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Create a Security Deposit Refund Notice
What this document does
A former tenant's written demand for the return of a security deposit after vacating. It records the tenancy, what was paid and when, the handover, anything the tenant accepts may fairly be deducted, and the sum now claimed. No statute fixes a period for returning a deposit, so the time allowed is the tenant's own.
Notice
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Security Deposit Refund Notice
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What else is in it — 6 clauses, 4 optional
- 01
Who the notice is from and to
The head of the notice: the place and date it bears, who it issues from, and everyone it is addressed to. Recipients are entered here rather than through the party picker — a notice is served on its recipients, not agreed with them, and the Sender is its only signatory.
- 02
Subject
The one line a recipient reads first, and the line the notice is later found by in a file. Written by the Sender rather than composed from the facts — those live on other clauses, and a clause cannot read another clause's data.
- 03
The tenancy
What was let, on what terms, and for how long. Establishes the relationship the deposit was paid under.
- 04
The deposit
What was paid, when, how, and what the Sender accepts may fairly be kept back. The admitted deductions are the Sender's own concession — nothing computes them, nothing checks them against the total, and nothing requires them.
- 05
Vacating the premises
When the Sender moved out and what was handed back. This is the fact that starts the landlord's obligation running, and the one most often disputed.
- 06
The sum demanded
What the Sender says is now due, and how long the Recipient is allowed to pay it. The period is the Sender's own — no statute fixes one for the return of a deposit — and nothing computes a date from it.
After it is drafted
Getting it to the recipient
A notice takes effect when it reaches the person it names rather than when it is signed, so how it travels matters about as much as what it says. Registered post with acknowledgement due is the usual choice because it produces both a receipt and a card that comes back; courier and email do the same job where the agreement or the statute allows them. Whichever route it goes by, what it leaves behind is the part worth having.
Keeping the proof it was sent
The postal receipt, the acknowledgement card when it comes back, the courier's tracking printout, the delivery report on an email — whichever way it travelled, that record is what shows the notice went out and when. It tends to matter more later than the notice itself, because a recipient who says nothing reached them is answered by a receipt rather than by a copy of the letter. An envelope that comes back refused or unclaimed is worth keeping unopened for the same reason: refusing a notice is generally not treated as having escaped it.
Letting the period run
The period this notice gives runs from when it reaches the recipient, not from the date it carries — which is why the proof of sending matters for working out when it ends. Moving before it expires tends to undercut the notice, since the point of naming a period is to have given it. If a reply arrives, it is worth keeping with the proof of service: what the other side admits in writing can matter as much as what they refuse.
If the deposit still is not returned
The route depends on where the property is. Several States run a rent authority or tribunal that handles deposit disputes, and where one exists it is usually cheaper and quicker than a court and worth asking about first. Where there is none, it is an ordinary civil claim on the tenancy agreement. Either way the agreement is the document that decides most of it — what the deposit covered, what could be deducted, when it fell due — and limitation runs from that due date rather than from this notice.