Texas looks landlord-friendly at first glance — there's no cap on how much a landlord can charge — but the return rules in Property Code Chapter 92 carry some of the sharpest penalties in the country, including a built-in legal presumption that works against landlords who miss the deadline. Deposit cases here routinely turn a $500 dispute into a $2,000+ judgment.
How much can a landlord charge?
Texas sets no statutory maximum on residential security deposits — the market decides. (One or two months' rent is typical; anything unusual is a negotiation point, not a legal violation.)
The 30-day clock — and what actually starts it
Under §92.103, the landlord must refund the deposit within 30 days — but the clock only starts when both conditions are met: the tenant has surrendered the premises, and provided a written forwarding address (§92.107). Tenants: this is the single most common self-inflicted wound in Texas deposit disputes — no written forwarding address, no running clock, and courts have sided with landlords who claimed a verbal address was never given. Put it in writing, keep a copy.
Deductions and the itemization requirement
Landlords may deduct unpaid rent, damage beyond normal wear and tear, and charges the lease specifically authorizes. If anything is withheld, §92.104 requires a written itemized list describing each damage and its cost — “cleaning: $400” doesn't satisfy the statute; “pet-odor remediation, invoice attached: $400” does. Normal wear and tear — carpet paths, faded paint, minor scuffs from ordinary living — is never deductible.
The penalty: where Texas gets serious
A landlord who retains a deposit in bad faith owes the tenant $100 + three times the amount wrongfully withheld + reasonable attorney's fees (§92.109). And here's the mechanism with teeth: missing the 30-day deadline creates a legal presumption of bad faith — the tenant doesn't have to prove it; the landlord has to disprove it. The attorney-fee provision makes even small deposits worth pursuing, which is exactly why these cases fill Texas justice courts.
Why Texas deposit disputes are documentation disputes
Look at how the statute allocates burdens: the landlord must itemize each deduction, must prove damage beyond wear and tear, and must rebut a bad-faith presumption if late. Every one of those burdens is met — or defeated — with condition evidence. The party who can show what the unit looked like on day one and on the last day controls the case.
SealMove makes that evidence unimpeachable. Every photo and video is cryptographically sealed on your phone 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 move-in baseline — and either party can send the other a report to review and acknowledge, no app required.