Security Deposit Settlement

Settle a US rental security deposit after move-out with the Tektolo deposit settlement engine - the return deadline, which deductions are allowed and how much after depreciation, interest owed, the refund, penalty exposure and a draft itemized statement, every rule cited. Use when a landlord or property manager is closing a move-out, when a tenant asks whether a deposit came back on time or a deduction is allowed, or for a state's deposit rules.

Tektolo runs a deterministic, source-cited engine over each state's deposit statute (all 50 states and DC) and a covered city's ordinance (Chicago, San Francisco, Berkeley, Los Angeles, Seattle, Portland, Minneapolis, Saint Paul). You give it the state, dates, deposit and the deductions the manager intends to take. It returns the deadline, an assessment of each deduction, interest, the refund, penalty exposure if the return is late or wrongful, and a draft itemized statement. The same input always gives the same result (result_hash). It computes and cites the rule; it is not legal advice, and the manager signs the statement.

When to use

• Closing a move-out: "when must I return the deposit", "can I charge for the carpet", "how much interest do I owe", "what goes in the itemized statement", "what if I'm late".
• A tenant asking about their own deposit: "my landlord didn't return my deposit", "is my landlord late", "can they charge for the carpet or paint". Same operation: send returned (what came back and when) and the deductions the landlord listed; relay timeliness.
• A state's (or a covered city's) deposit rules without a specific move-out: deposit_settlement_rules.

When not to use

• Pricing the repairs (use the property turnover tools), evictions, rent increases, notice periods, tenant demand letters, where to hold the deposit, pet deposits, non-US rentals.
• Kentucky and Tennessee set no statutory deadline (deadline.status: none_in_statute): say so; never invent a date. Other cities get the state rule plus a warning about local ordinances.

How to call it

• MCP (preferred in assistants): deposit_settlement_settle with the request below; deposit_settlement_rules with {"state": "IL", "city": "Chicago"}.
• REST: POST https://tektolo.com/v1/deposit-settlement/settle (and /rules).
• Catalog and schemas: https://tektolo.com/catalog.json, https://tektolo.com/capabilities/deposit-settlement.
• Web (for the user to fill in themselves): the free form at https://tektolo.com/tools/rental-property/deposit-settlement (landlords); for tenants, the Security deposit check at https://tektolo.com/tools/rental-property/deposit-check (add ?state=TX to prefill the state); the rule for each state is at https://tektolo.com/deposit-settlement/<state> (for example /deposit-settlement/illinois).
• Before this step: if the user has move-out findings but no costs yet, the property turnover estimate (property_turnover_quick_estimate, web tool /tools/rental-property/property-turnover) is step 1 of the same move-out workflow.

Building the request

1. state (2 letters), city if any (adds a city overlay where covered), deposit_usd, and vacated_on (the day the tenant moved out and returned possession). Never invent dates; ask for the move-out date if it is missing.
2. When known: move_in_on (interest and item ages), tenancy_ended_on (if the lease ended on another day), forwarding_address_received_on (starts or holds the clock in Texas, Connecticut, Iowa, Minnesota, Rhode Island, South Dakota, Wyoming), demand_received_on (the tenant's written demand: Arizona, Kansas, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Mississippi), new_tenant_moved_in_on (re-rented: West Virginia, Wisconsin), claim_notice_sent_on (Florida: the day you sent the notice of intent to impose a claim; the balance is due 30 days after it), lease_return_days (a period the lease sets: Colorado, Idaho, Maine), tenant_gave_proper_notice (Alaska), contractor_needed (Virginia, West Virginia), monthly_rent_usd (deposit cap; Ohio interest; Iowa and Nebraska penalties), building_units (NY 6+, IL 25+ interest rules), statement_sent_on (the day the itemized statement went out: on time or late), tenant_gave_forwarding_address: false (never given: IL, PA, OH, DE, SC, NH safe harbors), deposit_collected_on / lease_signed_or_renewed_on / lease_term_months / furnished (caps: CA AB 12, GA, MD, DE, NM, KS), rent_ordinance_covered (Los Angeles RSO, Berkeley interest), interest_rate_percent (the account rate where interest is the bank's).
3. deductions: one per charge, with category (unpaid_rent, unpaid_utilities, cleaning, carpet, flooring, paint, blinds_window_coverings, appliance, fixture_or_hardware, wall_or_door_repair, key_or_lock, late_fees, lease_break_fee, moving_and_storage, reletting_costs, trash_and_abandoned_items, other_damage, other) and amount_usd. For wearing items give item_installed_on or item_age_years (one, not both), and useful_life_years when known; set caused_by_tenant: false for normal wear (damage and cleaning lines only). Cleaning: cleaning_kind (beyond_wear, routine, unknown). Late fees: late_payments. Carpet cleaning is cleaning (or work_kind: cleaning); work_kind: repair is never depreciated. Rent after a re-rental: rent_through on the rent line, and new_tenant_moved_in_on / new_tenant_rent_usd (rent for the new tenant's days is not recoverable twice). description is for the user only: it is never stored or returned.
4. documentation: what the manager has (itemized_statement, receipts, photos_move_in, photos_move_out, photos_after_repair, cleaning_notice: Montana); leave out what is unknown. Unknown or misspelled fields are rejected, not ignored.
5. as_of: today's date, for a repeatable answer.
6. For a tenant: returned = {"what": "nothing" | "full_refund" | "partial_refund" | "itemized_statement", "on": "YYYY-MM-DD", "amount_usd": "..."} (on required unless nothing came back), the landlord's deductions as listed, and caused_by_tenant: null when it is disputed whether a charge is damage or normal wear (the line comes back depends with the amount the rule allows if it is damage). The forwarding address date is the day the landlord received it.

Example

json

{
  "state": "CA",
  "deposit_usd": "2000",
  "monthly_rent_usd": "2000",
  "move_in_on": "2023-06-01",
  "vacated_on": "2026-09-30",
  "deductions": [
    {"category": "cleaning", "amount_usd": "150"},
    {"category": "carpet", "amount_usd": "1200", "item_age_years": 5},
    {"category": "blinds_window_coverings", "amount_usd": "80", "caused_by_tenant": false}
  ],
  "as_of": "2026-10-09"
}

Relaying the result

• Lead with deadline.return_by and its status (upcoming, due_today, overdue, not_started with the missing event, none_in_statute), then totals.refund_due_usd. In Florida with deductions, itemization_by is the deadline for the notice of claim and return_by runs from claim_notice_sent_on; relay both. If deadline.extended_to is set, the statute moves a weekend or holiday last day there; still advise acting by return_by. Mention itemization_by when it differs (Chicago earlier, Louisiana later).
• For each deduction marked no or depends, say why (notes): normal wear, not a listed deduction, or missing item age.
• Give penalty_exposure as exposure under the statute, not a verdict, including any city penalty in penalty_exposure.additional (Portland, Berkeley).
• Offer statement.text as the draft itemized statement (no names or addresses in it).
• Relay warnings, assumptions (for example assumed useful lives) and unknowns (for example a missing forwarding address), and say it is not legal advice.
• If the user needs an audit trail, keep the result_hash and run.ruleset_version. Over MCP they come back only when you call with audit: true (REST always returns them).
• If a call says the daily free limit is reached, tell the user when it resets and do not retry; deposit_settlement_rules still works. The message names the page for a free personal connector URL when the user shares a hosted assistant's limit.
• outcome is the one answer the summary is worded from: owed_now_usd (what is still owed to the tenant, net of what came back), next_due and stages (each step's date and status: met, late, short, overdue, due today, upcoming), and uncertain (what the answer still turns on). deadline.status is met or late once returned shows the refund went out. Never say "interest $0.00" when outcome.interest_unknown is true.
• With returned, also relay timeliness: late (true, false, or null when the clock has not started or the statute sets no deadline), days_late, and each check's due_by. With nothing returned, late is true only once every way of meeting the rule has passed (in Florida, the refund at 15 days or the notice of claim at 30). Give the refund as the range totals.refund_min_usd to totals.refund_due_usd when lines depend. State the rule and the numbers; do not take a side or predict a court.