The law is already on your side.
The paperwork is the problem.

Why this exists

Security deposit statutes are unusually tenant-friendly. Fixed deadlines. Automatic penalties, often two or three times what was withheld. In many states, your landlord pays your attorney's fees if you win. On paper, a renter holding a wrongly withheld deposit has one of the strongest small-dollar claims in American consumer law.

Almost nobody uses it. Not because renters do not care about the money, but because the distance between “the law is on my side” and “a formal letter citing the statute is in my landlord's hands, with a delivery receipt” feels like it needs a lawyer. It does not. It needs an afternoon, a printer, the right statute section, and a trip to the Post Office. That is a paperwork problem, and paperwork can be systematized.

How the law behind your letter gets there

Every deadline, penalty, interest rule and small-claims limit on this site sits in a data file with the statute citation, the official source link, and the date somebody last checked it against the statute's own text. The date is printed on the page. When we cannot read a statute at its source, we say so and publish nothing, rather than repeat what a summary said about it.

That rule has teeth. Researching city ordinances, we found a widely repeated claim that one large California city required 5% annual interest on deposits. The city's own ordinance text defines security deposits by reference to the state code and requires no interest at all; the 5% is the city's rent-increase cap, restated by somebody as an interest rate and copied ever since. It is not on this site. Neither is a two-month cap credited to a Missouri city that turns out to be the Missouri statute wearing a city label. We keep a written record of every jurisdiction we checked, what we found, and where we read it, including the ones where the honest answer was “this host will not let us read it, so we do not know.”

The same discipline runs the other way. Where a city genuinely does add protection, your city page says so and names the section: the deposit installment ordinances in Atlanta, Cincinnati and Columbus, the one-month caps in Minneapolis and Saint Paul, the demolition rule in Boise. Where a state forbids cities from adding anything, the page says that too, so you stop looking.

What the letter will and will not say

Your letter says what your state's statute says. It cites the section, states the deadline your landlord missed, sets out the remedies the statute provides, and demands the specific amount you are owed. In the states that require it, it also demands the interest on the deposit itself, which most renters never think to ask for.

It does not threaten anything we cannot back up. It does not predict what a court will do. It does not describe a statutory ceiling as though it were your likely award. A demand letter that overreaches hands your landlord a reason to dismiss the whole thing, and a judge a reason to look at you sideways.

What we refuse to do

• We do not take your money before you have read the letter. The complete letter, word for word, is on your screen before checkout. Change a date, a name, an amount. If it is not right, close the tab and you have paid nothing.
• We do not promise you your deposit back. Nobody honest can. We guarantee a prepared, signed, printed letter delivered by USPS Certified Mail with proof, and we say so in the terms.
• We do not give legal advice. We are a self-help document preparation service, not a law firm. Using this site creates no attorney-client relationship and no privilege.
• We do not upsell you a faster lane. There is one price. Certified mail with a return receipt is in it, not bolted on at checkout.
• We do not sell what you tell us. Your lease, if you choose to use one, is read inside your own browser and never reaches us at all. See the privacy policy.

When you should hire a lawyer instead

A form letter is the right tool for an ordinary withheld deposit: the facts are simple, the statute is clear, and the amount does not justify hourly rates. It is the wrong tool when the claim is large, the facts are genuinely disputed, your landlord already has counsel, or there is more going on than the deposit. In those cases hire a licensed attorney in your state. Several deposit statutes make the landlord pay your attorney's fees, which is exactly why lawyers will take those cases. We would rather tell you that than sell you a $20 letter that was never going to be enough.

If your deposit is small enough that $20 gives you pause, every state page links the official statute. Write it yourself for free. Genuinely: that is why the link is there.

Who we are

Security Deposit Demand Letters is a small, independent, self-funded business in the United States. It is not a law firm, not owned by one, and not funded by landlords, property managers, or anyone with a reason to want your letter to be weaker than it should be. We make money one way: a flat $20 when you decide to send a letter you have already read.

A real person answers the support address, usually within one business day. If your letter has an error we introduced, we correct it and re-mail it at our cost. If it has not been printed yet and you want out, you get all your money back, no questions.

Contact us or email support@securitydepositdemandletters.com.