Security Deposit Demand Letters
New Hampshire · N.H. Rev. Stat. § 540-A:7

The New Hampshire security deposit demand letter that gets deposits back.

Need a New Hampshire security deposit demand letter? Your landlord had to return it or itemize within 30 days after termination. Miss that, and N.H. Rev. Stat. § 540-A:7 is written on your side.

Demand my deposit back
Free to write and read your New Hampshire letter. $20 only when you send it.
30
days to return or itemize
2×
potential damages on wrongful withholding
$20
letter + certified mail, one-time

Last updated September 2026 · statute source checked August 29, 2026

Statute · New Hampshire
N.H. Rev. Stat. § 540-A:7
Itemized deduction statement required. Read N.H. Rev. Stat. § 540-A:7 on the official state site →
Verified 2026-08-29

How we build this letter → Statute checked against N.H. Rev. Stat. § 540-A:7 on the state's own site. We do not publish figures we cannot read at the source.

Worked example

What that means in dollars

On a $1,500 deposit wrongfully withheld in full, New Hampshire law allows pursuing up to $3,000. Most landlords understand this math, which is why a letter citing N.H. Rev. Stat. § 540-A:7 is often enough to get a check without going to court.

Calculate your own numbers →

Worked example · $1,500 deposit
Statutory 2× on withheld amount$3,000
Potential total demand$3,000

Statutory ceiling. Courts decide actual awards.

What happens after you answer the questions

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.

The full walk-through, including what doing this yourself costs, is on how it works.

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 New Hampshire 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 New Hampshire 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 New Hampshire 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 New Hampshire example →

How your New Hampshire letter works

The short version, in three steps

01

Answer a few questions

Your deposit, dates, landlord's address, and what happened. About 5 minutes.
02

See your exact letter

A formal demand citing N.H. Rev. Stat. § 540-A:7 and the deadline your landlord missed, reviewed by you before anything mails.
03

We mail it certified

USPS Certified Mail with Return Receipt. Somebody has to sign for it, and you get a copy of that signature. That is your proof of delivery if this ends up in small claims court.
Read the whole letter first.Reading your New Hampshire letter costs nothing. You decide after you have seen it.
Read my New Hampshire letter

How the New Hampshire clock actually runs

The countdown is the part renters get wrong most often, because it rarely starts when they assume it does.

In New Hampshire the window is 30 days, and it starts after termination. Read that carefully: the start date is doing real work.

  • Measure from possession, not from the lease end date. Leases end on paper; tenancies end when the keys change hands. Where those are different days, it is usually the second one that matters.
  • Do not treat the deadline as your own cut-off. It sets when the landlord was supposed to act. Your own time to pursue it runs much longer, though your evidence quietly decays throughout, which is the real reason not to wait.

The New Hampshire detail most renters never find

One New Hampshire wrinkle is worth knowing before you send anything:

Interest owed on deposits held a year or more.N.H. Rev. Stat. § 540-A:7 · general legal information, not legal advice

It is the sort of detail that never comes up until it is used against you. Better to have accounted for it in the letter than to meet it for the first time in a reply.

What you can actually ask for in New Hampshire

What you ask for changes how seriously the letter is taken, so it is worth being clear about what New Hampshire puts on the table.

Violations can make the landlord liable for twice the sum of the deposit plus interest due, less lawful charges (RSA 540-A:8).N.H. Rev. Stat. § 540-A:7 · general legal information, not legal advice

That multiple is the mechanism that makes ignoring a letter expensive. A landlord deciding whether to bother replying is not choosing between “pay now” and “pay later.” They are setting it against a number several times larger, set by someone else. Your letter’s job is to make that arithmetic visible and specific.

New Hampshire also sits in the minority of states where a deposit is not simply held: interest forms part of what is owed. Renters almost never raise it and landlords almost never offer it, so it is quietly one of the sums renters most reliably never ask for. Over a tenancy of several years it stops being trivial.

Courts decide actual awards, and statutes carry conditions and exceptions. What the statute names is the most a judge may award on the right facts, never a promise about your letter.

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 New Hampshire letter

What to do first

An evening’s work, no legal knowledge required. It is most of what separates renters who get paid from renters who give up.

  1. Establish exactly when you gave the place back. Renters routinely misremember this by a week, and a week is sometimes the whole argument. Look for a dated text to the landlord, a moving truck receipt, a final utility reading: anything from that day.
  2. Prove you told them where to send it. “They knew my new address” is not evidence; a dated message containing the address is. If you can't find one, that gap is worth closing now rather than discovering it later.
  3. Keep their statement even if it is nonsense. A vague itemization (“cleaning, $400,” no invoice) is more useful to you than none, because it commits them to a figure and a reason they now have to stand behind.
  4. Rescue your moving day photographs from your phone. The original files carry the date inside them, which is what makes them worth anything. Copies of copies lose that, and phones are not archives.
  5. Answer a short payment in writing. Take the money if you need it, but put on record that it does not close the matter. Otherwise the payment itself becomes their best piece of evidence.

What is typically at stake in New Hampshire

The size of the money involved is worth stating plainly. Median gross rent in New Hampshire runs about $1,491 a month, and roughly 27% of households, some 151,369 of them, rent rather than own (ACS 2024 5-year). Where a deposit is set around a month’s rent, a typical New Hampshire deposit lands near $1,491.

The gap between what that sum means to each side is the entire problem. Politeness does not close it, and neither does persistence. A dated, certified, statute-citing demand does, because it introduces a cost to doing nothing.

Where a New Hampshire deposit case goes if the letter does not work

You are unlikely to need this. It is worth knowing anyway, because a specific letter reads very differently from a vague one.

In New Hampshire that is the Small Claims (Circuit Court, District Division). At $10,000, the court's limit sits well clear of a typical New Hampshire deposit, so for most renters it is not the constraint. Proving the number is.

This forum is built for people without lawyers: simplified filing, relaxed evidence rules, and judges used to hearing renters directly. You normally file where the property is or where the landlord can be found, pay a filing fee that is a small fraction of the claim, and arrange formal service. Filing fees, service rules and local procedure are set by the court rather than by us. The New Hampshire judiciary publishes its own small claims instructions and forms, and that is the page to read before you file.

What decides these cases is documentary and dull: the lease, dated photographs, proof of the forwarding address, the itemized statement or its conspicuous absence, and a demand letter with a certified mail delivery record attached. That last item is the one most renters do not have, and it is what turns a disagreement into a date-stamped fact.

Skip the trip to the Post Office.$20 covers the letter, the printing, the certified postage and the return receipt. No stamps, no green card to fill in wrong, no queue.
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New Hampshire by the numbers

How New Hampshire compares to the other 50

2×
damages allowed. Among the 32 of 51 jurisdictions with multiplied damages
30 days
to act. Only 14 states give landlords less time
$3,000
potential statutory exposure on a typical $1,500 deposit, about one month's median rent here
$10,000
Small Claims (Circuit Court, District Division) limit. Deposit claims fit easily, and no lawyer is required

Median gross rent in New Hampshire runs $1,491 a month, and ≈151,000 households here rent rather than own, 27% of every household in the state. All of them are on the same 30-day clock you are.

Sources: U.S. Census Bureau, ACS 2024 5-year, tables B25064 & B25003; N.H. Rev. Stat. § 540-A:7. Comparisons computed across all 50 states + DC from our source-checked statute dataset. Statutory figures are ceilings, and courts decide actual awards.

New Hampshire landlords owe interest on your deposit

N.H. Rev. Stat. Ann. § 540-A:6

Interest at whatever rate the bank holding your deposit pays on a regular savings account.

Applies when: Deposits held one year or longer; the tenant may request payment of accrued interest every three years.

See what your deposit interest is worth → · your letter demands it automatically.

New Hampshire deposit questions

New Hampshire deposit questions, answered

How long does a landlord have to return a security deposit in New Hampshire?
Under N.H. Rev. Stat. § 540-A:7, the landlord generally must act within 30 days after termination. If the landlord keeps any portion, an itemized written statement of deductions is required. This is general legal information. The statute contains conditions and exceptions.
What happens if my landlord misses the New Hampshire deadline?
Violations can make the landlord liable for twice the sum of the deposit plus interest due, less lawful charges (RSA 540-A:8). A written demand letter that cites N.H. Rev. Stat. § 540-A:7 puts the landlord on notice that you know the rules they broke and what the statute allows you to pursue.
How do I write a security deposit demand letter in New Hampshire?
A security deposit demand letter for New Hampshire needs five things. Your tenancy facts (address, move out date, deposit amount), the statute citation (N.H. Rev. Stat. § 540-A:7), the deadline the landlord missed, the remedies the statute allows, and a clear payment demand with your forwarding address. Our free annotated New Hampshire sample letter shows the full structure. Or answer a few questions and we generate yours with your facts and mail it certified.
Does my landlord owe me interest on my security deposit in New Hampshire?
Yes. New Hampshire requires it under N.H. Rev. Stat. Ann. § 540-A:6: Interest at whatever rate the bank holding your deposit pays on a regular savings account. Deposits held one year or longer; the tenant may request payment of accrued interest every three years. Renters almost never ask, which is exactly why landlords almost never pay. Our demand letter cites that provision and demands accrued interest along with the deposit itself.
Do I need a lawyer to send a demand letter in New Hampshire?
No. A demand letter is something any tenant can send on their own behalf. If it comes to suing, deposit cases in New Hampshire go to the Small Claims (Circuit Court, District Division), which is built for people without lawyers and hears claims up to $10,000. Our service prepares the letter from the facts you provide and the current text of N.H. Rev. Stat. § 540-A:7, and mails it by USPS Certified Mail so you have proof of delivery. If your dispute is complex or high-value, talking to a licensed New Hampshire attorney is a sensible next step. Several statutes shift attorney's fees to the landlord.

General legal information about N.H. Rev. Stat. § 540-A:7, not legal advice. Statutes contain conditions and exceptions, so always check the official text of N.H. Rev. Stat. § 540-A:7.

If the letter doesn’t work: filing in New Hampshire

Where a New Hampshire claim is filed

A New Hampshire security deposit claim that does not settle is filed in the Small Claims (Circuit Court, District Division), which hears claims up to $10,000.

Fits under $10,000 while the deposit is below about $5,050. Note the math: above a deposit of roughly $5,050, the statutory ceiling passes the $10,000 limit, so a claim that large belongs in a higher court, or the excess can be waived to stay in small claims. Settling on a certified demand letter avoids that fork entirely.

The claim rests on N.H. Rev. Stat. § 540-A:7. Filing fees, forms and service rules are the court’s, not ours: the New Hampshire judiciary’s own small claims instructions are the authority to check before filing.

How much can I sue my landlord for in New Hampshire small claims court?
The Small Claims (Circuit Court, District Division) hears claims up to $10,000. Your claim is the withheld deposit plus whatever N.H. Rev. Stat. § 540-A:7 allows on top: up to 2× the wrongfully withheld amount, plus any statutory interest owed under N.H. Rev. Stat. Ann. § 540-A:6. Fits under $10,000 while the deposit is below about $5,050.

General legal information, not legal advice. Court limits and procedures change; confirm with the clerk or a licensed New Hampshire attorney before filing.

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 New Hampshire letter
New Hampshire · Renter guides

What to settle in your own mind first

New Hampshire landlords have to show their working. These four guides are how you read that itemization the way a judge would.

Deductions The four things a deposit can legally cover New Hampshire makes the landlord put their deductions in writing. That list is the whole argument, and most of them do not survive being read closely. Read the guide → Wear and tear Where wear and tear ends and damage begins This single distinction decides more deposit disputes than any other. A room that looks lived in after two years is a room that was lived in, which is what a tenancy is. See the line → Evidence The walkthrough that pays for itself two years later The strongest position at move-out is set at move-in. This is what to capture, and where to keep it so it still exists later. Get the checklist → No response When they stop answering The window closing is the beginning of your position, not the end of it. This is what to do next, in order. What to do →

For one charge in particular:

Cleaning chargesPaintingCarpet chargesWall repair chargesDamage the pet is blamed for

Or put every line item into the New Hampshire deduction checker at once.

Neighboring states · Same problem, different math

Where else this letter works

Maine30 days14 M.R.S. § 6033 · 2×Massachusetts30 daysMass. Gen. Laws ch. 186, § 15B · 3×Vermont14 days9 V.S.A. § 4461 · 2×All 50 states + DCSee the map →Deadline & penalty by state

Want to see the finished product first? Read an annotated sample demand letter, or see how New Hampshire ranks nationally on the Security Deposit Penalty Index.

Moved out of state since? We send statute-cited security deposit demand letters beyond New Hampshire in all 50 states and the District of Columbia, each with its own statute and its own deadline math.

New Hampshire · Free help

New Hampshire help that costs nothing

Before or alongside anything you do here, these are the free New Hampshire sources worth knowing. Legal aid in particular takes housing questions from renters every day.

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.

The deadline already passed. Send the letter.

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