Alabama's rules live in §35-9A-201 of its Uniform Residential Landlord and Tenant Act — a strict cap paired with the longest major return window in the country, which makes the paperwork at both ends matter more, not less.
How much can a landlord charge?
One month's rent — with statutory exceptions allowing additional security for pets, tenant alterations to the premises, or increased liability risks. Those exceptions are real but bounded: a "pet deposit" is legal; doubling the base deposit under a vague label isn't.
The 60-day clock
Within 60 days of termination and delivery of possession, the landlord must return the deposit, applying it only to accrued rent and itemized damages from lease noncompliance — with a written itemized list of anything withheld delivered inside the same window. Sixty days is long; tenants should calendar it and send a forwarding address in writing on day one. An unclaimed mailed deposit becomes the landlord's after a further waiting period, so stay reachable.
The penalty
Failing to itemize within the window forfeits the right to withhold — and willful noncompliance exposes the landlord to double the deposit. Alabama small claims handles most of it.
Why Alabama deposit disputes are documentation disputes
Sixty days is a long time for memory to do a landlord's accounting. By the time the itemized list arrives, move-out was two months ago and move-in was years before that — every line on it is a claim about condition that nobody can check against recollection alone.
SealMove checks it against proof. Every photo and video is cryptographically sealed the instant it's captured, independently timestamped, and locked with Face ID into a tamper-evident archive. At move-out, your walkthrough lines up room-by-room against the sealed baseline — and either party can send the other a report to review and acknowledge, no app required.