Security Deposit Demand Letters
Arlington, Texas · Tex. Prop. Code § 92.103

The Arlington security deposit demand letter that gets deposits back.

Texas law gave your Arlington landlord 30 days to return it or itemize. If that clock has run, an Arlington security deposit demand letter puts Tex. Prop. Code § 92.103 to work on your side.

Demand my money back
Read every word first of your Arlington letter. $20 only if you want it mailed.
30
days to return or itemize
3×
potential damages on wrongful withholding
$20
letter + certified mail, one-time

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

Arlington deposit math
Median rent in Arlington$1,470/mo
Typical deposit ≈ one month≈$1,500
Statutory 3× on wrongful withholding$4,500
Fixed statutory penalty+$100
Landlord's potential exposure$4,600

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 Arlington renters should know

Arlington deposit law at a glance

The law that protects your deposit

Deposits in Arlington are governed by Texas state law: Tex. Prop. Code § 92.103, § 92.109. Bad faith retention can make the landlord liable for $100 plus three times the amount wrongfully withheld, plus reasonable attorney's fees. Bad faith is presumed if the landlord misses the 30-day deadline. Full Texas deadline & penalty guide →

The court that would hear it

Deposit claims from Arlington are filed in a Justice of the Peace Court in Tarrant County. Texas JP courts hear claims up to $20,000, no lawyer required. A typical Arlington deposit, even at the statute's $4,600 cap, fits under that limit, which is exactly why a statute-citing certified letter usually settles it first.

Where the Arlington letter ends up

You approve the wording first. Then it prints, goes out certified with return receipt requested, and comes back to you as a tracking number, a delivery record, and a signed PDF whose fingerprint proves the text never moved.

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 Arlington 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 Arlington 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 Arlington 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 Arlington example →

What an Arlington deposit is usually worth

Median gross rent in Arlington runs about $1,470 a month (ACS 2024 5-year). Where a deposit is set around one month’s rent, that is the ballpark figure at stake. That tracks the Texas median of $1,403 fairly closely, so what is typical here is what is typical statewide.

About 46% of Arlington households rent rather than own, roughly 65,068 of them. That is a large enough population that the local court is thoroughly used to hearing deposit claims from tenants without lawyers. The rule that governs what happens to that money is set at the state level, by Tex. Prop. Code § 92.103, § 92.109, and it applies in Arlington exactly as it does anywhere else in Texas.

It is worth naming the imbalance plainly. To you that sum is next month’s rent or the cost of the move you just made. To a landlord holding a dozen of them it is a line item worth stalling on, because stalling has historically been free. A formal, dated, statute-citing demand is what makes it stop being free.

Leaving an Arlington rental without losing the deposit

A market this size has a mix of large managers and individual landlords side by side, so the first practical question is which one you are dealing with, because it changes who your letter should be addressed to.

  • Document the unit the moment it is empty. An empty room photographs honestly; a furnished one hides exactly the things that later get charged for.
  • 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.
  • Work out the right recipient before you send. The person who rented you the place and the person who owes you the deposit are not always the same, even in a small market.
  • 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 an Arlington renter would actually file

A landlord reading your letter is silently sizing up one thing: does this person actually know what happens next? It costs you five minutes to be someone who does.

Texas routes deposit claims to the Justice Court (Justice of the Peace), with a limit of $20,000. For a rental in Arlington, that normally means the court serving Tarrant County. Filing fees and procedure are set by the court. The Texas 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.

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.
Read my Arlington letter

Arlington renters, by the numbers

$1,470
median gross rent per month in Arlington
46%
of Arlington's ≈142,000 households rent their home
≈65,000
renter households on the same 30-day clock
$4,600
potential statutory exposure on a typical $1,500 deposit

Sources: U.S. Census Bureau, ACS 2024 5-year, tables B25064 & B25003 (Arlington; Census place “Arlington city”); Tex. Prop. Code § 92.103, § 92.109. Population ≈398,000.

Arlington deposit questions

How long does a landlord in Arlington have to return a security deposit?
30 days. The statute (Tex. Prop. Code § 92.103, § 92.109) requires the landlord to act within 30 days after the tenant surrenders the premises and provides a forwarding address. Miss it, and the law's remedies open up: Bad faith retention can make the landlord liable for $100 plus three times the amount wrongfully withheld, plus reasonable attorney's fees. Bad faith is presumed if the landlord misses the 30-day deadline.
Can I sue my landlord in small claims court in Arlington?
Yes, that's exactly what the venue is for. Deposit claims from Arlington are filed in a Justice of the Peace Court in Tarrant County. Texas JP courts hear claims up to $20,000, no lawyer required. 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 Arlington deposit?
Median rent in Arlington is $1,470 a month (U.S. Census, ACS 2024 5-year), and deposits typically run about one month's rent. Call it $1,500. Texas's statute puts up to $4,600 of exposure on a landlord who wrongfully withholds that deposit (a statutory ceiling; courts decide actual awards). The letter is $20 flat, certified mail included, and you read every word of it before paying.

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

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 Arlington letter
Arlington · Renter guides

Know your ground before you send

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

Deductions Which charges hold up and which do not An itemized statement is only as good as the charges on it. Unpaid rent and genuine damage are fair game. A great deal of what gets billed is neither. 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 Build the record before you leave Almost every deposit case turns on documents rather than testimony. This is the checklist for producing them while you still can. Get the checklist → No response Nothing arrived. Now what? Most renters read a missed deadline as their own failure. It is the landlord's obligation that lapsed, not your right. What to do →

Arguing about one specific charge?

CleaningRepaintingCarpet replacementPicture hooksPet-related damage

Or run the whole list through the deduction checker for Arlington renters.

Arlington · Keep reading

Before you send it

All of this is on the site already, at no charge.

Other Texas cities

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

Not renting in Arlington any more? We send security deposit demand letters, Arlington, Texas and every other state in all 50 states and the District of Columbia, each built on that state's own statute.

Arlington · Free help

Where to get help near Arlington

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

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.

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