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

The Fort Worth security deposit demand letter that gets deposits back.

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

Demand my deposit back
Read every word first of your Fort Worth 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

Fort Worth deposit math
Median rent in Fort Worth$1,509/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 Fort Worth renters should know

Fort Worth deposit law at a glance

The law that protects your deposit

Deposits in Fort Worth 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 Fort Worth 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 Fort Worth 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 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.

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 Fort Worth 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 Fort Worth 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 Fort Worth 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. See how a Fort Worth letter checks out →

What a Fort Worth deposit is usually worth

Median gross rent in Fort Worth runs about $1,509 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 43% of Fort Worth households rent rather than own, roughly 147,054 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 Fort Worth 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 Fort Worth 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.

  • Photograph everything on the day you hand back the keys, not the week before. Original files, not screenshots. The date lives inside the file, and a screenshot throws it away.
  • 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.
  • Check the name on your lease against who you have been emailing. They frequently differ in a market this size, and only one of them is the right recipient.
  • Act once the window has gone. After 30 days you are not being pushy, you are being timely, and every further month weakens what you can prove.

Where a Fort Worth renter would actually file

Most of these disputes end with a check, not a hearing. But the letter only carries weight because of what sits behind it, so it is worth knowing what that is.

Texas routes deposit claims to the Justice Court (Justice of the Peace), with a limit of $20,000. For a rental in Fort Worth, 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.

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 Fort Worth letter

Fort Worth renters, by the numbers

$1,509
median gross rent per month in Fort Worth
43%
of Fort Worth's ≈342,000 households rent their home
≈147,000
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 (Fort Worth; Census place “Fort Worth city”); Tex. Prop. Code § 92.103, § 92.109. Population ≈963,000.

Fort Worth deposit questions

How long does a landlord in Fort Worth 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 Fort Worth?
Yes, that's exactly what the venue is for. Deposit claims from Fort Worth 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 Fort Worth deposit?
Median rent in Fort Worth is $1,509 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.

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 Fort Worth letter
Fort Worth · Renter guides

What to work out before you write to them

The rules are Texas's, but the argument is local: a specific unit, a specific list of charges, a specific landlord. These four guides cover the ground that argument is almost always fought on.

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 The line landlords blur most often Carpet, paint and fixtures all have expected lifespans, and a deposit is not meant to reset them. Knowing that changes how a deduction list reads. See the line → Evidence Document the place before you unpack Move-in documentation is the cheapest insurance in renting and the one renters skip. It costs an hour and settles arguments you have not had yet. Get the checklist → No response The deadline has already passed Being weeks or months past the date does not weaken your claim. It is the fact the claim is built on. What to do →

If the fight is over a single line item:

CleaningA repainting feeCarpet replacementPicture hooksCharged for a pet

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

Fort Worth · Keep reading

The rest of what is here

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

Fort Worth · Free help

Where to get help near Fort Worth

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 Fort Worth.

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 Fort Worth landlord can't ignore.

Send it certified mail