No matter what your landlord says, when you move out you are NOT required to return the rental property to the landlord in the exact same condition as when you took possession. Nearly every state recognizes that the ordinary activities that you and your family do while living in a property will cause normal wear and tear deterioration to the property. Repair of these wear and tear items is the responsibility (both actual and financial) of your landlord.
Here’s a normal scenario. Your lease is coming to an end. For days or even weeks before you move out, you spend a lot of time making sure you are returning the rental property to the landlord in exactly the same condition that you received it. For many tenants – especially those who rent from one of the Wall Street landlords like American Homes 4 Rent, FirstKey Homes, Invitation Homes, or Progress Residential – this means doing things like cleaning carpets, patching small nail holes, painting walls, doing some yard work, hiring professional carpet cleaners, and sometimes even pressure washing the exterior of the house. All of this is done in addition to deep general cleaning that you do in order to make sure you leave the place immaculately clean (often much cleaner than the landlord gave it to you). After doing all of this work, you are shocked and dismayed when you receive one final insult from your landlord when you receive a security deposit accounting that says the landlord is keeping the ENTIRE deposit and, in some cases, alleging that you owe them thousands of dollars more for alleged “damages” to the property.
No matter what your landlord says, when you move out you are NOT required to return the rental property to the landlord in the exact same condition as when you took possession. PERIOD. (Take a pause here so that we are certain that you have let that set in properly – it’s hugely important). That’s right, most of the work that you did (and that your landlord failed to appreciate) wasn’t even really necessary or required. The reason is that practically every state recognizes that the ordinary activities that you and your family do while living in a property will cause normal wear and tear deterioration to the property. You’ll want to hang pictures and mirrors, so there might be small nail holes in the walls. Walking back and forth each day on carpets or other flooring will cause it to wear a bit. Sunlight will cause the paint on walls to fade overtime. The exterior of the house will get dirty and need pressure washing. When these things happen while you are living in a property, it is to be expected. It is the normal and ordinary course of events and not damage that you caused. Most importantly, repair of these wear and tear items is the responsibility (both actual and financial) of your landlord – not you. These costs are a part of being in business as a landlord. This means that your landlord is not entitled to deduct from or withhold your security deposit for any deterioration of the house that comes from this type of normal wear and tear.
In order to provide a proper accounting of a former tenant’s security deposit, a landlord is required to accurately determine whether items to be repaired at the end of a tenancy resulted from damage caused by the tenant or from normal wear and tear. Unfortunately, because most states don’t provide a clear definition of what exactly constitutes normal wear and tear, there is no hard and fast rule that a landlord must follow. This lack of a clear definition sometimes dissuades tenants from objecting as it does make it a bit harder to pin down exactly what the landlord has done wrong. Thankfully Texas (which often seems to be a bit different 
) has given residential tenants a somewhat helpful definition. According to the state of Texas, normal wear and tear is “…deterioration that results from the intended use of a dwelling.” To further help out tenants who want to dispute security deposit deductions, Texas goes on to distinguish the difference between normal wear and tear and tenant-caused deductible damages by defining security deposit deductible damages as “deterioration that results from negligence, carelessness, accident or abuse of the premises, equipment or personal property by the tenant, by a member of the tenant’s household or by a guest of the tenant.” If you live in a state that (like most) fails to give a helpful definition of normal wear and tear vs. tenant caused damage, you can use the Texas definition when you dispute your landlord’s improper withholding of your security deposit.
If your landlord tries to steal your security deposit by deducting for wear and tear items, it is important that you fight back using the dispute procedure your state requires. Fighting back by disputing bogus charges is important because as long as most tenants just accept the loss of their deposit, greedy landlords will continue this practice because it is an easy way to increase their profits. Most states require the tenant to dispute by responding in writing between 10 to 30 days after getting a list of the charges. (Check your state’s landlord-tenant statute or code for the exact information). Very often just making the dispute is enough to make most landlords back down. However, even when they don’t, it can often be worth it to file a small claims court case because in some states, you can recover 3x the amount that was wrongfully withheld.
PS – if you’ve already been victimized in this way by a greedy landlord, it may not be too late to demand a return of your deposit. We’ll talk more about this in our next post. In the meantime, we’d love to hear back from you. Leave a comment letting us know whether something like this happened to you. Did you fight back? Were you successful? Share your tips and tricks as you never know how helpful they can be to another tenant going through the same mistreatment you’ve already won against.