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

The Dallas security deposit demand letter that gets deposits back.

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

Put them on notice
Signed, printed and mailed certified for $20. Reading it first is free.
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

Dallas deposit math
Median rent in Dallas$1,472/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 Dallas renters should know

Dallas deposit law at a glance

The law that protects your deposit

Deposits in Dallas 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 Dallas are filed in a Justice of the Peace Court in Dallas County. Texas JP courts hear claims up to $20,000, no lawyer required. A typical Dallas 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.

What actually goes in the mail

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.

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 Dallas 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 Dallas 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 Dallas 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 Dallas example →

What a Dallas deposit is usually worth

Put a number on it: gross rent in Dallas sits near $1,472 a month (ACS 2024 5-year), so a one-month deposit is about what a renter here stands to lose. That tracks the Texas median of $1,403 fairly closely, so what is typical here is what is typical statewide.

More renters than owners live in Dallas: about 58% of households, some 307,300 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 Dallas 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 a Dallas rental without losing the deposit

Scale works against you until you use it. Big operators have compliance people, insurers and lawyers, all of whom take a statute-citing certified letter far more seriously than the leasing agent who has been fobbing you off.

  • 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.
  • 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 Dallas that distinction is routine, and getting it wrong is the most avoidable way to waste a valid claim.
  • 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 Dallas 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 Dallas, that normally means the court serving Dallas 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.

Filing fees are typically a small fraction of a deposit, and the process is designed for people representing themselves. What decides it is paperwork: the lease, dated photographs, proof of your forwarding address, and a demand letter you can prove arrived.

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 Dallas letter

Dallas renters, by the numbers

$1,472
median gross rent per month in Dallas
58%
of Dallas's ≈534,000 households rent their home
≈307,000
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 (Dallas; Census place “Dallas city”); Tex. Prop. Code § 92.103, § 92.109. Population ≈1.3 million.

Dallas deposit questions

How long does a landlord in Dallas 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 Dallas?
Yes, that's exactly what the venue is for. Deposit claims from Dallas are filed in a Justice of the Peace Court in Dallas 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 Dallas deposit?
Median rent in Dallas is $1,472 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 Dallas letter
Dallas · Renter guides

What to work out before you write to them

Whatever your landlord has told you, a deposit dispute is usually one of four arguments. Work out which one yours is first.

Deductions What they are allowed to take out Because Texas 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 Where wear and tear ends and damage begins 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 What to photograph on the day you hand back keys The evidence you will need does not exist yet, and the last day of a tenancy is the only day you can create it. Get the checklist → No response Nothing arrived. Now what? 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:

A professional cleaning feeFresh paintNew carpetNail and screw holesPet damage

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

Dallas · Keep reading

Worth reading next

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

Dallas · Free help

Where to get help near Dallas

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

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 Dallas landlord can't ignore.

Send it certified mail