Deposits, by the book

Very few landlords set out to mishandle a deposit. Most of the trouble comes from a notice that was written but never sent, a return date nobody wrote down, or a deduction proposed from memory instead of from the move-out report. The rules are not hard. Keeping the paper straight is.

A separate account, on time

Most states give you a deadline to place the deposit in a separate account and tell the tenant where it is held. Haven records the date the money arrived and counts down from there; the deposit record turns from a countdown into a receipt the day you upload the bank confirmation.

The notice the tenant has seen

Sending the notice is the step that gets forgotten. The tenant's copy goes out from the record, and the record notes when it was opened. If you are ever asked, the answer is a date, not a recollection.

A deduction with evidence

Propose a deduction and the record asks for three things: the move-in report, the move-out report, and the invoice for the work. It drafts the letter around them. A deduction with all three is rarely disputed; one without them is rarely upheld.

The return date

Every state sets a window after move-out, usually between fourteen and thirty days. It is on the rent roll as a reminder, and on the statement as a line, so it cannot quietly pass.