Settle a security deposit after move-out
deposit_settlement_settleRead-onlyIdempotent
Settles a US residential security deposit after move-out under the state's statute (50 states and DC) and a covered city's ordinance. Inputs: state, deposit_usd, vacated_on; optional city, monthly_rent_usd, move_in_on, deductions (category, amount, item age, whether the tenant caused it), the dates that start a state's clock, and as_of. Returns the return deadline and its status, each deduction allowed or not (with depreciation), interest owed, refund due, penalty exposure, a draft itemized statement and a citation for every rule. Not for: legal advice, tenant demand letters, repair cost estimates, pet deposits, rentals outside the US. Deterministic and source-cited: the same input gives the same result.
Input Schema
TableJSON Schema
| Name | Required | Description | Default |
|---|---|---|---|
| city | No | City, for a city overlay where covered (e.g. 'Chicago'). Optional. | |
| as_of | No | Today's date (YYYY-MM-DD) for the deadline status. Defaults to today (UTC); send it for repeatable results. | |
| audit | No | Also return the run record and input/result hashes (an audit trail). Default false. | |
| state | Yes | US state, 2-letter code (e.g. 'CA'); a state name also works. | |
| returned | No | What the landlord has returned so far and when. With it, timeliness says whether the refund and the itemized statement were on time and how many days late. | |
| furnished | No | The unit is rented furnished (California before AB 12: 3 months; Kansas: 1.5 months; Delaware: no cap). | |
| deductions | No | What you intend to deduct (or, for a tenant, what the landlord listed). An explicit empty list means nothing is deducted (it decides the shorter no-deduction periods, e.g. Montana 10 days, Alaska 14); leave it out when that is not known yet. | |
| move_in_on | No | Tenancy start (YYYY-MM-DD). Used for interest and, when an item's age is unknown, for depreciation. | |
| vacated_on | Yes | Day the tenant moved out and returned possession (YYYY-MM-DD). | |
| client_refs | No | Your own reference ids (e.g. unit_id, job_id). Echoed back, never used. | |
| deposit_usd | Yes | Security deposit held, dollars. | |
| lease_end_on | No | Day the lease was scheduled to end (YYYY-MM-DD), when it differs from when the tenancy actually ended (a broken lease). Lost rent and lease-break charges run to it; deadlines do not (they follow tenancy_ended_on, else the move-out, with the scheduled end as a later alternative). | |
| tenancy_type | No | written_lease or at_will (Maine 6033(2): a written agreement's period, at most 30 days, or 21 days for a tenancy at will; Massachusetts 15B(4): at will, 30 days after the move-out, a written lease, 30 days after its end). Left out with a move-out before tenancy_ended_on: the earlier (at-will) date leads and the other is listed. | |
| documentation | No | What documentation you have; leave a field out when unknown. | |
| building_units | No | Units in the building. Some interest rules depend on it (NY 6+, IL 25+). | |
| owner_occupied | No | The landlord lives in the building (ME, NH, NJ and Chicago exempt small owner-occupied buildings; with building_units). | |
| small_landlord | No | California AB 12 small landlord (a natural person or an LLC of natural persons owning at most two properties with at most four units; not for a service member): a two-month cap. | |
| pet_deposit_usd | No | The part of deposit_usd that is a pet deposit (outside the cap in Missouri, Alabama, North Dakota and Saint Paul; allowed on top of it up to one month in Hawaii and Alaska, half a month in Kansas, a quarter in Nebraska). | |
| monthly_rent_usd | No | Monthly rent, for the deposit cap check. | |
| prepaid_rent_usd | No | Rent paid in advance beyond the first month, held besides deposit_usd. Counts toward the cap in AK, AZ, CA, CT, MD, MI and NY; earns interest in CT, MA (last month's rent), MD and Chicago; in Minneapolis it lowers the deposit cap to half a month. | |
| tenancy_ended_on | No | When the tenancy actually ended (YYYY-MM-DD): the lease's end, or an earlier termination or accepted surrender. Deadlines that run from the end of the tenancy use it. For a tenant who left before the lease was due to end, send the scheduled end as lease_end_on (older callers sent it here, which still works: the deadline is then counted from it, with the move-out date as an earlier alternative where the facts point to one). | |
| tenant_abandoned | No | The tenant abandoned the unit or was evicted (Maryland 8-203(h): the clock runs from the tenant's written demand; Washington 59.18.280: from when the landlord learns of it; Louisiana 9:3251(C): the one-month rule does not apply). Left out: inferred from tenant_gave_proper_notice: false; with a move-out before tenancy_ended_on the earlier abandonment clock leads and the other date is listed. | |
| contractor_needed | No | Damage exceeds the deposit and needs a third-party contractor, and you said so in writing in time (Virginia, West Virginia: 15 more days). | |
| lease_return_days | No | Return period the lease sets, in days, where the statute lets a lease set one (Colorado up to 60, Idaho up to 30, Maine shorter). | |
| lease_term_months | No | Term of the lease in months (0 for month-to-month). Delaware's cap applies to leases of a year or more, New Mexico's to shorter ones. | |
| statement_sent_on | No | Day you sent (or delivered) the itemized statement (YYYY-MM-DD). With it the statement is judged on time or late; documentation.itemized_statement alone cannot tell. | |
| demand_received_on | No | Day you received the tenant's written demand for the deposit (YYYY-MM-DD). Arizona, Kansas, Oklahoma, South Carolina and Mississippi start the clock on it. | |
| tenant_age_60_plus | No | A person 60 or older occupies the unit (New Hampshire 540-A:5, I: the owner-occupied exemption does not reach the unit). tenant_age_62_plus true implies it. | |
| tenant_age_62_plus | No | The tenant is 62 or older (Connecticut: a one-month cap). | |
| new_tenant_rent_usd | No | Monthly rent the new tenant pays (with new_tenant_moved_in_on): the rent received for overlapping days is credited against rent claimed for them. | |
| third_party_managed | No | A third party manages the unit or collects rent for a fee. | |
| claim_notice_sent_on | No | Day you sent the written notice of intent to impose a claim on the deposit (YYYY-MM-DD). Florida (due within 30 days of termination) and the District of Columbia (within 45 days): the balance is due 30 days after it; a late notice does not count. | |
| deposit_collected_on | No | Day the deposit was collected (YYYY-MM-DD); defaults to move_in_on. California (AB 12, from 2024-07-01) and Colorado caps depend on it. | |
| landlord_units_owned | No | Rental units the landlord owns in all (Arkansas 5 or fewer, Georgia 10 or fewer, with third_party_managed, may be exempt). | |
| interest_paid_through | No | Interest already paid or credited to the tenant up to this day (annual-payment rules: San Francisco, Los Angeles, Berkeley, Connecticut, Massachusetts, ...): interest is counted from it. | |
| interest_rate_percent | No | Annual rate the deposit account paid, where the law sets interest at the bank's rate (New Jersey, North Dakota, New Hampshire, New York, Pennsylvania, Portland), or caps it (Massachusetts: 5% or the bank's lesser rate). Without it bank-rate interest is unknown. Illinois 765 ILCS 715 uses IDFPR's published rate instead. | |
| new_tenant_moved_in_on | No | Day a new tenant moved in, if the unit was re-rented (YYYY-MM-DD). West Virginia and Wisconsin can end the period earlier; rent claimed for days from it on is not recoverable (re-rent mitigation). | |
| rent_ordinance_covered | No | The unit is covered by the city's rent ordinance (Los Angeles RSO, Berkeley Rent Ordinance). Their deposit interest is owed only then; unknown: the amount is shown beside the refund, not in it. | |
| tenant_gave_proper_notice | No | A termination notice that meets the statute was given (Alaska: 14 days instead of 30 when nothing is deducted for damage). | |
| lease_signed_or_renewed_on | No | Day the current lease was signed or last renewed (YYYY-MM-DD). Georgia (2024-07-01) and Maryland (2024-10-01) caps apply to leases from then; defaults to move_in_on, with a warning that a later renewal may bring the new cap. | |
| nonstandard_provision_signed | No | Wisconsin: the tenant signed a separate NONSTANDARD RENTAL PROVISIONS document covering the charge (ATCP 134.06(3)(b)); false makes such charges 'no'. | |
| forwarding_address_received_on | No | Day you received the tenant's written forwarding address (YYYY-MM-DD). Several states start or hold the clock on it (Texas, Connecticut, Iowa, Minnesota). | |
| tenant_gave_forwarding_address | No | False when the tenant never gave a forwarding address in writing (not just 'not yet known'). Illinois, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Delaware, South Carolina and New Hampshire then relieve the landlord of the penalty. Implied true by forwarding_address_received_on. |
Output Schema
TableJSON Schema
| Name | Required | Description | Default |
|---|---|---|---|
| run | No | ||
| links | No | ||
| result | Yes | ||
| input_hash | No | ||
| client_refs | No | ||
| result_hash | No |