Security Deposit Demand Letters
Tampa, Florida · Fla. Stat. § 83.49

The Tampa security deposit demand letter that gets deposits back.

Florida law gave your Tampa landlord 30 days to return it or itemize. If that clock has run, a Tampa security deposit demand letter puts Fla. Stat. § 83.49 to work on your side.

Demand my deposit back
Free to write and read your Tampa letter. $20 only when you send it.
30
days to return or itemize
Penalties
for non-compliance
$20
letter + certified mail, one-time

Last updated September 2026 · local figures: U.S. Census ACS 2024 5-year

Tampa deposit math
Median rent in Tampa$1,701/mo
Typical deposit ≈ one month≈$1,700
Statutory deadline30 days

Median gross rent: U.S. Census Bureau, ACS 2024 5-year (table B25064). Deposit example rounded to one month's rent; statutory figures are ceilings, and courts decide actual awards.

What Tampa renters should know

Tampa deposit law at a glance

The law that protects your deposit

Deposits in Tampa are governed by Florida state law: Fla. Stat. § 83.49. If the landlord misses the 30-day certified mail notice, they forfeit the right to keep any of the deposit; the prevailing party in a deposit suit recovers attorney's fees. Full Florida deadline & penalty guide →

The court that would hear it

Deposit claims from Tampa are filed in the Small Claims division of the County Court serving Hillsborough County, a court designed for people without lawyers, hearing claims up to $8,000. A typical Tampa deposit of about $1,700 sits well inside that limit, which is exactly why a statute-citing certified letter usually settles it first.

Local rules in Tampa

Florida cities cannot add deposit rules, so do not go looking for one. Fla. Stat. section 83.425 reserves the regulation of residential tenancies to the state and names security deposits among the subjects no city or county may touch; local tenant ordinances passed before July 2023 are void. Fla. Stat. section 83.49 is the whole of the law here.

What you get for $20

Nothing is charged until you have read the letter that will be sent. After you sign it, we handle the printing, the postage and the trip to the Post Office, and you keep the certified tracking, the delivery record and a signed copy you can check against its own fingerprint.

How it works covers every step, and what it costs to do the same thing alone.

Have it mailed, not downloaded.$20 covers the letter, the printing, the certified postage, and the return receipt — and you read every word before you pay.
Read my Tampa letter
On the last page of your letter

The bit that stops them arguing

Not a logo that says “verified.” A short record of how and when you signed, printed on the letter your Tampa landlord is holding, plus a code made from the letter's own words.

  • The demand paragraph
  • The signature record
  • The SHA-256 hash
  • Certified Mail with Return Receipt
Pin 1 · The demand paragraphThe paragraph names your state's statute, the amount your landlord kept, the deadline they missed, and gives them a firm deadline to send the money before the letter says what happens next. Every part of it comes from the answers you gave, printed in the order the law expects.
Pin 2 · The signature recordMethod (drawn or typed), date, time zone, IP, browser, and consent to sign electronically. Printed on the letter itself, so the person receiving it can see how it was signed. Nothing goes out until a real person signs.
Pin 3 · The SHA-256 hashA 64-character code built from every word in your letter, recorded with the date and time you signed. It is your signing record: paste it into the checker at /verify/ and it confirms the wording you hold is the wording you signed, unchanged. It is not proof of delivery; the certified mail record below is.
Pin 4 · Certified Mail with Return ReceiptSomeone at the other end has to sign. This is the proof: the certified mail receipt, the USPS tracking history, and the delivery signature with its date. The Postal Service records them, our mail partner passes them to us, and we email them to you and post them on your letter tracker. Your landlord cannot claim the letter never came.

The closing words above are the real ones our engine writes for Tampa letters, statute and deadline included. The name, signature and codes are made up; yours carry your own record. The time is shown in the signer's own time zone, not ours.

That code is built from every word in your letter. Change one word and it no longer matches. Type it into our checker and it tells you the letter is the same one you signed. Try the checker on this Tampa example →

What a Tampa deposit is usually worth

Rent in Tampa runs to a median of roughly $1,701 (ACS 2024 5-year). Deposits generally track that, which makes it a fair proxy for the sum in dispute. That tracks the Florida median of $1,669 fairly closely, so what is typical here is what is typical statewide.

More renters than owners live in Tampa: about 50% of households rent. In a majority-renter city, deposit disputes are not an edge case; they are a routine feature of the housing market, and local courts see them constantly. The rule that governs what happens to that money is set at the state level, by Fla. Stat. § 83.49, and it applies in Tampa exactly as it does anywhere else in Florida.

The reason landlords stall is not usually malice. It is arithmetic. Ignoring one email costs nothing; responding costs money. Everything changes when the renter creates a record that a court would find persuasive, because now doing nothing carries a price.

Tampa adds a layer state law does not

Most renters never find this out, and landlords rarely volunteer it:

Florida cities cannot add deposit rules, so do not go looking for one. Fla. Stat. section 83.425 reserves the regulation of residential tenancies to the state and names security deposits among the subjects no city or county may touch; local tenant ordinances passed before July 2023 are void. Fla. Stat. section 83.49 is the whole of the law here.Local rule on top of Fla. Stat. § 83.49 · general legal information, not legal advice

Do not swap the state citation for the local one. The statute is what carries the deadline and the penalty. Treat the local layer as an additional argument, verify it is current with the city, and raise it if the reply you get is dismissive.

Leaving a Tampa rental without losing the deposit

Mid-sized markets are where the recipient question bites hardest: the rent may go to an agent while the legal obligation sits with an owner you have never met.

  • Do a final photo pass at handover. Every room, every surface, and the meter readings. Keep the originals: their embedded timestamps are what make them evidence rather than pictures.
  • Put your new address in an email, not a phone call. “We had nowhere to send it” is the most-used defense in deposit disputes and the easiest one to shut down in advance.
  • Read the lease for a notice address. It is usually specified, usually ignored, and occasionally the whole reason a demand never got answered.
  • Set yourself a date and keep it. 30 days after handover, if nothing has arrived, send the letter. Landlords who intend to pay have already paid by then.

Where a Tampa renter would actually file

You will probably never need this. Knowing it anyway is what makes a demand letter read as a considered first step rather than an empty complaint.

Florida routes deposit claims to the Small Claims division of the County Court, with a limit of $8,000. For a rental in Tampa, that normally means the court serving Hillsborough County. Filing fees and procedure are set by the court. The Florida judiciary publishes its own small claims instructions and forms, which is the page to read before you file.

You do not need a lawyer, and in some places you can't bring one. Cases turn on documents: the lease, timestamped photos, evidence you gave a forwarding address, and a delivery record showing the landlord received your demand on a specific day.

Have it mailed, not downloaded.$20 covers the letter, the printing, the certified postage, and the return receipt — and you read every word before you pay.
Read my Tampa letter

Tampa renters, by the numbers

$1,701
median gross rent per month in Tampa
50%
of Tampa's ≈166,000 households rent their home
≈83,000
renter households on the same 30-day clock
$8,000
small claims limit in Florida. Deposit cases fit easily

Sources: U.S. Census Bureau, ACS 2024 5-year, tables B25064 & B25003 (Tampa; Census place “Tampa city”); Fla. Stat. § 83.49. Population ≈402,000.

Tampa deposit questions

How long does a landlord in Tampa have to return a security deposit?
30 days. The statute (Fla. Stat. § 83.49) requires the landlord to act within 15 days of termination, or give written notice of an intended claim on the deposit by certified mail within 30 days. Miss it, and the law's remedies open up: If the landlord misses the 30-day certified mail notice, they forfeit the right to keep any of the deposit; the prevailing party in a deposit suit recovers attorney's fees.
Can I sue my landlord in small claims court in Tampa?
Yes, that's exactly what the venue is for. Deposit claims from Tampa are filed in the Small Claims division of the County Court serving Hillsborough County, a court designed for people without lawyers, hearing claims up to $8,000. A demand letter sent by certified mail is the documented first step judges expect to see.
Is a demand letter worth it for a typical Tampa deposit?
Median rent in Tampa is $1,701 a month (U.S. Census, ACS 2024 5-year), and deposits typically run about one month's rent. Call it $1,700. The letter is $20 flat, certified mail included, and you read every word of it before paying.
Does Tampa have its own deposit rules on top of state law?
Florida cities cannot add deposit rules, so do not go looking for one. Fla. Stat. section 83.425 reserves the regulation of residential tenancies to the state and names security deposits among the subjects no city or county may touch; local tenant ordinances passed before July 2023 are void. Fla. Stat. section 83.49 is the whole of the law here. So the state statute is the whole story here, which is what your letter cites and what sets the deadline and the penalty.

General legal information, not legal advice. Court limits and city ordinances change; verify current rules or consult a licensed Florida attorney.

Read the whole letter first.Reading your Tampa letter costs nothing. You decide after you have seen it.
Read my Tampa letter
Tampa · Renter guides

What to work out before you write to them

Nothing in Tampa changes what Florida law says. It does change who you are dealing with, which makes knowing the answers below more useful, not less.

Deductions What a landlord can actually deduct Because Florida requires an itemized statement, you get to see the reasoning. Knowing what belongs on that list is how you find the line items that do not. Read the guide → Wear and tear The line landlords blur most often Landlords lean on the ambiguity because renters rarely push back on it. In practice the line is clearer than it looks once you have seen where it falls, item by item. See the line → Evidence Document the move-out properly An hour with a camera on handover day is worth more than any argument you can make afterward. Original files, every room, meter readings, and the keys going back. Get the checklist → No response Late is a fact you can use Most renters read a missed deadline as their own failure. It is the landlord's obligation that lapsed, not your right. What to do →

If the fight is over a single line item:

Cleaning feesRepainting the unitCarpet wearWall repair chargesPet damage

Faster route: hand the entire statement to the deduction checker and see which Tampa charges hold up.

Tampa · Keep reading

Worth reading next

Everything below is free and none of it needs an account.

Other Florida cities

Deposit law is the same across Florida. Rent, venue and local rules are not, so each of these has its own page.

Not renting in Tampa any more? We send security deposit demand letters written the way Tampa, Florida letters are in all 50 states and the District of Columbia, each built on that state's own statute.

Tampa · Free help

Help that costs nothing, Tampa and statewide

Deposit law is set in Florida, but the office you would call and the court you would file in are closer to home. These are the ones that matter for Tampa.

Government and nonprofit resources, listed because they are useful. We are not affiliated with any of them, and none of them is affiliated with us. Every link here was checked on August 30, 2026.

Send the letter your Tampa landlord can't ignore.

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