Most tenants ask for the deposit back and stop there. In many states a landlord who withholds in bad faith or blows the statutory deadline owes considerably more than the deposit — and the demand letter is far more effective when it says so, with the statute attached.
Tenants usually argue about whether a deduction was fair. That is the hard argument — it turns on the condition of the unit, what counts as normal wear and tear, and whose photos a judge believes.
The much easier argument is procedural. Every state gives a landlord a fixed window to return the deposit or send an itemized statement of what they kept and why. That deadline is a date, not an opinion. If they missed it, you do not have to win an argument about carpet stains — in many states, blowing the deadline is itself the violation, and in some it forfeits the landlord's right to deduct anything at all.
So the first thing this tool checks is the calendar. It is the strongest part of most deposit claims and the part tenants most often overlook.
A number of states do not simply order the landlord to give the money back. They add a penalty — commonly double or triple the wrongfully withheld amount, sometimes plus your attorney's fees — precisely because otherwise a landlord risks nothing by keeping the deposit and waiting to see whether you bother to sue.
That changes the arithmetic of your demand letter substantially. A landlord who is deciding whether to ignore you reads "return my $1,800" very differently from "the statute provides for treble damages plus fees, which on these facts is $5,400."
Where we have verified your state's penalty provision, the calculation below includes it and cites the statute. Where we have not, the tool says so rather than inventing a multiplier — and you should check your state's statute directly, because a penalty may well exist that we have not yet confirmed.
If you are still in the tenancy, the deposit clause is usually not the only problem in the document.
Free lease scan Deposit limits by state