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). | |
| serve_pinned | No | Optional, with expect_ruleset. True asks us to answer under the ruleset version you named even when the rules have changed since, from that version's signed bundle; the result says so in served_from_bundle. We refuse a version older than 12 months, one a later correction or law change replaced for your state, or one we have no bundle for. Default false: the call fails whenever the rules have changed. | |
| 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+). | |
| expect_ruleset | No | Optional. The ruleset version you built against, as results carry it in provenance.ruleset_version (e.g. 'sd-2026.11.14'), or its sha256: hash. If the rules have changed since, the call fails (nothing computed, nothing charged) and says what is in force now, so you upgrade on your own schedule. Leave it out to answer under the current rules. | |
| 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 demand for the deposit (YYYY-MM-DD; written in Oklahoma, by first-class mail in Maryland 8-203(h)). 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 | ||
| signature | No | ||
| input_hash | No | ||
| client_refs | No | ||
| result_hash | No |