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

The Austin security deposit demand letter that gets deposits back.

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

Put them on notice
Writing it costs nothing. $20 covers printing, certified postage and the return receipt.
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

Austin deposit math
Median rent in Austin$1,729/mo
Typical deposit ≈ one month≈$1,700
Statutory 3× on wrongful withholding$5,100
Fixed statutory penalty+$100
Landlord's potential exposure$5,200

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 Austin renters should know

Austin deposit law at a glance

The law that protects your deposit

Deposits in Austin 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 Austin are filed in a Justice of the Peace Court in Travis County. Texas JP courts hear claims up to $20,000, no lawyer required. A typical Austin deposit, even at the statute's $5,200 cap, fits under that limit, which is exactly why a statute-citing certified letter usually settles it first.

What happens after you answer the questions

You read the whole letter before paying anything. You sign it, we print it, and it goes out by USPS Certified Mail with return receipt requested. You get the tracking number, the delivery record and a signed PDF carrying a fingerprint of its exact wording.

See how it works for the whole sequence and an honest comparison with doing it yourself.

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 Austin 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 Austin 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 Austin 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. Check a letter code yourself, Austin or anywhere →

What an Austin deposit is usually worth

Put a number on it: gross rent in Austin sits near $1,729 a month (ACS 2024 5-year), so a one-month deposit is about what a renter here stands to lose. That is about 23% above the Texas median of $1,403, which means deposits here run larger than the statewide picture suggests, and so does what you lose by writing one off.

More renters than owners live in Austin: about 57% of households, some 257,933 of them, 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 Tex. Prop. Code § 92.103, § 92.109, and it applies in Austin exactly as it does anywhere else in Texas.

Renters underestimate how much the format matters. The same request, made by text, gets filed under “annoyance”; made by certified letter citing the statute and the deadline, it gets filed under “risk”. The money at stake did not change. The category did.

Leaving an Austin rental without losing the deposit

In a city this size the deposit is rarely sitting in one person’s account. It has been folded into an operation with a process, and processes respond to documents far better than they respond to phone calls.

  • Capture the condition on move-out day itself. Not before you packed, not after you handed the keys over. The day it changes hands, with the original files preserved.
  • Send the forwarding address somewhere it leaves a trace. A dated message beats a remembered conversation every time, and you will not get to re-run this later.
  • Find out who legally owes the deposit, not just who collected the rent. In Austin that distinction is routine, and getting it wrong is the most avoidable way to waste a valid claim.
  • Do not wait for the deadline to feel comfortable. Texas gives them 30 days. Once that has passed, waiting adds nothing but risk to your own evidence.

Where an Austin 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.

Texas routes deposit claims to the Justice Court (Justice of the Peace), with a limit of $20,000. For a rental in Austin, that normally means the court serving Travis County. Fees, forms and service rules are set locally rather than statewide, so check the court information for Travis County before filing.

The forum is deliberately informal, which favors the party who turns up organized. Bring the lease, the photographs with their original dates intact, proof of the address you gave them, and the certified mail receipt for 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 Austin letter

Austin renters, by the numbers

$1,729
median gross rent per month in Austin
57%
of Austin's ≈456,000 households rent their home
≈258,000
renter households on the same 30-day clock
$5,200
potential statutory exposure on a typical $1,700 deposit

Sources: U.S. Census Bureau, ACS 2024 5-year, tables B25064 & B25003 (Austin; Census place “Austin city”); Tex. Prop. Code § 92.103, § 92.109. Population ≈980,000.

Austin deposit questions

How long does a landlord in Austin 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 Austin?
Yes, that's exactly what the venue is for. Deposit claims from Austin are filed in a Justice of the Peace Court in Travis 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 Austin deposit?
Median rent in Austin is $1,729 a month (U.S. Census, ACS 2024 5-year), and deposits typically run about one month's rent. Call it $1,700. Texas's statute puts up to $5,200 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.

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

What to settle before you write to them

Deposit law here comes from the state. What varies is which of these four questions your own dispute turns on, so it is worth knowing before you write to anyone.

Deductions What they are allowed to take out 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 Aging is not damage 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 Document the place before you unpack 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 the money simply never shows up Being weeks or months past the date does not weaken your claim. It is the fact the claim is built on. What to do →

For one charge in particular:

Cleaning chargesFresh paintCarpet chargesSmall holes in drywallDamage the pet is blamed for

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

Austin · Keep reading

Before you send it

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

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 Austin any more? We send the same security deposit demand letter Austin, Texas renters send in all 50 states and the District of Columbia, each built on that state's own statute.

Austin · Free help

Where to get help near Austin

Nothing on this page has to be done through us. These are the free routes open to a renter in Austin.

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 Austin landlord can't ignore.

Sign it and send it