that goes beyond ordinary tidying, and repairs for damage caused by the tenant or their guests. You cannot retain any portion of the deposit for normal wear and tear. Section 92.104 flatly prohibits it.¹

The Attorney General’s office offers a useful rule of thumb: carpet that wears down from people walking on it over the course of a lease is normal wear and tear, but carpet ruined by a leaking waterbed is tenant damage you can charge for.³ The same logic runs through most disputes:

Normal wear: minor scuffs on walls, faded paint, small nail holes from hanging pictures, slightly worn carpet in high-traffic areas, loose door handles from everyday use.
Chargeable damage: large holes punched in drywall, broken windows, pet stains or odors requiring professional treatment, burn marks on countertops, missing fixtures or appliances.

For items with a limited useful life, like carpet or paint, the deduction should reflect remaining useful life rather than full replacement cost. Charging a tenant the full price of new carpet that was already four years into a five-year lifespan is the kind of overreach that supports a bad-faith claim. In any court challenge, the landlord carries the burden of proving every dollar retained was reasonable.⁴

Documentation That Backs Each Deduction

Texas law does not require you to attach receipts or invoices to the itemization. Documentation is still what separates a deduction that holds up from one that doesn’t, given that burden of proof.⁴

If a third-party contractor did the work, keep the invoice showing what was repaired and the cost. If you handled the work yourself, keep a log recording each repair, time spent, materials used, and the hourly rate you charged. Timestamped move-out photographs make before-and-after comparisons much harder to dispute. A move-out walk-through with the tenant present is not legally required, but doing one, or documenting the tenant’s refusal to participate, creates a strong record if the case ever reaches a courtroom.

The 30-Day Deadline and the Forwarding Address

You must send the refund and, if you took deductions, the itemization on or before the 30th day after the tenant surrenders the property.² Surrender means the tenant has moved out and returned possession, not merely given notice of intent to leave.

A lease can require the tenant to give advance notice of surrender as a condition of receiving the deposit back, but only if that requirement is underlined or printed in conspicuous bold type in the lease itself.² A clause buried in standard-size text does not qualify.

The 30-day clock has one pause. You are not obligated to return the deposit or provide the itemization until the tenant supplies a written statement of their forwarding address.⁵ If none is provided, your duty to act is on hold. The tenant does not forfeit the refund by failing to give an address, though. The money is still owed whenever the address arrives.⁶ Record the date the written address is received. That is the day the 30-day window opens.

How to Deliver the Itemization

Send the itemization and any remaining balance to the tenant’s written forwarding address.⁵ United States Postal Service mail is the standard method. Certified mail with return receipt requested adds proof of when the letter was posted and whether it was received, which is useful if the tenant later claims nothing arrived.

Keep a copy of the completed itemization, the refund check or a record of the payment, and the certified mail receipt in your file. If the tenant picks up the refund in person, get a signed acknowledgment of receipt. For the 30-day deadline, what matters is when you sent it, not when the tenant received it.

When an Itemization Is Not Required

There is one narrow exception. You do not need to provide a written description and itemized list if two conditions are both true: the tenant owed rent when they surrendered the property, and there is no dispute over the amount of rent owed.¹ In practice, this covers early lease breaks where both sides agree on the balance. Any disagreement over the amount, and the exception disappears. The full itemization is required.

Penalties for Getting It Wrong

A landlord who retains any portion of the deposit in bad faith is liable for three times the amount wrongfully withheld, plus $100, plus the tenant’s reasonable attorney fees.⁴ The treble damages apply to the portion wrongfully withheld, not the whole deposit.

A landlord who fails in bad faith to provide the written itemization at all forfeits the right to withhold any portion of the deposit, forfeits the right to sue the tenant for property damage, and is liable for the tenant’s attorney fees.⁴ Skipping the itemization can cost you every dollar you were entitled to keep.

And the deadline itself carries a presumption. A landlord who fails to return the deposit or provide the itemization within the 30-day window is presumed to have acted in bad faith.⁴ That shifts the burden to the landlord to prove otherwise.

Assistance Animals and the Itemization

One boundary worth noting. Under HUD’s 2020 guidance, a housing provider may not charge a deposit, fee, or surcharge for an assistance animal, because service animals and emotional support animals are not classified as pets. If the assistance animal caused actual damage beyond normal wear and tear, though, you can deduct repair costs from the standard security deposit the same way you would for any other source of damage.⁷ Itemize that damage the same way you would any other, with a specific description and a documented cost.

1
State of Texas. Texas Property Code Section 92.104 – Retention of Security Deposit Accounting
2
State of Texas. Texas Property Code Section 92.103 – Obligation to Refund
3
Office of the Attorney General. Renters Rights
4
State of Texas. Texas Property Code Section 92.109 – Liability of Landlord
5
State of Texas. Texas Property Code Section 92.107 – Tenants Forwarding Address
6
State of Texas. Texas Property Code 92 – Residential Tenancies
7
HUD FHEO. HUD FHEO Assistance Animals Notice 2020